How did you feel when you bought your baby home?

[Baggyjumper0121]

When you came home with your newborn, did you feel excited? Nervous? Lost?

My colleague recently had a baby and she talked about having an anti-climax feeling after the first day and she said it was like an empty feeling even though she had her baby with her but as soon as family/friends would leave after visiting she would feel very down. I hadn't thought about this

I am due in 5 weeks and I know nothing can prepare me for the emotional side of things but interested in reading your experience of the first few days with a newborn - emotions wise

Overwhelmed, tired but also very happy.

Also a very weird sense of 'this must be a mistake, I'm still a kid, how did the hospital let me go home with this baby?!'

I don’t want to scare you OP but I felt so overwhelmed and honestly quite miserable! I had an unplanned and very unwanted c section though which I think contributed to that massively. As silly as it sounds I also felt like being pregnant had become part of my identity and now it was gone. It was painstakingly obvious even in the hospital that after baby was born I wasn’t really important anymore. I was on iron tablets and blood pressure meds and no one ever offered tests or took bloods to see if I still needed them so I had no clue when to stop taking them.
I think having a strong support network is something you really need and sadly it was something that I lacked. I hope all goes well for you when your little one is born and you’re both happy and healthy and have all the support you need ❤️

I had a traumatic emergency c section and baby in nicu for three weeks
when he finally came, my ptsd kicked in and I hated everything. I remember crying to my husband asking “what have we done??”
i regretted having a baby but i knew deep down i didn’t.

its the hormones, emotional rollercoaster, pain, everything.
i finally felt happy four months in.

and many i know were happy immediately.
nothing CAN prepare you though!

With my first I had terrible anxiety and spent the entire pregnancy thinking I had about a 10% chance of actually going home with a baby, to the point that I hadn’t really emotionally prepared for the possibility of it. So when I did bring her home - totally healthy! - all I felt was elation and triumph.

With my second I was convinced I would die (I was terrified of leaving my firstborn) so I think that time round it was a mixture of joy and overwhelming relief.

I was absolutely terrified. I was no kid either. I clearly remember when I out him in his bassinet looking down and him and thinking to myself "I wonder when your parents are coming to get you, because that cannot possibly be me".

beware of the baby blues

I was so sick during the pregnancy it was such a relief to feel well and to enjoy food and not be constantly miserable.
I had my babies when we stayed in 5 days and day three l cried a lot over something very small a nurse said...l was so emotional and sore.
But once l got home l was excited and dh and l were obsessed for a while. 6 weeks later l was shattered from sleepless nights but in the beginning the novelty of it all kept us going. I think it's the later tiredness l wasn't prepared for...it going on and on..the disrupted sleep.
Hope all goes well with your baby

Relieved. I went into hospital on a Wednesday night to be induced and baby was born early Thursday morning. We went home on the Sunday. I was so desperate to get home so when we finally got here I was just so happy to be out!

She wouldn't feed, so I just felt constantly stressed

I remember getting home and thinking ‘Now what?’.

I also felt horrendous as I l’d had a PPH so was very anaemic and had a permanent headache. I just felt exhausted.

Oh I loved it. I remember getting out of my car and DH getting the car seat.. went into my house where my parents were just dishing out a hot Chinese for us all

The hospital is 5 minutes away - DH had pre-arranged with mum and fuck me I loved them all so much for it

Baby let us have our food in peace, woke up for a breastfeed shortly after and I remember just lying on my sofa with my baby thinking "this is what I've waited a lifetime for"

Different for everyone, you have no idea what your hormones will do.
I spent 3 months in a cloud of pink fluffy happiness but I guess that's just luck.

Ahhh that reminds me of when I came home with my second @suntannedsnowballs. When my firstborn held her day-old little brother for the first time I thought life could not get any better… and then my Dad asked what we all wanted from the chippy and I thought “that’s it, this is the absolute pinnacle of my existence” 😆

Absolutely exhausted. I remember thinking "oh dear God". It gets better of course and after 5 days in the hospital it was nice having my own bed again

My baby had been so compliant and quiet at the hospital while all the babies around were crying that I felt relief and in control that I’d been lucky to have an “easy” baby when we first got in the flat. However very soon after he started crying and wouldn’t be consoled so we were panicked.

