Did anyone find the newborn stage ok/ good?

[Bml11]

This is just a curious thread. I have a 2.5 year old boy, there is someone with in the family unit that is going to give birth mid summer. Whilst talking to her the other day, she was saying how she can’t wait for time off work and is just going to be sat in the garden all summer. In my head I was laughing thinking ‘you’re about to have the hardest job of your life and as for sat on the garden all summer, more like days of being unable to eat/ wash etc.’ But then i realised I was judging this based on my experience- I was blessed with a very colicy baby (was actually CMPA bit did work this out till he was eating solids) and PND - along with a partner that worked away pretty much from me giving birth so I struggled massively. So I’m just curious, did anyone find the newborn stage easy? I understand a lot will be down to the support you get. Just curious to see if anyone actually found it a breeze?

All of mine were put into fairly strict routines from about 12 weeks. They were Gina Ford babies of the early 2000s. So napped at precise times and slept through the night easily. Made life very easy to plan around and the babies were indeed happy and content. All of my friends did the same.

God knows why this fell out of fashion. It was so easy for all of us back then.

Yes, me... the newborn stage was lovely. Lots of long walks with him in his pram, socialising with other mums with tiny ones and chilling out in front of the tv whilst he slept on my chest.

He slept a lot in the day too so I was able to read and bake.

It all changed after the four month old injections. He spent a few crying, restless months until he was big enough for a jumperoo and bumbo. Then he was easy again.

I thought it was tough at the time, but I’d take the newborn phase over my teething, grumpy, non sleeping 11 month old any day.

It was definitely the most easy age as far as I'm concerned. I loved it tbh.

Honestly yes I did. Especially my second.

Just as well as both were horrendous c sections and I was in pain for months. So bless them both - they breastfed well and regularly and slept plenty including sleeping through the night from 6 weeks old.

3 out of 4 were easy. The one with undiagnosed silent reflux nearly broke DH & I, she's been the easiest child and teen though 🤷🏽‍♀️

My son's just turned 4 months. The newborn stage was a bloody nightmare. Silent reflux and colic, no support from family (but luckily we have lovely friends with a toddler who have been a lifeline), post-natal depression and sleep deprivation. Lockdown doesn't help either.

He's a lot easier to manage now, and the shock of a lifestyle change has blown over, but he's starting to teeth and get bored.

I've learnt that once one issue has been sorted, another follows.

Your friend may get lucky and be able to chill in the garden during her maternity leave, but she shouldn't bet on it.

I found it very tiring and miles easier when I got to around 6 months, then again at 1 year. DS started sleeping through at 5/6 months which really changed the game for me - you can handle anything if you're getting a good night's sleep!

It was blissful for the first 3 weeks - partner on paternity leave, long summer days gazing at our lovely babe. Then she woke up

From then on she would only nap in the sling or pram, woke up many many times at night, was often unhappy and cried for hours from 6pm. I had a difficult and very medicalised birth that was lightyears away from what I wanted, and no family were allowed to visit due to Covid. It was a daily struggle, and honestly I'm gutted I didn't have the wonderful experience that some people have had with their newborns.

She's 11 months now and I still find it difficult, but I also love how curious and cheeky and active she is. Nothing compares to those first 3 overwhelming months for me, it was so hard and isolating.

I found it by far the easiest stage.

With my first, I went out and had fun with a baby strapped to me. I went to meals out, parties even. My days (summer baby) were spent literally lazing in a hammock a fair amount of the time.

Neither of my children have been good sleepers (neither sleep through at nearly 2 and nearly 4) but we alternated the nights so it was fine. I was certainly a lot less tired in the first few months because at least I wasn't also juggling work, and because I find babies become so much more demanding when older.

I felt like it was a holiday, and loved it.

Just to add, we got lucky in that neither baby was a vomitter, and poo explosions were reasonably rare. It would be rare I'd need to change their clothes in the day, and by about 6m old I'd totally given up even carrying a spare outfit.

But, it wasn't all perfect baby - I had my fair share of nights pacing round, and walking the streets at 3am trying to soothe them. But that's kind of what you sign up to, so it was kind of expected.

I think I perhaps found it easy partially because I was the last of my friends to have children, so I'd spent a lot of time with small ones, babysitting etc, and it wasn't really a shock to the system. It was like 'baby is born, let's crack on with this' rather than 'aarrgghh'. That and wierdly I don't get the baby blues seemingly.

Every child is different, and every parent finds different things easy and difficult.

But yes, it's perfectly possible to adore the newborn stage.

First baby - no. I had a traumatic birth, was overwhelmed, anxious & sleep deprived and found the first year pretty rough. DS cried slot as a newborn (normal, I know, but I found it hard) and then was a very early crawler and Walker and in to everything. I got bit a minute’s peace! .

