Coping with the first few weeks

Bringing your baby home and coping with those first few weeks will be a mixture of excitement, exhilaration and exhaustion!

You are not alone in thinking your baby is going to stop breathing in the night, or when the thought of leaving the house with your baby givens you hot flushes.

The key to coping with the first few weeks is to take each day at a time. You will have many broken nights and a crying baby to deal with most of the time, and will forget about cooking grown-up meals unless your partner or relatives muck in.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself when it comes to meeting up with friends or other mums – there will be plenty of time for that when things have settled down a bit. Don't do any serious entertaining either; instead, make sure friends and relatives give you, your partner and your baby time to get used to each other.

Tips for coping in the first few weeks:

If you are feeling sleep deprived, try to catch up on sleep during the day when your baby naps.
You’ll receive heaps of ‘useful’ advice from friends and family about feeding your baby or when to put her to sleep. No matter how well intentioned it is, all babies are different so resist trying to implement a routine on your two-week-old just because your best friend swore by it. Wait till you’ve got the first six weeks under your belt before you think about being strict.
Try not to feel too frustrated with your newborn if all she does is cry. It is her only way of communicating with you and she probably just needs a cuddle, a feed or a wind.
It is usual for new mothers to experience ‘baby blues’ roughly three days after giving birth due to the mixture of hormones in your body. This will settle in time, but if you find yourself feeling desperate, unable to cope and crying all the time, you may be experiencing Post-natal depression, and you must see your GP as soon as possible.
Look after your body. You may have had stitches or a C-section, in which case you need to take things very easy. Remember to put your feet up and accept any help that’s offered. Indulge in a bit of daytime TV or sunbathing while your baby naps. And remember, if you have had a Casearean you should pick up nothing heavier than your baby for at least three months. Soon you’ll be running after a crawling baby who wants to explore the world and you’ll think back blissfully to the first few months and the magazine-reading time you got.
Don’t forget your partner. He may be feeling like a gooseberry as you and your baby bond and only have eyes for each other. Make sure he gets to spend plenty of time alone with your baby when you are not in the room, so he feels comfortable holding and cuddling her and his own bonding experience can begin.
You may feel like you are the only mum in the world, especially when your partner goes back to work and you are left alone. Rest assured there are thousands of mums feeling that they been left to cope by themselves with a helpless newborn, just like you. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you bond with your baby, and caring for her will soon feel like second-nature. One of the pluses of becoming a mum is when you are out having a stroll with your baby and you meet another mum – now you have something you can instantly talk about – the world of babies. It is amazing how many new friends you will make in other women going through the same experience as you.