When does 'normal' life resume?

[rosegarden620]

Alright, I admit "normal" life after a newborn is oxymoronic. But, here I am at almost week three and am wondering at what point will life resume as normal? Meaning- when will I be able to fit in normal chores throughout the day. When will I be able to cook dinner without worrying if baby will want an impromptu feeding??

I cooked dinner yesterday for the first time since birth and if it wasn't for dh doing some serious rocking of our baby I may have never finished and that was a less than 30 min dinner prep!

Is it just me? this is #3 for me and 2foe EbF. I know things will resume but just wondering when you all felt like you were in the swing of things.

 

[noon_child]

In terms of getting things done...I'm not sure that ever resumed. We still live in a bit of a tip. But in terms of kinda feeling like I knew what I was doing, when I could make a cup of tea without being needed, when I could get out of the house to go shopping etc. it was about the 3month mark. In terms of having my evenings back and being able to eat a full mea, about month 5.

 

[Cattia]

I find I can get most stuff done for my other kids at tea/ bed time by wearing LO in a sling. That way she always sleeps, then as soon as they are in bed I get her out and she goes crazy fussing and feeding for an hour and a half or so, until she crashes out about 8-9. That's working for us at the moment but it could all change any time!

 

[RaspberryK]

Never?

I use a baby sling.

Xx

 

[rwhite]

Could you look in to getting a sling, like ladies above have mentioned? I use a Moby wrap and find it fantastic if I want to get stuff done around the house. I pop Clem in to it once she has been fed (so she's not madly searching for boob once on my chest ) and the motion of me moving around will usually put her to sleep

 

[ButterCup17]

I'd say around 3-5 months... xoxo

 

[londonangel]

Um.... We live in a rip (created by our nearly four-year-old) and I try to feed G an hour before I need to start dinner but I end up putting her down mid feed, feeding her a bit more while next bit of dinner cooks, etc. just by always used to cook when we had first one but she cannot wait and have him cook dinner when home as it is too late for her. Big daughter now watches too much TV while I make dinner feed G!

 

[Carlyp1990]

We've been managing pretty well since lo was about a month. Some days I don't get anything done as she wants lots of cuddles but other days I can do quite abit. Don't stress about things and just do what you can when you can. Now that she is staying awake for longer periods it's getting trickier tbh and sometimes finding the balance between house, baby, 4yo and oh can be tricky but it mostly seems to be falling into place

 

[hanni]

8 weeks in and I still can't get a lot done unless someone's around to keep dominic happy. He gets bored of his swing and play mat fairly quickly and I swear he can sense I'm trying to get something done when he's asleep. If I'm on my own I'm usually living on toast, crisps and a glass of warm juice I've been drinking for the past 8 hours, don't even get me started on how long I can hold a wee in for 😩
We have a carrier that we use when I need to put the washing out and things but it's big and awkward so not suitable for doing much else with.

 

[mayacat]

Same boat. I should try the sling idea!

 

[babymonkey18]

it took about 13 months to get back to any semblance of normal around here!

 

[Literati_Love]

It was about when my dd was 4 or 5 months when I could finally cook meals and get the odd thing done that I wanted to during the day without any help. Life of course isn't anywhere near "normal" yet but I found everything got way easier after 4-5 months.

 

[rosegarden620]

Thank you ladies for all yor responses.
We are nearing the 5 week mark and slowly but surely I am getting the hang of everything!! I'm finally getting dinner done and can time her schedule pretty accurately. We ARE still learning though. We introduced the paci early last week and while it's not the cure-all-end-all, it certainly has been a lifesaver in a lot of situations already. We introduced the bottle last night with pumped milk but it didn't go well AT ALL.

I had pumped a feeding of hers all together. Pumped 5.5 oz (bad idea) and waiting until she was hungry to give it to her. My intention was to feed her from my breast until later in the evening when I would use the bottle (for a glass of wine ). Well she wasn't having it. My milk flow was way to slow for a really hungry baby. She wasn't having the bottle either. It was a rough 2 something hours while she fussed and cried. I got her calm and asleep, her (nuk brand) paci helped. Dh took over after about 45 minutes of me rocking her asleep and I managed to get some sleep for 3.5 hours (so did she) and when she awoke my breasts were very ready to go.

We bought nuk bottle nipples today and she took the full 5.5oz (over 2.5 hours)!

It was bittersweet, but I'm glad to know when I do go back to work I'll rest easy knowing she will eat.

 

[hanni]

Sometimes when my LO is being fussy about his bottle (we combi feed) I have to squirt a bit of milk in his mouth, hold the teat in for a little while and wiggle it around so he realises it's actually milk and not just some random object.

Thinking about it, normal life probably never resumes, normal just changes.
9 weeks in and we do have our "normal" days but they're nothing like they used to be. The chaos is normal now 😂

 

[amelia26]

Around 4 months things got a lot better in the day. His naps were a bit more predictable so I could plan around them. I often used that time to prep dinner. Then around 6 months he started suffering from separation anxiety and never wanted me to put him down, then it got better again and I could do a lot more, then separation anxiety again and so on and so on. From 1 year to 2.5years was good because he had a long nap at the same time every day and I could get loads done. Then he dropped his nap and it got harder again.

 

[Rainstorm]

I'd say around 3-5 months... xoxo

Sorry, I know it's not what you want to hear but I agree with Buttercup

 

[rosegarden620]

3-5 months actually doesn't seem so far away! We've gotten the hand of daily life but now I am just waiting for this "witching hour"/clusterfeeding bit to be over with. 9pm-1am. She's doing it right now as I type...lol. She's got a set of lungs on her! Luckily she isn't inconsolable, its just a matter finding out what she likes and for how long.


I'm off to try and lend my mommy touch...WISH ME LUCCCCK!

 

[AnonymousCAT]

Umm my feeling is that it never resumes? Still hasn't for me anyways. 6 months and this are definitely easier. I don't think it will really improve until I stop bf personally