MN Bumpfest: Share your experiences of bonding with your baby straight after birth with other MNers – £50 voucher prize draw NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

In the run up to BumpFest (which will tell you absolutely everything you need to know about being a parent - promise) we’re looking to get a better understanding of the experiences Mumsnetters have had around different issues surrounding childbirth.

If there’s one thing that you can be sure about parenting, it’s that nothing is ever quite how you imagine it would be. We know from past threads, and some of the comments here here that Mumsnetters experience of bonding with their baby in the early days were sometimes less straightforward than they’d anticipated.

If you’re willing to share your stories, we’d love to hear more about your experiences. We’ll be using them to inform our research for BumpFest on the different myths and expectations there are surrounding childbirth and early bonding - thanks so much to those of you who post, we’ll be entering everyone into a draw to win a £50 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks

MNHQ

I just about vacuumed all the cradle cap out of their hair by sniffing their heads... they smell delightful. (obviously they are not teenagers yet!)

with dd I remember thinking that I could not love a toddler as much as this baby when baby two came along... then realised that the toddler would be this baby, just a bit bigger... doh!

dd was ill due to the antibitics I was taking. gave us a strong bond. less so with ds for some reason. maybe the really painful breast feeding did not help. I also wondered what was wrong with him as he only fed every four hours and then slept. all is well though and I love snuggles with ds.

I didn't bond with ds1 immediately. I was very pleased but felt a bit like I was just looking after him for someone. He gradually grew on me. Ds2 was an immediate hit. Ds3 was in SCBU and took a little longer to get used to.

I ended up with a CS but that was ok, and I got to sort of hold him when he was 2 mins old, and then he after if had him with me for a few hours, he ended up going to scbu for 2 days. That was hard, he wasn't with me, I struggled with him being on his own in there, but I couldn't go to him cause I couldn't move after CS. I found that really hard, and then my first night with him was when he was 3 days old. Felt like if missed out a bit. But we got there fairly quickly once he was back with me and now it seems like a million years ago and it's hard to believe that all happened.

I had a very straight forward water birth with my DS. We had skin to skin contact straight away and I put him to my breast as soon as I'd been stitched up. I felt an immediate bond with my baby. I was tired, in pain and had a mind in a thick haze but those first few weeks were wonderful.

Thank you everyone! The winner of the prize draw is telsa, congrats! We'll be in touch soon.