Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

What do you wish you'd known about the first 6 months??

92 replies

Spink · 08/08/2007 14:53

ds is just coming up to his 6 month milestone. just wondering what everyone else would've liked to have known about the early days...looking back at them from a safe-ish distance

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

specialmagiclady · 14/08/2007 21:26

That it's only a very short time. The bad bits will be over soon. But so will the good bits. Treasure them.

That if I wanted to carry my baby around all day long, I just should have.

That my instincts are more often than not right and I'm actually a decent mum. (Lousy housewife, though. But who gives...)

Wilkie · 15/08/2007 09:34

That not all babies sleep through by 12 weeks, no matter what anyone says.

See above. To accept nightfeeds as part and parcel of a new baby.

To listen to your own instincts.

To not feel guilty that you are finding it harder and not enjoying it as much as you imagined.

Not to feel guilty about wishing they were a little bit older and easier!

MrsJohnCusack · 15/08/2007 09:41

It goes so so so quickly
MIne is just 5 months and I am already nostalgic for when he was a little newborn.

And that teething Is Hell

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Families General parenting

Meglet · 15/08/2007 09:44

that lots of visitors is not always a good thing - unless they are making tea and doing housework.

that the first few weeks are not a bundle of laughs. it gets much easier after that.

not to be too neurotic about weaning, a baby isn't going to starve.

rattleskuttle · 15/08/2007 09:48

to keep your expectations LOW

to try and do as little as possible

that you may well be slightly off your head for a while so try not to worry; this is not the time to put the world to rights

kerala · 15/08/2007 11:45

Wished I hadnt read the "do it this way" bossy parenting books that made me feel a failure when I was actually just learning about MY baby. Should have made a bonfire of Rachel Waddilove etc

That sometimes tiny babies cry every evening. Its not blinking colic they just do and its not your fault all you can do is cuddle them and wait for that phase to pass.

fifibb · 15/08/2007 14:53

wish i'd known that bf is a tricky business

NEVER to listen to my mother who suggested introducing discipline when dd was 2 weeks old.

that babies just cry, and that often don't know why

Bodkin · 15/08/2007 15:36

Not to stick my boob in my baby's mouth every time she cried.... and to ignore people who said, "ooh , she looks hungry, she must be due for a feed"

And what Kerala says too!

mozzybear · 15/08/2007 16:51

Wish I'd been a bit more chilled out about everything, to except the dark early days.

Wish I'd known about MN while still pregnant, it would have been such a great help. Now tell all my 1st time pregnant friends about it.

That bf might not happen straightaway and that midwife who got you to choose either or was WRONG and that you should have slapped her.

That Maternity leave goes way to quick and work is never the same again!

MadamePlatypus · 15/08/2007 18:28

That its ok to be doing nothing much except bf, drinking coffee and cuddling a baby for six months and that the world will wait.

LadyTophamHatt · 15/08/2007 18:41

That it will be, without a doubt, the fastest 6 months of your life.

Savour every minute, ever hour, every day of the tiny newborn stage because although its hard work they will be gone in the blink of an eye and one day you'll wonder where that tiny baby went.

Ds4 is 7 months tomorrow and although he is the light of my life, and I can't believe how lucky I feel to have such a gorgeous little person in the house again, I can't help feeling sad that he's growing up so fast.

So just enjoy the first 6 months and hope that they won't pass you by to quickly.

zebedee1 · 15/08/2007 19:10

Wish I'd read up on how to look after a newborn, I was so focused on preparing for the birth I had no idea what to do when he arrived! The birth was a piece of cake compared to the first few weeks!

weston · 15/08/2007 19:35

that just cause they fall asleep on you for the first few weeks it doens't mean you will spent the next five years teaching them not too..and sleeping babies should never be woken up!

they decide their own routines

you can ponder everything for hours but they will do what they do when they want to do it..

to stay in hospital for at leat 5 nights when they are first born, ideally in your own room

to spend less money shoppping...

to believe people when they say that 'wind is a phase and they will grow out of it' by 12 weeks...

that you can weight less a month after giving birth than 5 months later...

and that is the best feeling in the world!

iblue22 · 15/08/2007 19:49

Oooh I'll probably repeat loads already on here as I haven't been able to read all the posts, but a few immediate thoughts:

CHILL OUT. Babies who scream all the time won't do it for ever. And if you can't seem to stop them from screaming, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. And, if the only way to calm your screamer is to let them sleep on your chest/rock them/go for a walk/give them a dummy/feed them to sleep, just DO IT and IGNORE the "rod for your own back" brigade.