Second baby - was a dream. I look back on the first 6 months as such a blissful little bubble. She slept amazingly well, was a contented little thing and I found the experience a complete joy. I would’ve definitely been able to sit in the garden and relax plenty with her. She was an autumn baby, though, so we did lots of snuggling in front of films instead. .

not a minute

DS was a dream. So easy right from the beginning. No problem having a bath or getting dressed and loads of free time. Would have a feed then sleep in his moses basket wherever I was.
Plenty of time to sit in the garden, it was May. The only time he ever cried all night was when he was ill once. Otherwise maybe woke up once or twice during the night.

Yep! Bloody loved it.
Easy birth, easy BF and fairly easy baby (although she didn’t sleep). Was out and about confidently and adored mat leave (even though Covid fucked the second half).

I should’ve added that I had a cleaner and DH did all the cooking and shopping so I just did baby (and horse) and laundry.
I made the most of it (main earner and back at work now).

Yup. Mine was an easy baby and I count my lucky stars. By 3 months he was sleeping 12 hours through the night. But I know I was lucky and don't take it for granted and feel that if we had a second I'd be in for a nasty shock!

I HATED the newborn stage. I did have PND, but I struggled enormously. I'm still not over the horrors of those early days where everything seemed so.hard, couldn't breastfeed, so much guilt, so tired...not feeling connected to my baby and wanting to hide away from it all. So if anyone asks me if I'm having another baby, I shock them with a firm no. It honestly nearly broke me.

I absolutely love the newborn stage. All my babies have been very content and easy going, no colic/ reflux etc but none of them have been great sleepers either so they weren't what you'd call easy. Newborns can go anywhere though and if you have a sling then you can pretty much do anything. They smell amazing, they're so snuggly and they make the best faces. If it wasn't for space and wanting to eventually go back to work then I'd never stop having babies because I could happily always have a newborn

1st was ok, not horrendous but not a breeze. 2nd was much easier (partly due to bf, I bottle fed DC1 and it was a nightmare with throwing up milk constantly and night time bottle feeding). Also I was more relaxed, more confident in my own judgements and took less interest in what others (including books and advice etc) 3rd was an absolute breeze for the same reasons as 2nd and was an even easier baby. I love the newborn stage. Support with all 3 was DH when he wasn't at work and my DM who lives locally who would come round for an hour or so each day for the first week or so to help out.

Nope both of mine were very unsettled CMPA and tounge tie with horrendous wind. I also wonder this as some women go on to have four or five. Second is only 14 weeks and so much more settled but my MH could not take another one.

I didn't find it hard as such with DS1 (apart from the lack of sleep, which really affected my mood, but that wasn't too bad in the newborn bit, it was from 4 months on that it became awful), but I found it so, so boring. I hated being trapped under a baby feeding all day, I felt like I was under house arrest. I now have DS2, who is 7 weeks, and I'm enjoying it so much more with him but I think partially because having a toddler too gives so much more structure and we've been out and about since literally the day after I gave birth. The two days a week where DS1 is at nursery feel like rare opportunities for calm and to do not much, which I now appreciate far, far more! But I'm not good at not being busy - I always feel myself edging towards depression if I don't have much to do, so watching box sets with a newborn on me all day isn't my idea of a good time. I'm also just fundamentally not really a baby person; I find other people's babies terrifically dull and although my two have been the best babies I've ever encountered (in my very objective opinion!) I still prefer toddlers, which I think are loads more fun and absolutely fascinating.

We've had 3 singletons and a set of twins, it can be exhausting but I love the baby stage. So much that we're expecting baby number 6 .

First was the most wonderful newborn and the first 4 months were great! She's remained pretty brilliant. My second took my arrogance and laughed and laughed and has been a bloody nightmare since birth.

I found the newborn stage with all of my dcs an absolute walk in the park in comparison to the toddler years. I had brilliant births, no issues breastfeeding, body bounced back etc. However my smugness is shortlived as it sortof went backwards for me as my dcs all slept worse the older they got (one was ok), I found it so , so much easier to settle a tiny baby than a much bigger, mobile baby/toddler. Obvs the first is super easy as no other kids to look after, we went out for meals, napped , watched loads of Netflix , it was so relaxing . I had such a huge shock when at 10months my baby was so active and needed to be watched/followed every second of the day, it was so much harder , we couldn't sit down in our house anymore , literally climbed constantly, gone were the lunches , the lovely sling walks etc....Actually felt and looked so much more wreaked when they were older than when they were newborns.
My second dc did have severe reflux (lasted years not months) and I had a toddler so a lot busier but still found the newborn stage easier than toddler. My second and third dcs actually woke up more at 2 years than two weeks old and it's so much harder settling an older child. In fact by number 3 I got wise and redecorated and did things while he wasn't mobile.. I found the whole "not being able to go for a shower/drink hot coffee" applied very much to toddlers whereas I drank loads of tea and sat around chilling with newborns.