With my first I remember thinking 'this will all be fine when everything goes back to normal' and then that feeling of oh shit nothing will go back to normal.
With my second I didn't feel that but with both of them I definitely remember sitting with them about ten days in wondering if I loved them or not. It is really just a shock. I cried a lot less second time round, it was probably less of a shock when you've already done it before.

@ZebraDanios I'm so thrilled we've a shared experience.. never, ever discount the glory of salty, unhealthy food after a hospital stay (no matter the duration or what for)

Marvellous

Baby girl loves a good curry now at 2.5

When I came home with my first born, I led her on the sofa and then we just sat there and said "what do we do now?" It was scary and overwhelming, I didn't know how often to feed her, change her nappy etc. 2nd baby was completely different as we knew what we were doing!

I had a baby nearly 10 months ago & had a very romanticised idea of what it would be like to have a newborn.

Lots and lots of tears, feelings of ‘what the hell have we done’, the shock at the weight of the responsibility of having a tiny baby to look after… I also didn’t fall in love with my baby immediately & suffered a LOT of guilt over that!

The biggest surprise for me however, post-birth, was that I suffered from intrusive thoughts - please google them as they are VERY normal postpartum. I didn’t know this & obsessed & obsessed over them, what they meant, was I a terrible person etc (I was recently diagnosed with postpartum OCD).

But that being said - every day gets easier!!! The first 8 weeks are TOUGH, the next 8 are manageable & then my baby turned 4 months & everything became so much more enjoyable as she started to DO things (ie roll, crawl, giggle). I genuinely cannot imagine my life without her now & would do it all again to meet her ❤️

Top tip - get as much sleep as you can. The lack of sleep makes everything seem harder. And get outside everyday! It really helps!

I was absolutely ecstatic. I had an emergency section but felt absolutely fine within a day or so. I was so excited to bring baby home and I was just so unbelievably happy to have them home. It was amazing. But I have been lucky in that I have found pretty much the entire last ten months to be the best time of my life. I absolutely love it.

Sad and overwhelmed.

I was 5 days post partum so baby blues were in full swing, we'd just spent 5 days in hospital due to DS being on antibiotics. I cried all the way home I think because I was so relieved to be out.

There's a lot of pressure on coming home, visitors/getting used to a new baby so my advice would just don't expect anything, you may be thrilled or sad but it's ok. You've gone through a big thing and your emotions are all over the place!

I just looked at her and thought what now. Luckily I had a great health visitor who helped me sort bottles as she wasn't feeding 4 days in ( later I did breast feed). My partner wanted an instruction manual. She wasn't an amazing sleeper so I felt lucky if I got 4+ hours at a stretch

Thank you all for taking time out to write your experiences. This really helps me to have a more realistic idea of how things may or may not go and feels good to know that it's normal to not feel a rush of love straight away, and if it does happen then great. I appreciate all the replies xx

On one hand absolutely overjoyed and unable to beleive that I was actually lucky enough to finally have my very own baby to love and care for (something I had dreamt of since I was a little girl)

On the other- PETRIFIED! I was feeling on cloud 9 but very sensitive, overwhelmed, emotional and nervous after 5 long days in the hospital bubble, barely any sleep for a week, since the day before I went into labour, 2x blood transfusions, a scary night where baby went completely still and held her breath a couple of times and the whole emotional roller coaster of giving birth and becoming a parent was alot!

I cried the whole way home in the back of the car, so scared that I now had to take the lead with her, there was not a network of midwifes on hand to help, and DH looked to me to know what to do as I had lots of experience with babies and young children (and I think for the mum there is always that expectation anyway!)

When DH and I got home, we both cried, a mixture of fear and joy all in one!
Then we slowly found our way fumbling thoroughly together those blurry early days....unfortunately I had post natal anxiety so things never felt as easy as they should have/would for others, but you find ways that work, get into little routines, discover your babies preferences and quirks, and then after a little while, it becomes less chaotic!

Good luck 👍 💓 Parenting is sometimes the most challenging but also the most rewarding thing in the world!