Ugly baby.

mrskeyte9 · August 2013

So I know this tends to be a controversial issue, whether its your baby being talked about or someone else's. I've always thought all babies are cute. At my appt on Monday I was kind of floored...my doctor told me her first daughter was the ugliest baby she's ever seen. My jaw dropped and I didn't really know how to respond. I've NEVER heard anyone say their own baby is the ugliest baby ever. She even described how she looked. She continued to say "I told my husband we shouldn't have anymore if this is how they're going to come out." I seriously didn't know how to respond. I just kind of awkwardly chuckled and let her continue on until she was finished. Has anyone ever heard someone say their own baby is ugly?? Lol. I can't imagine you'd think that about your own baby...or do people really think this and I'm just blinded by it? Lol.

puppyciao23 · August 2013

I have heard people say this- usually in the context of "then they became cute once the swelling went down, so don't worry" - lol

On a related note, my husband told his cousin (who he is very close with) that she should tell him if our baby isn't cute, because even though he will always think the baby is beautiful, he doesn't want to be one of those parents who doesn't realize that their baby isn't cute at all. That is exactly how he explained it to me. I side-eyed him for that one :-P

Cleo421 · August 2013

My mom endearingly tells me I'm the ugliest baby she ever saw

From the pictures, I can see why! Smushed face, tons of hair sticking straight up, and a bushy unibrow! I don't think she tells other ppl that though!

kje120 · August 2013

When DS was born I thought he was the cutest thing ever, but now when I look back at the really early pictures I think he looked like an alien - he was pretty skinny and scrawny. He definitely got much cuter when he filled out some.

Dee2588 · August 2013

My mom would always say that my sister wasn't a cute baby but turned super cute when she became a toddler. I've heard other people say things like that about other babies.

Brooke81 · August 2013

I have not thought either of my babies were cute for the first couple of days. I think my children are cute now but at first they are all swollen en smushed from the birth process and then DS looked like a cross between a turtle and an old man for almost a week.
:PI kind of think people that think there babies are beautiful from minute 1 are full of it. Very few babies are cute the first couple of days. That is not to say that you don't love them and think the uglyness is adoreable in it's own way but cute/pretty, nah.

AlejandraN2 · August 2013

I've heard of parents/friends say that their baby was pretty ugly when he/she was born but got really cute in a few months. So it's not that unusual at least in my social environment. I actually think that very few newborns are classically "cute" - i mean they are cute because they are small and little and a small miracle, but most of them do look like wrinkly old men. And then 3-4 months later it's like a new little face and person emerges.

thedash · August 2013

kestock120 said:

When DS was born I thought he was the cutest thing ever, but now when I look back at the really early pictures I think he looked like an alien - he was pretty skinny and scrawny. He definitely got much cuter when he filled out some.

This is my experience exactly! I was looking at his newborn pictures recently and was thinking "Hmmm...I remember him being much cuter than this!"

NNGnome · August 2013

I think all new babies look a little like old men LOL, (DS1 did, although I still think he was adorable

) although if they are born via C-section (like my LO), they at least have nice round heads with no bruises, most vaginally born babies have cone heads for a little while, poor guys, but after a couple weeks of being fed up they get all cute and chubby

Shanmarie1083 · August 2013

I don't think babies fresh out of the womb are really all that cute. They are usually very red, swollen, wrinkled, and have cone heads... especially vaginal birth babies. I thought my DS was cute, but I'm his mother so of course I thought that way. I'm sure others may have though differently. Of course they knew better than to ever say that though.

blondii428 · August 2013

jdoud77 said:
LOL, I've never heard anyone call their own baby ugly before. I never thought there was such a thing as ugly babies, that all babies are cute. I've been told by others there is a such thing as an ugly baby. I always thought regardless, babies are cute, little, and so adorable.

I completely agree!

michelle7482 · August 2013

kestock120 said:
When DS was born I thought he was the cutest thing ever, but now when I look back at the really early pictures I think he looked like an alien - he was pretty skinny and scrawny. He definitely got much cuter when he filled out some.

This is me too. Looking back on DD's pics, she def had an awkward stage from 1-2 months!

HBirdie · August 2013

Haha, this would make me laugh! I wouldn't know what to say, though.

One of my former coworkers was pregnant with her first two years ago and I judged her HARDCORE because she worried (out loud) like once a week that she'd have an ugly baby and "wouldn't be able to love him." It made me want to barf. She's really superficial, though, so it shouldn't be that surprising.

I feel like most babies are pretty cute, though maybe not right out of the womb. My BFF's baby was... interesting looking. Tons of dark hair, a GINORMOUS head, a funny face. But she cutened up real fast and now even her parents will admit she was a strange looking baby for awhile there.

