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POLL: The Early Days
I'm curious about everyone's individual experience with their newborn in the first few weeks home.
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)?
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous?
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet?
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days?
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller?
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Re: POLL: The Early Days
1. ds was awake every 2ish hours or so... so no clue how much sleep i actually got.
2. not that i remember... but i'm sure he did
3. both. he was either peacefully sleeping/eating.. or he was crying LOL.
4. um... i'd say him shooting poop across the room one night. that was fun lol!
5. honestly i don't remember when we first used the stroller.... we never actually used it very much. we took ds out in the world though the day after we brought him home, and pretty much every day after that. i think his first "big" adventure was when we did the walk across the holden beach bridge, ds was a month old, but i wore him in my moby wrap. i used that thing all the time!
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? In a row? Maybe 3 hours at a clip. The first few weeks he woke every 2-3 hours to eat.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? Not particularly, but I often found myself checking to see if he was breathing -- I was a little paranoid like that!
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? I'd say he was hungry. A lot!
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? I found the sleep deprivation pretty killer with my newborn. But it does get better, even though it doesn't feel like it at the moment.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? I think we took him for a walk in our neighboorhood in the stroller a day or two after we got home?
Catching up on sports news...
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? At the moment I'm getting between 2-3 hours of sleep a night.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? Yes - he makes strange noises, chokes a lot when he eats, has strange respirations - the pediatrician says they are all normal because he was born a little early.
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? I think he's average. If he's hungry or needs to be changed he will cry... but other than that, he's pretty quiet.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? He started to pee on me while I was changing him, so I moved a bit "downstream" and then he had a massive poop explosion, so I got the ass end of that (pun intended).
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? He's been home for 8 days and I haven't taken him out in the stroller yet... I'm a little concerned about all the pollen right now.
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? The first night-none. After that, maybe 2 hour spurts at most.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? She was c/s baby so she still had fluid in her lungs so she would gag/choke and had "junky breathing" that sounded like a rattle in her throat (freaked me out).
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? Quiet, she slept from feeding to feeding.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? Positive is it all really does get a lot easier, and you do get more sleep. If I had known how much better it gets, I wouldn't have felt so overwhelmed (at that point it feels like the torture will never end). I just loved laying in bed with her and snuggling. Some days it just felt like a breast milk, poop and pee haze, but it was worth it.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? Not long, we took her for walks and out to Target pretty early! I think I used my stroller every day those first few months!
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? I think we slept in 3-4 increments for the first several weeks, which I thought was pretty good.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? nah, I was just nervous in general, I'm sure.
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? she really only fussed when she was hungry or needed a diaper change. She was a really good newborn.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? I can't think of any in particular, but I really, really loved that time. I miss the snuggles :-(
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? She was born in January, so we didn't go for walks or anything for several months. But we first took her to Target when she was 4 days old. I really didn't stay locked up in the house or anything. I went out often during the first several weeks--I would have gone crazy otherwise!
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? 2-3 hours at a time
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? Choking in their sleep, the sudden jerks
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? Pretty laid back unless tired, then all heck breaks loose and it's hard to get them settled.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? Just how each day they were changing - oh and their first smile - melts your heart!
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? Abour 3 weeks - did not take them to store until about 8 weeks though - Ella was born during flu season and Zachary had RSV and our dr told us to keep him hidden as long as possible. I'm lucky though - my mom lives here and she would come over to watch Zachary so I could get out to run errands. If I had to stay in for 8 weeks - I'd be going insane!
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? Probably 6 hours of broken sleep at night. He was up every 2 hours at first.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? He sneezed a lot and it made me think he was getting sick.
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? Quiet. He only cried when he was hungry or wet.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? There was one day that I got peed on every single time I changed him! I remember the days of laying on the couch snuggling him and knowing that it was the happiest that I had ever been.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? He was born in the summer, so we didn't stroll around b/c it was hot. We started going on outings (store, errands, shopping) at 4 days old.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? not really.
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? he was pretty quite. he would eat, sleep, and poop for the first 4 weeks. He would eat A LOT! it felt like was attached to my boob every hour!!
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? The first few weeks were so hard for me that I can't say I had one.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? a week. I could not be cooped up so I would walk around the neighborhood and take him to the supermarket at off times.
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1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? C: I never got good sleep with him. He was up all the time. I would say maybe 4 hours a night with him. N: She is a great sleeper. I probably get 6-7 hours a night with her.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? Not really with either. It wasn't until C was a little older that his breathing issues while sleeping became scary.
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? Both quiet
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? Naomi projectile pooped on me about 3 days after we got home with her. Connor still talks about when Naomi pooped on me.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? C: pretty much right away. He was born in July though so it was nice and warm. N: she hasn't been in the stroller yet but I've put her in the front carrier and we've been out. She ventured to the grocery store at 1 week old and has been lots of places.
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? I would get 3 - 4 hour stretches.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? Everything made me nervous, but I worried a lot about his breathing b/c he was so quiet
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? Quiet most of the time, then at about 2 - 3 weeks we had colic and a reflux diagnosis so he was very fussy from about 5 - 9 every night.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? I feel like it's all such a blur now, but I remember going on walks with him and DH and feeling like we were really a family.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? I think just a couple days after we got home. The weather was awesome and I needed to get out.
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? A was up every 1.5-2 hours, I think the longest stretch I got was 45 minutes at a time.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? She was sooo tiny, I worried constantly about EVERYTHING!
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? pretty fussy
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? A shot poop across the room at the ped's office at one of her early visits. It was so gross!
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? She was probably around 5 weeks - it was an unusually warm day in January and we hit the road!
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? Maybe 4 or 5? She was up to eat every few hours, so I could never sleep for longer than 3 hours at a time.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? Not really, I was/is just a nervous first time mom. We are just now switching her to the crib since I liked having her right next to me in her bassinet. Everytime I woke up I'd check her breathing, etc. That's typical right?
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? Pretty fussy at first. Night times were torture for a few weeks.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? Not really. I was a hormonal mess. It got better/easier once we got into a routine and knew what to expect.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? We did it almost right away.
ETA: I forgot at about 3 or 4 weeks, DD would choke halfway through feeding. Not sure if my milk was coming too fast, or what, but she eventually grew out of it. It was scary though.
1. How many hours of sleep a night did you get (on average)? I think it was 3-4 for about the first 1.5 months then 6-7 after that.
2. Did your newborn have certain habits or behaviors that made you nervous? I was just nervous about anything.
3. Would you say your newborn was fussy or quiet? A mix of both, but once 6 weeks got here, she was more quiet.
4. Any really funny/happy/positive stories from the early days? All the cuddles. I definitely took those for granted. So sweet.
5. How long did you wait to take your newborn outside in his/her stroller? Probably started taking walks with her during the first month home.