Even if you do manage to create any "bad habits", hell, you can always re-train little one when frankly you're not feeling like a hormonal, sleep-deprived zombie.

Try to enjoy it, but don't feel guilty if you find that hard. And get/accept help if you feel wobbly or you can't cope.

REMEMBER that all the difficult baby phases will pass, so try to focus on the nice baby phases, because they too will pass! Both types of phases will just give way to more, but different, bad/good phases!

There is absolutely no rule that states if your first baby was a screamer, number two will be "easy".

Breastfeeding does not necessarily just happen naturally.

Take loads and loads of videos and photos because it is truly amazing how much of those tiny details you forget.

Big up us mums, we are great!
Shereen

mangojuice · 15/08/2007 20:28

That a lot of the first year is surviving rather than living...

Tranquila · 15/08/2007 20:30

that id hardly remember a minute of it 2 years down the line

lizzih1974 · 16/08/2007 10:05

I met two preggers women last week and they asked me about the first six months:

Stop saying " but the book says..." the author hasn't met your baby and doesn't live your life!

Never argue about politics, religion or how people bring their babies up. Its their baby and you have enough to deal with trying to remember the last time you brushed your teeth.

BF is hard work and not just at the beginning.

Go and seek out your younger non mummy friends and enjoy their tales of mad nights out and one night stands!

Cry if you want to...

Baby Gap socks (how do they stay on?)

Pat your self on the back when you have managed to have a shower and brush your hair on the same day.

morningpaper · 16/08/2007 10:07

I think it is easy to look back with rose-tinted spectacles and say "oooh enjoy it!"

The hardest thing is losing your sense of self and who you are - I don't know that there is any advice that can make that easier.

iwouldgoouttonight · 16/08/2007 10:16

That breastfeeding can get difficult even if it started off well.

That people who say 'sleep when the baby sleeps' are talking rubbish - my baby didn't sleep for more than 20 mins at a time for the first 6 weeks.

That you don't always bond with your baby straight away.

That the first 6 weeks are the hardest I could ever have imagined but it gets better and better every day - at six months I looked at my DS and realised just how much I loved him, now at nearly a year I love him so much I might pop!

ljhooray · 16/08/2007 10:35

I wish I hadn't read so many ruddy books! Being a first time mum, I was terrified of all the things I was going to get wrong. But what's 'wrong'?! Take a deep breath and do what feels right.

PregnantGrrrl · 16/08/2007 11:11

That in many ways it was 'easy'...no snacks and toys to take on trips out. No climbing on sofa / bed / chasing dog etc.

And that it would go so fast...he's 14mths already.

GreenGlassGoblin · 16/08/2007 11:17

that the baby doesn't know it is reaching a 'milestone' age (12 weeks, 6 months, whatever) and will not magically change its behaviour and start eating/sleeping/not crying etc!

looseleaf · 16/08/2007 15:57

As someone else mentioned I think lots of mainstream parenting books should be put in the bin and in my opinion the only ones worth keeping advocate a return to using instinct ie responsive parenting and listening to your baby - you really can't go far wrong if you're responding directly to your baby but you CAN go very wrong responding to advice or ideas you have eg. about routines

motherinferior · 16/08/2007 16:01

I wish, also, that someone had shown me a couple of nice little girls of six and four, and told me 'your baby will be one of these -continent, relatively rational and delightful'. And they'd have been right, because now I have those two little girls of six and four, and they're absolutely enchanting.

theprecious · 16/08/2007 17:51

I love this thread, I am enjoying ds (five and a half weeks old) and I am cuddling him LOTS.

Flip

1 2 3 4