My notes from a neurotic first time motherhood

March 27, 2015

me and baby E

What completely neurotic, fussy, overprotective, OTT things did you do as a first-time parent that you wouldn’t dream of doing now?

It’s easily done – as soon as you have a baby you’re suddenly thrust head first into a whole new world, where you have little or no clue what you’re doing and there’s a steep and screamy learning curve, a small margin for error and definitely no instruction book. It’s easy to over think things (I think…right?).

I’m fairly relaxed – well, my husband definitely is – but even so, I look back now on some of the things we did as new parents and kind of cringe. And there’s nothing like second baby perspective to make you realise the error of your first-time ways.

So here are some of mine:

  • When Eliza was a newborn we had the heating on full blast, 24 hours a day. It was winter and we did live in a draughty flat, but I’m not sure quite what we thought would happen if the temperature dropped a degree below tropical. My friend came to visit and politely made a comment about the summery atmosphere, as she sat there in a vest top
  • More temperature control – we had an electric thermometer on our baby monitor, but I was deeply suspicious that it might not be exactly right. So just on the off-chance it wasn’t I had a separate thermometer propped up against it. And another one in the cot
  • I obsessively Googled and diagnosed every possible thing that could be a thing, usually at 3am (don’t ever do this – step away from Dr Google). Without exception all of these ‘things’ turned out to be absolutely nothing
  • You know the tiny blister babies get from vaccinations? I worried for ages about Eliza’s. Everyone told me it was fine. So I went to Baby Clinic specifically to ask the Health Visitor about it. She told me it was fine
  • I then went back to Baby Clinic the next week after to get a second opinion from a different Health Visitor. Guess what she told me? And guess what? You can’t even see it now
  • And my favourite…the first time we left Eliza was when she was six months old, and my parents came up to babysit so we could go to the Olympics. Despite the fact we were only gone for a couple of hours and there was mobile reception even in the remote location of east London, I wrote a six page document outlining everything my mum might possibly need to know about my child, from comforting to feeding and naps. Because clearly my parents had never looked after a baby before.

Oh dear. Anyone else have any shockers?

More posts on 10 things I’ve learned about two,  how not to go to playgroup in three months and sisterhood.

 

11 Comments

  • Polly

    March 27, 2015 at 7:47 pm

    hehe!!! I was terrible the first time around, so worried about every little thing! By number four, the things you did seem so ridiculous!

  • Jess @ Along Came Cherry

    March 27, 2015 at 8:34 pm

    This made me laugh! I was terrible first time round! I used to Google why she was breathing funny / every single little thing. I even phoned the hospital ward the day after she left because she wouldn’t stop crying!! They told me it was wind! And yeah we had our house tropical too, so funny x

  • fritha

    March 27, 2015 at 9:53 pm

    ha yep the heating! I think I was fairly chilled in a way but I did (and still) have to check W is breathing whenever he is sleeping x

  • Laura

    March 28, 2015 at 8:03 am

    Oh my this is so funny – I totally went OTT with the temperature as well – it always had to be 18 degrees at all times at night and once I left the heating on and it went to like 25 degrees and I totally panicked when I woke up for the night feed. I can’t believe how paranoid I was about everything (hello Mr Google) but now 90% of these things would not cross my mind today…hello chilled second baby, I am sure thats why my first is somewhat neurotic

    Laura x

  • PhotoPuddle

    March 28, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    Ha ha. The temperature thing made me laugh. I was always fascinated by our temperature egg. Our house is always warm and always on orange which is actually warmer than the optimal temperature for a baby. But one night shortly after my daughter was born I woke up and saw it was blue. Shock horror! I woke I my husband up and demanded he put the heating on while I wrapped up the baby!

  • Adele @ Circus Queen

    March 28, 2015 at 10:09 pm

    I laughed at and identified with all of this! The one that struck me recently is that I didn’t let Talitha crawl around anywhere outdoors or “public” but Ophelia scoots around everywhere, merrily tasting the dirt.

  • Lindsay @ Newcastle Family Life

    March 29, 2015 at 10:54 pm

    I remember with my first i stayed up all night watching her the night she came home from hospital as i was scared in case i would not hear her if she woke up. I soon realised that i would hear her as soon as she woke up for a feed x

  • Emma

    March 31, 2015 at 1:06 pm

    Haha! I can definitely relate, I was obsessed with my eldest overheating, and I probably should have had a dedicated line to NHS Direct!

  • Rachel

    April 7, 2015 at 11:19 pm

    So true. We have twins, now aged 2. They slept well as babies, sleeping through from quite early on. I, however, set my alarm to wake up at odd hours of the night, every night, for months, to go and check they were still breathing… Oh how I regretted it when their sleep regressed and all I wanted was an uninterrupted night!

  • Helen Gannon

    April 9, 2015 at 9:44 pm

    I know that I was a nightmare with my first child. I constantly worried about everything. With my second though I was a lot more relaxed although that may be because I just didn’t have time to worry anymore.

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    June 2, 2015 at 9:11 pm

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