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Honestly, kind of boring! LO slept a lot and I was unable to nap during the day (I've always been a bad napper) so I watched a lot of tv the first few weeks. It was difficult to get motivated to do cleaning or cooking so it's good that you'll have help. Breastfeeding was also reallyz challenging for me, and still is at. 6 weeks, so be prepared for that to take a while each nursing session. The biggest thing for me was to get out of the house with Lo for some time every day. It helped me feel more confident and have some structure to my day.

It was a combination of scary and boring for us. Scary because you suddenly have this teeny little person who is totally dependent on you for everything and who can’t communicate their needs very well with you. Boring because you’re so tired it’s hard to get the motivation to do a lot of stuff; but there also isn’t a ton of interactive things to do with a newborn.

I found it stressful to have mothers/MIL stay in the house because it’s sort of like you are on display.

It’s also scary to try to put little outfits over those wobbly heads and necks, and hard because newborns can have issues with the most basic functions like eating, sleeping, digestion, etc. You just don’t know what you will run into so there isn’t really any way to prepare.

I do definitely agree that the first few weeks are tough. It's a total life adjustment.

To be honest, I'm one of the ones who had a really, really hard time coping. Part of that was my difficulty with breastfeeding (low supply with baby dropping a dangerous amount of weight), which resulted in a baby who screamed most of the day and night. When she wasn't screaming she was eating (hello, sore nips!) and very rarely sleeping.

I'm sorry - I don't want to make it sound like it was all miserable since I know that isn't helpful when you're already nervous about how things will go. For what it's worth, if I could do it again I would have my mom with me for a month, at least. I know others hate having their mom or MIL around, but I loved having both. My mom only planned on staying for a week, but she extended her trip for another week. Then I had two weeks alone before MIL arrived. MIL was awesome and saved my sanity! So, so grateful still for her help.

An emotional roller coaster. I thought crying was bad during pregnancy. Post it was worse! I could cry at the drop of a hat. Didn't help that we had feeding issues including a late night ER trip. I was so sleep deprived, so tired, so worried all the time but oh so in love as well.
Despite it all it was all so magical.

If I could change something it would have been to not listen to that LC nazi at our hospital and just listen to my own instincts and fed M a bottle of formula from the beginning.

You never know, you can luck out and have a easy baby that sleeps, eats & poops. Mine barely took naps even as a newborn. So there was not a lot of rest for mommy & daddy. Thank god my mom was here for almost 3 months. Biggest life saver ever. She did laundry, cooked, washed bottles, helped take care of LO. In those first few weeks when your husband oes back to work it's so helpful to have someone to hand lO off to when you need a breather.

My daughter is three weeks old and so far it's been incredibly beautiful but tiring. Breastfeeding has been hard and as a first timer mum I'm always anxious about new things buy I absolutely adore her, even though I'm shattered. The new num teariness is crazy though... If I ever feel guilty about anything, it's full on waterworks.

Our first few weeks weren't terrible. My parents were here for the first week, and I pretty much didn't have to do anything except eat, shower, and feed LO. They did everything for the three of us. My ILs were supposed to be here for the second week, but they were less than helpful, stressed us out, and ended up leaving after 3 days. After that I felt great physically, and we were getting decent sleep at night from the beginning. We had a blast for the rest of DHs paternity leave. The rough part for me came when all visitors had come and gone, DH was back at work, and I was home alone. It was a bit of an adjustment.

I found it...overwhelming. I was overwhelmed with terror that I would fail at taking care of this tiny little helpless person, overwhelmed with my fierce need to protect him, overwhelmed with how demanding he was, overwhelmed with how completely and utterly I loved adored him from the get-go.

I was expecting that I'd be sleep deprived and would be nursing frequently, but LO wanted to nurse all.the.time. I almost never got a break from it. I had thought I'd be able to hand him off to my mom or DH sometimes, but the first few weeks he only ever wanted to be with me. And he wouldn't sleep unless I was holding him. I spent two or three nights dozing in a recliner before I broke down and brought him into bed with us.

So our days pretty much consisted of him nursing, dozing off for a few minutes, pooping and peeing, nursing, etc etc. I just sat in our recliner and watched Doctor Who on Netflix, ha.

It varied wildly - it was intense, then boring; I was madly in love with my daughter, then I was convinced I made a huge mistake. There were so many FEELINGS! I think the toughest thing for me was the unpredictability of her needs. I like routine and a newborn generally does not.

I cried for 3 weeks straight. I fought with DH more than I ever had or have since. I had bloody nipples and didn't produce enough so my little baby kept losing weight so we were back and forth with the Dr to weigh him and the lactation consultants who kept giving me things to take and drink, which never worked. And with all of that, I was the happiest I have ever been in my life. Weird! But awesome!

To be honest, I loved the first weeks. I love her stage now but I miss that to death! No one came and stayed with us, my husband had a week off of work. I was in pain but manageable with my pain meds (Tylenol w/codeine for a few days and then just Motrin!). I have been around babies my entire life, though, and a ft nanny the past 4 years (started when their oldest was 7 weeks, and had their youngest from her first day home from the hospital). I don't know if that made me more confident. I also have an extremely happy, easy baby.

Definitely hormonal - cried at the drop of a hat!