I just keep thinking... I don't know, I'm sure I'll think my precious baby is the cutest thing to ever be born, so I don't care too much what other people think. I don't think I know anyone tacky enough to say anything mean about his/her looks. At least I hope not. :P

missmuffin87 · August 2013

There's a baby pic of FI in his parents bedroom where he looks just god awful. Idk how they can get any sleep with that baby staring at them. I tease him about it all the time. He was a super cute kid, so IDK if it was just a bad pic or an awkward time in his life, but yikes! He looks like he has a snake tongue in the pic too, which he doesn't, and he was freakishly chubby considering he's turned out so tall and lanky. I'll admit I'm a little nervous that our DS will look like him as a baby lol, I'm really hoping it's just a bad picture. I would never tell anyone that I thought my baby was ugly though, even if he does turn out looking just like FI's bad baby picture.

kissamary · August 2013

I keep warning H that I don't think DD is going to be the cutest thing at first. Her ultrasound looks exactly like me, and I looked like an old grandma with a big nose and crazy hair when I was born.

chois · August 2013

I think all babies have an awkward looking time at some point in their first few months. DS came out pretty cute (as cute as newborns get), but went through a stage of not being the cutest baby on the block at a few months old. He had some funky hair going on and was a scrawny little thing with huge eyes. He grew out of it and is once again quite adorable - in my unbiased opinion.

DaisyZH · August 2013

My DH's family told us several times that they would let us know if the baby was ugly. They said our DS was cute, always with the disclaimer "and we would tell you if he wasn't!" I hate to think what I would say if someone called my baby ugly though, I would be pretty mad lol, especially post-partum.

msronzio · August 2013

I had a moment at around 22 wks (or so) where the u/s tech gave us a 3d of LO. I was horrified. He looked scary..and I hate to say it, gross! I practically said no more 3d u/s, but it's my office's standard. Then I saw him at 28 wks and he got a little bit of fat on him and he looked normal. LOL. I was slapping myself. Duh, he's in utero.. He's not gonna look like a baby yet. Never heard of anyone calling babies ugly though.

GoyaBean913 · August 2013

missmuffin87 said:
Idk how they can get any sleep with that baby staring at them.

LMFAO! I CANNOT stop laughing right now!

SweetPeaK26 · August 2013

My second was definitely not a pretty newborn. She kinda looked like an alien for the first 6 months or so. I think she's very pretty now and we have people tell us that all the time.

GoyaBean913 · August 2013

Ive encountered this twice. Once was my best friends daughter. She was just not that cute until around 3 yrs old. She got cute after that though and now at 10yrs old shes a beauty.

The other was a woman down the street. I didn't get to see her baby until she took her out for a stroll at 7 months. I DID NOT expect to see what i saw when i looked in that stroller. All i could say to her was "bless her heart" cause DAMN that was one fugly ass baby.

Luckymomma4 · August 2013

I think every child goes through an ugly stage at some point. I sure did and all three of my kids have. My girls looked funny when they were little because they were bald for a while.

OpheliaChem · August 2013

Yes I've heard people say that about their kids! I admit that my DD doesn't look super cute in every picture but I would never say she was ugly.

leahaustin · August 2013

I have never heard someone say that their own newborn baby was ugly but I have heard people say it about other people's babies. I agree that some newborn babies are not cute. It is just the nature of it...they come out blotchy and swollen. I am sure I will think my own baby girl is the most precious baby ever though.

ksf13 · August 2013

This makes me think of my grandmother lol. She always used to tell me that if she saw a baby she thought was ugly she would say "that's a fine baby" instead of "that's a cute baby" so she wouldn't have to lie. I always thought it was so funny, especially because she was such a sweet woman. She passed away a year ago and there was a woman, with a baby, that brought food to the family. I thought I was going to explode with laughter when my grandfather (from the other side of the family) said "well, that's a fine baby". I had never heard anyone else say it before.

Cleo421 · August 2013

keriflores said:

This makes me think of my grandmother lol. She always used to tell me that if she saw a baby she thought was ugly she would say "that's a fine baby" instead of "that's a cute baby" so she wouldn't have to lie. I always thought it was so funny, especially because she was such a sweet woman. She passed away a year ago and there was a woman, with a baby, that brought food to the family. I thought I was going to explode with laughter when my grandfather (from the other side of the family) said "well, that's a fine baby". I had never heard anyone else say it before.

Haha. There was actually a Seinfeld episode about this. The group saw the ugliest baby and all Jerry could muster, was "What a baby!"

A couple months ago, I asked a BTDT colleague at work if it's true that all babies are cute. She replied, "No, that's kittens. You're thinking of kittens."

elm005 · August 2013

My mom told me that she almost cried when she first saw me because I was covered in dark black hair. :-/ She said she was glad I finally got cuter after a week or so. WTF??

