So lonely on my own

[Gilliana1]

I've got a 12 week old baby, and I'm so lonely at home.

My husband has been working 18 hours a day for the last two weeks ;-( He says he has to work these hours otherwise he risks being made redundant as his colleagues are doing these hours. Since Sunday morning, he has got home at 2am and left again by 6am. So I've been looking after my little girl 24 hours a day for the last two weeks and I'm shattered and really depressed and lonely.

I don't have any family in the area to support me, and though I know a few Mums to have a coffee with in the daytime - it gets to Friday and everyone spends the evenings and weekends with their partners etc.

It is 4:30pm on a Friday and I'm dreading the weekend alone - does anyone else feel this isolated and lonely? I can't exactly take my 3 month old to a pub tonight and sit with her - people would frown on me. But I'm going crazy in doors with her crying and just the television and counting the hours until I can go to sleep.

Do you have any friends from before you had your DD? COuld you maybe arrange to meet up with them at weekends? Small babies are actually pretty portable, on the whole (and I certainly used to take mine to the pub when he was little - not all pubs will allow children in the evenings but many will accept a small baby as long as he/she isn't having a screaming fit.)
You could, of course, go to the pub tomorrow daytime - nearly all pubs will admit a baby in the afternoon - and remember that now there is the smoking ban, there is no reason why a baby shouldn't be in a friendly local or family pub.
Whereabouts are you in the country BTW? There may be other MNers near you who would be happy to meet up.

How awful for you. FWIW, I think many new mums feel very isolated in the early weeks - I certainly did and I had my dh at home full time (but he's chronically ill so isolated and isolating in a different way). I used to take ds to the pub every afternoon when he was a baby, what a disgrace. But it was just our 'trip out' for the day bearing in mind the pub was next to the supermarket, GP surgery, pharmacy and post office and we always had business in at least one of these places.

Whereabouts are you? Please do let MNers come to your rescue if we can.

Library - I used to go to the library around 5pm - 5.30pm, as then by the time I got home and had tea - it was nearer 8 pm. I used to take dd in her car seat and it gave me human contact, even though I was just searching for books - anything. How to decorate or witch craft!

I would also get a dvd for a saturday night, something to look forward to.

A trip to the pool for a late swim, this would pass time, give me other human contact and the big plus was dd would be so knackered she slept well

i found out several of my friends who i thought were really busy at wkd's weren't. there partners would be at footy every sat/sun regular.

see if any of them want to arrange to have a coffee(or glass of wine if in walking distance) while the footy is on in the wkd.