But, breastfeeding only now got easier at 8 weeks. I had a flat nipple, cracked and bleeding nipples, bad latch (because my flat nipple), over supply and forceful letdown, blocked ducts, mastitis and thrush. During pregnancy, I was leaning toward trying BFing for a week and going with formula (I even bought it and had it in the house). But when LO was born, something came over me and I was determined to make it work. The support of my husband & my LC made a world of difference! Now things are great!

Im just wrapping up my first week and I think it gets easier each day. You learn as you go. The hardet part for me was episiotomy pain the first few days coupled with adjustment to figuring out babys schedule. Then a day of engorged breasts.

I can honestly say that now the hardest thing is the sleep cycles but we're down to a 2-4 hour routine that is pretty manageable.

My mom has been here. All wknd last wknd and this wk she's been here after work and overnight. So dh and I get our metime breaks at night... a bath for me... workout for him...

In the last months if pregnancy I tried to prepare as you said by getting extra sleep, seeing friends, and making frozen dinners. Looking back those first few weeks went so quick but in the moment they felt like forever. I too had a pretty bad case of the baby blues (or more? I don't know) and only now at 14 weeks I am starting to feel normal and myself again. I remember crying at least once a day and it is isolating to have a baby literally attached to you for most of the day (we had to s of breastfeeding issues and I was really self conscious about feeding in front of others besides DH). By about week 3 the adrenaline was gone and I was starting to feel like a shut in. As a first time mom i was and a lot of times still am so crippled wifh anxiety and self doubt about whether or not I'm good or totally failing af this mother thing. But with all the difficulties I hope I will never forget the million wonderful things like the way her warm little body felt sleeping on me or the peaceful silence and the intimate love at 4am when she's calmly sleepy feeding. Every day I feel more and more like I'm settling into my "new normal" and I love her and love being a mom. My only advice is to be open and honest with others especially your DH and to accept help when it is offered. Also block out anyone who makes you doubt yourself and ignore those who say their babies "are sleeping through the night already!" Or older women who say "enjoy every moment" because as nice a lot of moments are the bottom line is those first few weeks are really hard and its ok not to enjoy EVERY moment

The first few weeks I felt like I was living off of adrenaline. I was exhausted, terrified, and stressed out, but I didn't entirely realize it at the time. Everything hit me at around 6 weeks once all of our help disappeared and went home, and DH was back at work.

The very hardest part, that I didn't really understand going into it, was that just feeding took 8-12 hours out of each day. I had supply issues, so I was constantly nursing, pumping, preparing formula, or washing bottles and pump parts. By the time I finally lay down for a nap, I had to get up again to feed the baby and start the entire cycle again. It was monotonous and exhausting.

On top of all of that, I was still trying to get some work done and keep the house organized. If I could do it all again, I would hire a whole bunch of help on housework, leave my vacation auto-reply up on my work email, and just lay in bed all day to nurse and bond with my baby. Also, the next time around I'll probably be more relaxed about child rearing, since I now know a whole bunch more about newborns. I absolutely adore my baby, and I love being a mom now, but those early weeks were the very hardest weeks of my entire life. The good thing is... it does get better.

Bumping this old post because it's good reading through everyone's responses. So far, 3 days after the babies have left the nicu, we are doing ok. Two days before they came home I was quite emotional, frustrated and stressed at the thought of bringing both of them home and how we were going to do this long term. I didn't have many pregnancy mood swings so I take this as a postpartum twin reality mood swing.

Only 3 days in, but we are doing okay. Tired. Definitely stressful when both babies are crying and either DH or I are busy. I grateful that we had time in the Nicu (not the actual NICU part) but having help from the nurses. That helped us be a bit more okay with thinking we were doing things right.
As for breastfeeding, the nicu dr and the pediatrician want me to BF, pump BM and add fortifiers and supplement with formula. Yesterday, I started BF during the day but noticed that they weren't staying asleep as long as pumped BM with fortifiers or formula. Ped said the babies aren't probably efficient with getting milk out yet. I have tried tandem BFing but it only works if I have help from the DH. It's definitely nice having them both fed at once.
I know a few days ago, I mentioned how I love seeing the babies enjoy BFing but it's not filling them and I'm leaning towards putting my effort into pumping and using formula. I do want them to get BM but my supply is still just okay. A nurse said that it my low supply might be because I did IVF. Anyway, maybe I'll try fenugreek soon.
Well, that's my update 3 days in. Let's see how the rest of this month goes.

The hardest part for me was feeding since DS had reflux and I quit breastfeeding. I tried EP since DS had initial weight gain issues and I was too tired to keep up with the pumping scheduling. Then we had to mess around with his formula because of reflux. The day to day got easier once we got into a routine, but the feeding was a constant battle until he was medicated around 2 months old. My recovery was a breeze.
We had a lot of visitors right away and that is something I wish I held off for a couple weeks. Or, wish they came to visit in the hospital. It became really overwhelming. Last thing I wish we did was ask my mom to vacuum before we came home from the hospital. There was sooo much cat fur we spent the first couple days picking up our house.
One of the best things I did was prepare a few freezer meals in advance. Our stash lasted us the first month and it was so nice not to eat out all the time while spending no time meal prepping.