Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

no, definitely not love at first sight, more like awe and amazement that just a few hours earlier this human being was inside of me!

the love started soon afterwards. now i am SO in love with him... every day i don't think i could possibly love him more... but i do!

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Yes, but at the same time I was completely overwhelmed with the fact that I was now a mother. I feel like that took away from my feelings of love somewhat. It distracted me from them. I was thrilled, but terrified at the same time. I do remember holding him for the first few times and looking at every part of him - studying him - memorizing him. I remember finding it difficult to pick out my baby in the nursery, when I had only seen him a few times!! Then the first couple of months were really emotional for me. I had the baby blues and I kept thinking how much easier it was to take care of the baby BEFORE he's born!

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

You're right about the "not knowing love before your child was born" thing....

I totally knew love before Gavin was born, but a DIFFERENT type of love.

I would do anything for my son, and yes, it did take time to get beyond that whole "you were in my body and now in my arms" thing, compounded with his horrible colic the first 3 months.....
Now I miss him and love him more than you can imagine.....

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Yes but I also remember thinking, Who do I look at first? I remember thinking, "How do I bond with two at the same time?" Well, DD was admitted to the NICU within 24 hours. It turned out to be relatively minor but still required a week long stay.

In that time I bonded with DS at home and was able to give him one week of one on one while going back and forth and visiting DD.

It was hard because I had help and needed help. the only problem was I had very little alone time with just the babies and me. It seems funny but some of my fondest memories are the middle of the night feedings when it was only us.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

not until we got out of the hospital- I had such a bad birth experience and was so messed up- I wasn't myself... and she was in the NICU so it was hard.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Absolutely! They were so teeny tiny and so perfect. Second day in the hospital I turned to DH and said there is no way I am going back to work (I was undecided up until that point).

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

absolutely for me!!!!

What I couldnt belive was that here I was loving this strange little creature soooo much, and the docs were telling me he may not make it, to love so much in a short time, it's just amazing how scared you are of losing them.

After that time, as I got to know him, it is UNREAL how much more the love has grown. It truly is amazing.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

No. I was happy when he was born, but I think that was mostly physical relief. It was a long and trying labor. I was amazed at how perfect he looked and seemed, but it was as if I was looking at someone else's baby.

Even for the first week or two, he just seemed like this stranger to me, and I could not get it into my head that he was my baby. Now that's different, though even at 4 months, I still feel I am getting to know him. His personality is really just emerging.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

YES! I saw him and I knew instantly we were two peas in a pod. And, as I got to know him better I knew I was right

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Well i had an emergency c-section and the knocked me out. So when i got to see DD for the 1st time it was almost 7 hours later

But once they rolled her in to me i lost it. She was the most wonderful thing i had ever seen. So little and perfect it was def. love at 1st sight. After waiting almost 10 months to see her face it couldnt have been any better!! and now that i'm crying i'm done

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

My experience was very heartbreaking looking back on it now.

I had a c section. They brought her to me for a second before sending her to the nicu because I pushed for too long before determining I needed a c section and they wanted to make sure she didnt have breathing problems. She was a little jaundice and her right leg wasnt straightening.

I was drugged up big time and I wasnt allowed to go to the nicu until the next day. I didnt get to hold my baby until the following day at 1 in the afternoon. The second I held her, I felt she was mine. But I didnt cry, and sad to say, I didnt fall in love right away. It took me a while to bond with her (in the hospital) because I didnt get to have that feeling of holding her right away after delivery. I loved her with every fiber of my being but it took a little while to realize that this was the child I carried inside of me for 9 months. I think what also added to my experience was that I HATED being pregnant. I think I fell in love with her TOTALLY the second I was wheeled out of the hospital with her in my arms. I felt she was totally mine at that point and I knew that I had NEVER felt a love like this before.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Absolutely 100% total love at first sight - with all my babies!

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

completely.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

I fell in love at the 21 week sono. She made a fist and stuck it under her chin, just like DH does. I turned to DH and said "look" and we both started crying with joy. That is when I fell in love. I mean, I loved her from the moment I knew I was preggo, but when she did something that DH does, I just fell in love.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Posted by Eireann

with your first baby?

I did not, for sure. We had to get to know one another! I remember thinking when I "met" her..."Who is this stranger? I don't know you!!" It wasn't at all like we'd known one another since the beginning of time like I guess I imagined it. The whole experience was quite surreal. I read birth stories on here and time after time women write that they had never known love, etc. before giving birth. I know we're all different, but sometimes I wonder if I'm missing that gene!!

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

No way! I sat on my couch and cried thinking that she was going to be with me forever!
She grew on me though.... and when 2nd DD came along I went thru the same process over again.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

omg you know I never talk about this except with my mother but after giving birth and seeing him for the first time in the room (I was knocked out for my c-section) there was NOT an instant bond and I've always felt terrible bc of it.

It took a day or so to start bonding with him, not sure if its bc I was so heavily medicated, or other factors but it wasn't instant.

Did take long though

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

It all happened so fast that I didn't really sit back and think about it until DS was a few weeks old...and then I remember looking at him and saying to myself how I can't believe that he is my son. I loved him from the moment we conceived him, but it wasn't until recently that I felt that extreme emotion of being in love with my son...actually acknowledging it...it was amazing!

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Totally love at first sight. I heard her cry and thought "Thats my baby". Next morning after the pills wore down, I remember them asking me if I wanted her from the nursery. I felt like they were bringing me a prize. I was elated! I loved her so much!

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

yes and i fall more in love with her every day. just knowing me and my dh created her is enough.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

Absolutely not, and the notion that I would fall inlove instantly was such a huge expectation from everyone else that I felt shamed over this for a very long time.
But, in reality, how could I fall instantly in love with someone I never met before who kept me up all night and screamed all day? It just didn't happen that way for me. i'd say by 4 months, I was completely in love with her. It's not that i didn't love her, but it was a rough adjustment for me.

Re: Did you fall in love at first sight...

I always felt a little off in my emotion when I compare it to a Baby Story.

I was smiling and happy, but no flood of emotions. I watched Business of Being Born, I guess I never got my "love cocktail" since it was a c-section.

Night 3 in the hospital, he finally ate and I was rocking him in the chair. We were alone and I finally felt IT then.

An overwhelming love feeling.

Which at that moment, my postpartum bleeding started. I totally believe it was caused by a chemical reaction in me.

I put him down to clean myself up and the nurse came in to get him. As she was wheeling him away, she made him stop by the restroom and said "say bye to mommy, Josh"

he stared right at me and that sealed the deal.