On two occasions today, on social media, I saw beautiful photos of mothers and fathers taking their precious newborns home from the hospital for the very first time. The photos stopped me in my tracks and all of my own memories came flooding back. It’s such a huge moment, isn’t it?
On two occasions today, on social media, I saw beautiful photos of mothers and fathers taking their precious newborns home from the hospital for the very first time. The photos stopped me in my tracks and all of my own memories came flooding back. It’s such a huge moment, isn’t it? You’re leaving the safe bubble of your maternity hospital where medical and emotional care is never far away. You’re about to dive right into your new life and it is the strangest combination of fear and joy.
It got me thinking. Despite the fact that our pregnancies, deliveries and family dynamics can differ so greatly, there seems to be quite a few things that we all share. Moments that thread our experience of taking our babies home for the first time. Little check-points and images that felt so unique to us and yet many of us have felt them too.
Do any of these sound familiar?
- The only clothes that the baby will be going home in is the carefully selected “going home outfit”. You’ve been dreaming about this moment since you picked it
- It feels completely abnormal to have to wear clothes yourself. You’ve lived in nightdresses for the past couple of days and you are a completely different size than you were when you got to the hospital.
- That photo of Daddy holding the baby in the car seat walking down the corridor. Such a precious memory and a surreal visual for mum.
- Chances are you’ll forget to pay for the parking. It just isn’t on your radar when you are experiencing such a moment! You’ll still find it in you to curse the parking fee though.
- You never imagined that it would be humanely possible to drive home so slowly. Precious cargo.
- Despite the surreal baby bubble, your priorities don’t move too far away from what food you’ll be eating when you get home. In fact, the car-talk usually moves on to tonight’s dinner quite briskly. You might even stop for chocolate....
- When you hit the outside world it seems utterly bizarre that everyone else’s lives are going on as normal. People are on their phones, walking to work, having coffee and waiting for buses and you just want to shout and scream that THIS is your new baby!
- Your house looks and feels completely different. It’s hard to explain but it really does. It’s a family home now.
- That first cup of tea in your own house and in your own mug is just heavenly.
- There may be a moment shortly after you get home. A random moment of overwhelming tears on the landing or on the couch that evening. It’s here. It’s happened. You are a family.
Written by Tracey Quinn staff writer at FFHQ who also blogs at www.loveofliving.ie.