How did you feel after your baby was born?

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I felt very excited and thought "oh my god" when he was placed on my chest and it all felt like a dream and I couldn't believe it was all real and I was a real mother. It also felt I was holding a baby for the very first time even though i have held my brothers and someone else's baby before. he also felt like my pet because I was always holding him like I always did with my cat. I liked rubbing him and sniffing him and I realized newborns were pretty strong and not as fragile people make them out to be. He could hold his head up already but I still had to give it support. I also learned other infants made the same sounds mine made and they all do lip sucking as they sleep.

I guess it was a fortunate I wasn't do much in my life so I didn't go out often nor spend money often on entertainment so there wasn't much change in my life after having a baby. I barely had to make any sacrifices because I wasn't doing anything in my life. I didn't have to cut back on anything because I never spend much money on stuff I wanted or to do. Also I lived in an apartment and didn't have much work to do at home so it was easy keeping it clean and I don't cook so it was easy to still eat and make myself something.

I honestly thought my life would be totally different and I was expecting lot of stress and not doing much because the books and the nurses and people online made it out to be you will be so busy you won't have time to clean or cook or anything and I found out how wrong it all was when I had my baby. I don't know what they are doing but I somehow did it and made it work. Maybe for one I don't have any other kids and they do. My mom says it's because I live in an apartment so it's easy to keep clean and I don't cook.

All all you do with a infant is hold them and feed them, change them, dress them, bath them, so I still watched TV or did the computer or played video games and that goes with parenting fail and I am like "huh" when I see that on the websites and what are you supposed to do? Sit around and do nothing and just stare at your baby all day long? What about when they are sleeping? Stare at them still and do nothing?

I have a long list of aspie traits but no formal diagnosis. I hope my input is still useful here.

When my daughter was born, I was exhausted. I just wanted to hold her quietly in bed. I did not feel the huge rush of emotion I was told a new mother feels. I just felt pleased, content, and like things were "right." My initial feelings were positive, but I was more focused on caring for her immediate needs than anything else.

I heard from many mothers that this moment was, for them, like meeting a new person, but I felt like I already knew my daughter. I had been feeling her move for months, interacting with her for weeks, and planning for her for a year before she was born. It was not, "Well, hello! Nice to meet you!" for me. It was, "Good to see you, friend. Let's get a hat on you." I had been getting to know her for quite a while, and now it was time to care for her just as I had been all along, only differently.

I should add that I had a home birth with no medications. Whatever I felt, or did not feel, was genuine and came from within me. I was not in a stadol-induced haze or anything like that.

If you let him feel the baby in your belly, play flashlight tag, include him in all the processes, and have him with at any sonograms you get, he will likely feel he is getting to know your baby along the way, as well.

I was diagnosed with AS in my 40's and by that time I had already had my four kids. Of course I wanted them and was careful during my pregnancy, but I was almost completely ambivalent during it. I saw the ultrasounds, I felt them move, I knew that was my baby in my belly but it did not seem like a baby to me. I always felt bad that I had no feelings whatsoever for them while I was pregnant. I didn't have any negative feelings toward them either though. They were all wanted, but they were not a "real baby" to me until I saw them.

When my first baby was born and they held him up for me to see, I remember this as clear as if it was yesterday, that love hit me like a freight train! I had never in my life felt any emotion so deep and so completely overwhelming. That was it, I was in love and it was like instant bonding. My NT husband cried as well. He cried at every birth, and during every pregnancy I was ambivalent.

During my second pregnancy I felt like I was "cheating" on my son. I felt that by having another baby I was somehow shortchanging him, although I wanted the baby. I didn't know or feel anything for the baby yet, and never did with any of them until they were born and I laid eyes on them and then again, instant love.

I always felt like there was something wrong with me because I wasn't bonding with the baby in the womb, or talking to them or anything like that. Not only did I feel that the whole idea was silly, the baby gets used to your voice anyway and probably can't hear you well enough to understand what you are saying and make out individual words, even if they understood language. I felt bad that I didn't have the desire to do that though. I was afraid with my first that I wouldn't be a good mother because I felt nothing. I was wrong. I was afraid with my second that I could never love her as much as my first, I was wrong. I wasn't worried about the ambivalence with my last two, and I felt the same way during my pregnancy. I just could not imagine my life with another baby in it, or even imagine the baby. So, I waited and knew that when I saw them, things would be ok. And they were.

So, that's how I felt after my babies were born. There was no need for me to worry aver attachment, because it was there as soon as they were born.

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I often wonder if I'm an undiagnosed Aspie, I'm new here so I don't know, but from all I've read...I was labeled ADHD, LD, in the early 60's they didn't diagnose stuff so well. But from what I've read about Asperger's it might explain a lot, plus perhaps why my older kids wandered so far off the map...

I was 40 when I had Em, they did every prenatal test they had and all was fine. She was a beautiful healthy baby. But I saw something early on, she's the youngest of five, I knew something was different. Just her profile, not the look of Downs but in that neighborhood. The flattened features...just something I couldn't put my finger on. She was diagnosed at 3 with the speech delays etc...

When she was little it was easier for me, now that she's almost my height it keeps getting more challenging all the time

I always felt slightly stunned after the births of my kidlets. In a "wow, look what i just did!" way. And kinda tired

My first two babes I was very excited throughout the pregnancy, they were both planned, and although I wasn't singing lullaby songs or reading stories to them, I felt very connected.

My youngest lass was a bit different, I fell pregnant unexpectedly when my son was two months old. I spent a lot of time worrying how we would manage with two babies under one, and trying to deal with PND and breastfeeding aversion. It was harder to connect with her.

Once she was born, I couldn't take my eyes off her. It has been that way ever since, really

My youngest two were waterborn at home too. They all spent the first few hours of their lives snuggled up with me while we took advantage of that newborn hormone/pheromone rush, sniffing and touching. If you want to help facilitate bonding with your partner, get him in the bed with you after baby is born, both of you shirtless and without washing the baby, so you can all swap some pheromones. Spend some time snuggling up and getting to know each other. Bar major medical stuff (and a good feed), there is nothing all that important that can't wait till after that. Weight/length etc can be checked soon enough, and is pretty irrelevant anyway.

It felt unreal, it still does and now she's 6 but I had post natal depression and I don't think that helped.