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[Mollyksy]

Lol Future self! I remember being off with the fairies on endone and marvelling that not only did they expect me to look after this tiny vulnerable thing but they were encouraging me to do it high!

[Ozquoll]

This thread is great 👍
I remember how I felt kind of like an impostor the first time I said “My son”. It took a bit of getting used to!
When my son arrived, after a precipitous labour (less than two hours - despite the midwife telling me it’d be hours and hours before anything happened - ha!) I simply couldn’t believe how small he was - I just kept on saying “Shouldn’t he be bigger?!” 😂.
He was in fact a very healthy 3.4kg, but as I’d put on a LOT of weight during pregnancy, I must have been deluding myself that it mostly consisted of baby! 😄

[YumChaTheSecond]

I've jut informed DP that kids sound good, but he'll have to birth them. Sorted.

[Freddie'sMum]

This was later down the track but when I went back to work and we just had DD#1, she was going to daycare. I went to collect her one day and there was a newsletter from the daycare starting "Dear Parents ..." and it struck me like a ton of bricks "hey, we're the parents now".

It's been many years later and I am still waiting for someone much more responsible and mature to step in and take over the "parenting" role.  I can't even keep a goldfish alive and they let ME walk out of the hospital with 2 x babies ??  Had they lost their minds ?

[born.a.girl]

Future-self, on 14 January 2019 - 08:35 PM, said:

Team Hatching for sure.

It’s just absurd though isn’t it, we grow someone else . Bizarro.

And then I think about the lengthy online modules and workbooks and training you go through for work until you’re signed off to be responsible for task x,y,x. like inputting important data into Software program B.
And yet they hand you a helpless human and say ”off you go, raise’em”.

That was one of mine too, and I'm sure it's common.

We focus so much on the baby, having a family, getting pregnant, being pregnant.   I remember at one stage thinking 'holy hell, this is actually going to turn into a completely independent adult that I've made'.  

Sounds stupid writing it down.

[born.a.girl]

YumChaTheSecond, on 14 January 2019 - 09:31 PM, said:

I've jut informed DP that kids sound good, but he'll have to birth them. Sorted.

My mother (would be 103 if still alive) said that if men had to birth every second baby, no family would have more than three children.

[blackcat20]

Future-self, on 14 January 2019 - 08:35 PM, said:

And then I think about the lengthy online modules and workbooks and training you go through for work until you’re signed off to be responsible for task x,y,x. like inputting important data into Software program B.
And yet they hand you a helpless human and say ”off you go, raise’em”.

This freaks me out. I've held plenty of babies, and even babysat, but never had one for a full 24 hour block. Keep asking my mum how I'm supposed to know what to do with it

[cstar]

I remember my doc coming in and saying “ok, are you ready”?

I freaked out, no no I’m not ready for this! I started to shake, scariest moment of my life.

But then they put him on my chest, my god that was amazing.  That was 17 1/2 years ago and like other pps I sometimes look at my kids and think, really am I their mother?

[Lou-bags]

blackcat20, on 15 January 2019 - 08:11 AM, said:

This freaks me out. I've held plenty of babies, and even babysat, but never had one for a full 24 hour block. Keep asking my mum how I'm supposed to know what to do with it

I’d never even baby sat before DS1 was born. Don’t worry too much, turns out babies are pretty forgiving of your mistakes while learning and they’re all so individual, prior experience is not necessarily very much use (just ask any parent with more than one 😂).

Good luck, you’ll be fine!

[MooGuru]

tayto.tired, on 15 January 2019 - 09:38 AM, said:

My no1 piece of advice to soon-to-be parents is that you totally learn everything on th job. People had kinda told me this but I thought no way, caring for a small baby is way too life and death to learn on the job, but turns out you really can!!

Absolutely - you will learn things you had no clue you were capable of and you continue to learn for all the needs your child has.
Haha I know a few people who confidently went into baby number 2 thinking they had this parenting caper well and truly sorted and knew everything there was to know. Turns out baby 1 had just lulled them into a false sense of security.

[Hands Up]

I still remember getting home from hospital and DH putting DS1 down on the floor (in the capsule, fast asleep) and us both taking two quick steps backwards and going ummmmm what now?

