The moment you have been waiting for has finally arrived. After weeks of anticipation, your baby is here, and everything feels both magical and overwhelming at the same time.
Then you buckle your tiny newborn into their car seat and head home, and reality sets in. There is no manual for this. If you have ever wondered what those first few days will really feel like, here is a day-by-day look at surviving your baby’s first week.
Key Takeaways
- The first week with a newborn is emotional and overwhelming
- Sleep deprivation is one of the biggest challenges
- It is normal to feel unsure or anxious
- Confidence builds day by day
What to Expect During Your Baby’s First Week
The first week with your newborn can feel like a blur of emotions, questions, and constant adjustments. Here is what many parents experience each day.
Day 1: Am I Ready for This?
On the way home from the hospital, it slowly sinks in that there is no turning back. Not that you’d want there to be, yet you still wonder: Am I really ready? You get home, and there is a dizzying, repeating routine of crying, feeding, changing, and sleeping for you and your new little one. No matter how much you planned for this moment, the overwhelming feeling that it is finally here might bring you to tears.
Day 2: Sleep Deprivation Takes Its Toll
When you’re still at the hospital with your newborn, the nursing staff is there to help you, take care of you, and take care of your little one while you recover. During my stay with my first daughter, I refused any help. I wanted to hold her, nurse her, and stare at her sleeping in the bassinet. The second day home, I regretted it, a lot.
Related: How to Find Rest During the Newborn Days
Day 3: Feeling Overwhelmed at the First Newborn Visit
This is your first pediatrician’s visit since leaving the hospital. There is nothing particularly unpleasant about it, and it’s a great time to ask all those questions you’ve been saving up since you drove away. But with each question, you find yourself slowly unraveling. How is the baby eating? Well, I don’t know, nursing hasn’t been great. How is the baby sleeping? Sleep? What’s that? Am I doing something wrong? Why are they always crying? Don’t worry, Momma. Your provider will have all these answers and more. You are doing just fine. You are doing great.
Day 4: Being Grateful for Easy Meals
I naively thought I would somehow find the time that somehow, I was going to find the time, not to mention the energy, to make more than a microwave bag of popcorn. Regardless, momma must eat to have enough energy to care for the newest addition. No, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. There is no need for a five-course meal, but having postpartum freezer meals that require no effort besides throwing it in the oven or microwave is heaven-sent.
Day 5: When Sh*t Gets Real
It feels like every day since you’ve been home, you’ve told yourself that tomorrow will get better. Yet here you are on day five, and it all feels the same. The baby had an explosion (who knew such a little person could make such a mess?), and you swear you’ve changed about a million diapers with almost as many outfit changes. But, as trying as it can be, the nonstop changes mean your baby is eating enough and growing.
Related: How To Change a Baby’s Diaper
Day 6: Doubting Everything You Thought You Knew
You know that moment that you kept telling yourself would come? Well, it still hasn’t. Things still don’t feel magical, and the absolute naturalness of motherhood feels like it’s eluded you. You feel frustrated because you thought it would be easier than this. You knew it wouldn’t be seamless or as easy as all those movies made it seem, but you didn’t think you’d feel so awful emotionally, mentally, and physically. It’s important to know that everything you feel is normal, the frustration, the sadness, the baby blues, and possibly postpartum depression. But you don’t have to struggle alone.
Day 7: Realizing You Can Do This
Your first week with your newborn may feel overwhelming, emotional, and exhausting. But you made it through.
There will still be hard days ahead, but it does get better, one small step at a time. Give yourself grace, soak in the moments, and remember that you are doing an incredible job.
