Hellobee Boards

Aw, hugs to you. Your statements (minus the cold weather and crying) remind me a lot of me. I was always scared I was going to mess up my kid. I found I started enjoying it more when I let things go and stopped over analyzing everything. It also gets easier as they get older and can entertain themselves playing.

i would say around 6 months. that's when sleep became great, charlie started crawling, he could sit in a high chair and we'd go out to restaurants. i know that sounds far away and it was fun before that, but that was when it became really fun!

The first month was really hard with LO 1 so I started enjoying parenthood at 5-6 weeks.

Maybe 6 months, I started to enjoy it more and get more sleep. I can't really love a situation if i'm exhausted. It became less trudgery and work and more fun. As she got closer to a year, it just got more enjoyable. It's hard for me to look back, now that she's almost 2, because having a toddlers blows having a baby out of the water.

Agree with everyone else, everyday it gets better. At 16 months he's so cute and fun even when he's trying to do something he's not supposed to be doing

I'd say somewhere around 5-6 months when she started interacting witg us more and could sit up in her baby seat while I did stuff nearby instead of me holding her.

It got better every day, but when he hit 9 months I remember telling DH that I felt like we were thriving instead of surviving. I felt that way for a while and I definitely enjoyed it earlier, but I felt like the heavens opened up around 9 months. It is so great right now.

I distinctly remember 6 months being a turning point for us (and it seems like it for many others too). She started sleeping alot better, she became alot more social and fun, and I think we finally felt more confident as parents. In our case, it also helped that the weather started to warm up around that time too, so we could go out more. It was hard being home with a newborn during the winter here in New England.

@Meridian: it's a really shitty time and it's a-ok to admit that! What really grinded me gears at that stage was everyone cooing over it and telling me it was lovely and "don't you love being a mommy?" and i wanted to tell them NO IT FUCKING SUCKS, SCREW YOU. lol. So...it sucks. It's supposed to. It does get better

lol, what @blackbird: said too!! I can't count the number of kid-less friends I probably scarred for life with all my complaining. I always told them, hanging out with me is good birth control...!!

Hugs mama it gets better.

@mrs. wagon: They should book you to talk at high schools

6 months old when sleep returned. From 6-12 months, he was a lot of fun. When tantrums started, it sucked again. 2's been quite a challenge, but a lot of fun. With our second kid being born in the summer, I'm already mentally preparing myself that it'll suck until he sleeps through the night. I'm hoping that babywearing will help with the early months with a toddler too.

@Meridian: Boo to whoever told you 12 weeks was the "magic number." I don't know what sort of magic baby that person had, but months 3 to 4 were really hard for me.

6 months was a turning point, like so many of these other ladies have said. One of the biggest changes at that age was she started eating actual food. It made dinner more enjoyable because I could throw some puffs or Cheerios on her tray and she'd be happy as a clam while my husband and I got to eat dinner together at the same time again!

It gets better! My daughter is 16 months and so amazingly fun.

@Meridian: hugs! It does get better. Parenting never becomes easy, but it gets less physically draining at least.

For me, it comes and goes... there's a phase when they're all sweetness and light, and then they get into a growth spurt, or a phase where they cry all the time, or stop sleeping... and then when it's over, you find that they made some kind of leap and are even more wonderful than before

@Meridian: I totally feel you. My daughter is 4 months and I'm still struggling. I have lots of friends who said it gets easier after 3 months, but I'm still struggling a lot. The sleep deprivation is kicking my ass. But, it has gotten so much better from last month and the month before that, so I try to remember that it's gotten better. Right now my daughter won't take formula and I'm running out of breast milk, so we are struggling with that right now. New challenges all the time....

I do think it will get fun at some point and I try to remind myself that this is temporary.

@Meridian: i'm not too far ahead of you so i TOTALLY get it. i cried a LOT in the first 3 months, then when he hit 12 weeks (literally the day he hit 12 weeks) he slept 6 hours, then 8 hours, then 10 - then life got SO much better. In the last month especially (LO is 5 months and a week!) has been really great, so hang in there, it gets sooo much better!

@blackbird: i was totally honest the first couple weeks of LO's life - when someone would ask "dont you just love it" i would say "no it's actually miserable right now" and i got a lot of "looks" but seriously, i don't believe anyone that says the newborn phase was enjoyable. I can honestly say (and i know i've been lucky if this holds true in my life) it was the most miserable time of my life. that said, life is soo enjoyable with my babbling 5 month old now!

@Meridian: I'm a few weeks ahead of you (my LO is 20.5 weeks) and it has started getting much, much more fun and less draining in the past few weeks. My LO was really challenging between 8 and 16/17 weeks (basically through the holidays! so fun!) and I thought it was never going to end. He's not the portable baby type - very alert, hates his car seat, and a bigtime nap refuser - and I thought I'd be housebound and miserable for the next few years. Then he went through the 4 month sleep regression early, right as I went back to work and we traveled out of state for the holidays. It was a low, low time for me and it didn't help to be surrounded by family and friends who must have all had the easiest babies on the planet based on the "advice" they gave me. I felt like the most terrible mother ever when people asked, "isn't going back to work the worst?" because, even though I miss my son like crazy when I'm at work, I'm also relieved to be able to speak to adults, use my brain for something besides the stupid EASY schedule that straight up doesn't work for my son, and eat lunch without worrying when the crap nap will end.

We turned a corner right around 4 months (as @mrs. wagon: said). We sleep trained, which definitely helped (down to 1-2 wakeups instead of 4-5 or more). He is sleeping better, which makes him more fun and less cranky when he's awake. But he's also started sitting up, enjoying play and toys more, and generally just being way more interactive and fun. And he's always been pretty social and alert, but there were a few times this weekend where he literally had me and my DH in hysterics. He's also been better about not screaming his head off in the car and happily looking around if we go to the grocery store, etc. I truly thought this day would never come and that I had a "difficult" or "spirited" baby, but the truth is - it was all pretty normal. And people who tell you otherwise probably either had easy babies (lucky them!) or are just forgetting. (Or maybe lying!) Even a few weeks out, it's getting a little hard to remember just how miserable I was.

Anyway, the point is: I'm not an experienced mom in the slightest, and I'm only a few weeks ahead of you, but I know how you feel and it really does get better. Ignore people who brag about how their magical (always-younger-than-yours) LO is sleeping through the night, or who tell you that their kid always napped for 2 hours every time, or whatever else annoying thing that seems like it will never come (and might not). I can't tell you when it will get better, but keep your head up and I hope it will be soon for you, too!

My husband and I had this conversation the other night, that our enjoyment of parenthood goes through stages. Birth ->5 months was ROUGH, then 6->11 months was amazing and fun. Now we have hit the 12 month regression and it sucks again and nobody is sleeping. As we are starting to slowly ease out of it, it's getting to be very enjoyable again as his little personality emerges.

All that to say, I try really hard to keep telling myself that this is a stage and will pass, but that's only a lesson learned as the year has gone on. In the early days, no amount of thinking like that helped, only the passage of time. Just try to not feel guilty for feeling that way!