[PsySquirrel]

Well, I am so glad that this isn't just me. I am so glad I posted even though I felt like a complete idiot doing so

[MsLaurie]

blackcat20, on 15 January 2019 - 08:11 AM, said:

This freaks me out. I've held plenty of babies, and even babysat, but never had one for a full 24 hour block. Keep asking my mum how I'm supposed to know what to do with it

Also- they don’t start laying down long term memory for a couple of years, so they won’t remember your stuff ups 🤫

[Toddlerandme]

PsySquirrel, on 15 January 2019 - 11:45 AM, said:

Well, I am so glad that this isn't just me. I am so glad I posted even though I felt like a complete idiot doing so

One of the things I really like about EB is it makes me feel less alone as a parent.

[Teds]

Yes, when my little darling came out I had spent so long focussing how the day was going and then pushing as directed in front of a cast of thousands that when they finally cut me (epesiotomy), she slithered out all at once looking all black and slimy. They put her on my belly and all I could think was 'Whats that!?'

Took a couple of moments to get my head around what had happened, by which time they had whisked her away again as she wasn't crying. She then coughed and started crying and I knew it was ok and that this was what all the fuss and hard work had been for. Not what I expected my first reaction to seeing my beautiful daughter would be, thankfully my next reaction was a little more maternal haha.

[DJandJ]

My first thought on seeing my oldest DD was ‘I’ve birthed a foal!’.

[Mollyksy]

Post c section, about to vomit, feeling like I was falling of a too short (width) bed. They placed DS on my chest, I stare down intellectually, like 'oh, a baby'. Absolutely no rush of anything. Just kept thinking I was going to fall off the bed. Very surreal.

[ipsee]

Wow - I thought I was the only one who didn't want to instantly hold the baby a split second after they come out. Who decided that we all have to do that anyway.

[TrixieBelden]

Oh yeah the bit where they let you walk out!

WTAF.

[~J_F~]

ipsee, on 15 January 2019 - 08:45 PM, said:

Wow - I thought I was the only one who didn't want to instantly hold the baby a split second after they come out. Who decided that we all have to do that anyway.

I have no idea, it’s grosses me out. I prefer to hold babies after they have been washed personally.

I gave my first 2 a quick cuddle because it seemed expected then bolted for the shower. With the third I said pass her to her father and fell asleep, sleeping pills and labour are not a great mix

[Freddie'sMum]

Ipsee - because DD#1 was a bit premature, when I did give birth to her, the room was absolutely crowded with various medical staff, and I didn't get that first hold with her.  She was then whisked away to the SCN and DH following the incubator.

Second time round, just me, DH, one midwife and the OB who arrived at the pushing stage.  I got the first hold with DD#2 but such a completely different birthing experience.

[Lucrezia Borgia]

c section here....they put the wrinkly baby with all his goo (or my goo i guess) on my chest.....that was ok. surreal but ok. but when the midwife appeared by my side and said “would you like to inspect your placenta” i was all “yeh nah i’m good thanks”....*

(*I have friends who did want to look at it, so she was right to ask...)

[RichardParker]

TrixieBelden, on 15 January 2019 - 09:03 PM, said:

Oh yeah the bit where they let you walk out!

WTAF.

I felt like I was stealing a baby.

[Lou-bags]

RichardParker, on 15 January 2019 - 11:08 PM, said:

I felt like I was stealing a baby.

This made me LOL!

At the hospital I birthed at, we weren’t allowed to walk around with our babies in arms outside our rooms, they had to be in the bassinets for safety reasons. So we wheeled DS1 up to the front desk and they checked me out and then suddenly I was allowed to pick him up and carry him out. So bizarre. I felt like everyone was looking at me thinking ‘she has NFI what she’s doing’.

[Ellie bean]

Lucrezia Borgia, on 15 January 2019 - 10:42 PM, said:

c section here....they put the wrinkly baby with all his goo (or my goo i guess) on my chest.....that was ok. surreal but ok. but when the midwife appeared by my side and said “would you like to inspect your placenta” i was all “yeh nah i’m good thanks”....*

(*I have friends who did want to look at it, so she was right to ask...)

After my second vb I asked to see the placenta, so gross but fascinating. Dh really didn’t want to see it but he got no choice lol.