Lbear8 · August 2013

thedash said:

kestock120 said:

When DS was born I thought he was the cutest thing ever, but now when I look back at the really early pictures I think he looked like an alien - he was pretty skinny and scrawny. He definitely got much cuter when he filled out some.

This is my experience exactly! I was looking at his newborn pictures recently and was thinking "Hmmm...I remember him being much cuter than this!"

This is me too. I was actually afraid before dd was born that I was going to think she was ugly, but I had my mom goggles on and thought she was the most beautiful thing and years later I realized that she wasn't as cute as I thought.

VeraM22 · August 2013

I think I've told this story before but my grandmother thought that my uncle was such an ugly baby she refused his hospital pictures. She said she was completely embarrassed to let anyone see him until he fattened up around 6 weeks and stopped looking like an old hairless monkey. Now she says she wishes she had gotten the pictures just so she could prove to everyone how ugly he really was! Lol

nbcarlson · August 2013

I've definelty seen some babies that were not cute, but I didn't think it was possible to not think your own baby was cute.

enhr820 · August 2013

My cousin looked like a half plucked tweety bird. Blonde hair sticking straight up, pink skin, and pretty skinny. We always say she was the cutest ugly baby ever. So yes I've heard people say it, but with us it's out of love. We tease a lot.

kakhmama · August 2013

When my DD was born (she was my first born)...I seriously thought, OMG, is that my baby??? She was dark and covered in downy hair (even on her forehead). Her eyes were very Asian looking and she really resembled a monkey. I was just shocked initially. I didn't think the was hideous or anything like that, just NOT at all what I had been envisioning.

Within the hour she had pinked up and her face was loosing it's swelling and was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen! When I got those first hospital pics in a few weeks later HAHAHA! It was the monkey child I had first seen when she was JUST delivered!

Thank goodness I knew what to expect with my son. I knew that within the first few hours he would change a little

dalia1584 · August 2013

My stepsons mom was telling me how she remembers just crying over him about how beautiful he was when he was born, we just finished his graduation video and she laughed the whole time about how he wasn't a cute baby at all. She said she was blinded by mommy love.

AngelMommy11211 · August 2013

I've seen a couple ugly babies. The one still looks like a troll at 2yo. I feel so bad for that girl. The other one was just skin and bones at birth and looked like an alien, but he got cuter. I always thought my own babies were pretty cute, but looking back, my first was kinda funny looking for a while. He's super handsome now though.

Amusjh · August 2013

When DS was born, I thought he was the cutest baby I had ever seen! Now, looking back at pictures, he wasn't near as cute as I thought he was.

imakeeff0rts · August 2013

Hopefully your OB has enough tact to keep it to herself if she thinks someone else's baby is ugly. That's horribly awkward.

TheLittlestDiva · August 2013

I think I would've laughed!

One of my coworkers once told me how she had thought her daughter a beautiful baby... until about her 1st birthday when she went back and looked at the photos. She laughingly retold the story of how strange she looked, and how people must've thought she was crazy. "But I thought she was the most beautiful baby in the whole world - that was all that mattered." Her daughter was incredibly adorable and became a very pretty young girl; it is funny what our perceptions are.

I've always thought that newborns look funny, but babies are adorable. I actually warned DH that the LO might look a little strange at first. His response? "Well, they will have had a very hard day...!"

As long as the baby knows he/she is loved; that is what is important... but take lots of photos either way.

kat81again2 · August 2013

I didn't tell people this nor did I feel upset about it, but I didn't think that DS was cute when he was born. He was REALLY small and skinny. I don't think any newborns are particularly cute, but he wasn't any better than average, even after passing through the "biased mom" lens. I knew he'd eventually look cuter upon gaining weight. Sure enough, 2-4 mo in I thought it was the cutest kid that ever existed and that he'd make the perfect baby model. Totally gorgeous. Still do think he's damn cute. I do think most kids are cute by 3-4 mo but there are a few out there that just never become cute, or take years to get there.

Given how not-so-cute newborns are, it always surprises me that people submit newborn photos when they are announcing a birth to, say, their quarterly alumni magazine. I understand if you want to announce the birth right away for whatever reason (e.g. an actual birth announcement, or an e-mail blast when the baby is born), but for something like an alumni magazine that comes out just a few times a year, IMO it makes sense to wait and submit a picture of the kid that is like 6 mo old. I dragged my feet with submitting something to my alma maters mainly because I was lazy about it, but then it was great because I could submit a picture from DS when he was 9mo. He looked so much better than all of the awful newborn pics in the magazine!

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