35 weeks - a baby is ACTUALLY coming soon, help!

[NSCat]

Hello everyone!

Just as the title says really, I'm 35 weeks pregnant, baby will be induced at 38 weeks and I'm now starting to panic that I have no clue what I am doing 😂. I can't wait to meet my baby and I'm really looking forward to it but then I get a moment where I am thinking 'what do you ACTUALLY know about looking after a baby?' Anyone else relate?
I'm also more tired than I've ever been and that's probably not helping when thinking about things I still need to do🙈.

Any advice very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Nobody really knows what to do with a baby until you have one, then you just figure it out! My baby was born 3 days ago and we are just taking it one day at a time - flexibility is everything, we assume we might not be able to do everything in a day that we would like to and we play things by ear depending on how she's doing and what she needs.

Newborns don't need that much - so as long as you've got the basics of somewhere for them to sleep, clothes for them to wear, car seat etc. then you will work everything else out as you go. Good luck!

Sending good luck vibes OP, also 35 weeks and having a section at 39 weeks! This is my second and I feel like the final weeks have just passed me by this time 😂 now I’m like oh shit I better start organising myself now!!!

I forgot that nappies need changing so my daughter was in her first nappy from 3pm until 8 am the next day. It was only when I asked the midwife how to wake her up for a feed (that had been too long too, we both slept through the night) and she said change her nappy it remembered! I had a ticking off for not waking her for the feed it had been over 6h so I stayed quiet about the nappy.
No harm done! She had 2-3h feeds from then on until she had regained her birth weight and went through a lot of nappies! It's now just an amusing story!

You will have an amusing story where in a sleep deprived state where you will do something silly but really and truly you have to try really hard to screw it up properly!

Completely sympathise. When my DS arrived, I had never held a baby, changed a nappy (except on a plastic doll at NCT). I knew nothing.

But I bought a book on babycare and read it from cover to cover.

I remember two things very clearly. All fear of birth disappeared at 39 weeks and I was desperate to stop being a huge fat waddling lump, no matter what that involved.

And I hadn't realised that baby would demand to be held, carried, cuddled almost constantly. A sling was one of the first things I bought after I got him home. It solved a lot of problems.

Good luck xx