When my daughter was born, I had read four books about newborn care. I had attended a prenatal class. I had spoken to my mother, my sister, and three friends who had babies before me. None of it fully prepared me for the first two weeks at home.
The Feeding Reality
Every source told me that newborns feed every two to three hours. What I did not understand was that this means two to three hours from the start of one feed to the start of the next, not from the end. When a feed takes forty-five minutes, that leaves very little time for anything else.
In the first week, our daughter fed for between thirty and fifty minutes each session. She was not particularly slow. This is simply what newborns do. Their stomachs are tiny, their sucking muscles are new, and they fall asleep mid-feed constantly.
What helped us: we stopped watching the clock and started watching her. When she showed hunger cues, we fed her. When she seemed satisfied and relaxed, we stopped trying to force more. The pediatrician at our local clinic in Prague confirmed that responsive feeding in the early weeks is more reliable than rigid schedules.
💡 Tip: Keep a simple log for the first two weeks. Not because you need to track every minute, but because sleep deprivation destroys short-term memory. Knowing when the last feed was prevents a lot of anxiety.
Sleep: The Honest Version
Newborns sleep a lot in total, often sixteen to eighteen hours per day. The problem is that they do not sleep in long stretches. Most newborns cycle through sleep every forty-five to sixty minutes, and many wake fully between cycles.
We tried a bassinet next to the bed. We tried a co-sleeper. We tried swaddling, white noise, and a specific rocking pattern. Some of these helped sometimes. None of them worked every time.
The most useful thing I learned came from a Czech pediatric nurse who visited us at home in the second week. She said: in the first six weeks, the goal is not to establish a sleep routine. The goal is to survive and keep the baby fed. Routines come later, when the baby's nervous system is more developed.
This reframing helped enormously. We stopped trying to fix the sleep and started accepting it as temporary.
What the Czech Healthcare System Offers
New parents in Czech Republic have access to home visits from a pediatric nurse in the first weeks after birth. This is covered by health insurance and is genuinely valuable. Our nurse came twice in the first two weeks and answered questions we did not even know we had.
The regular check-ups at the pediatrician start at two weeks and continue at regular intervals through the first year. These appointments are thorough and the doctors we encountered were willing to answer questions at length. If you have concerns, bring a written list. It is easy to forget things when you are exhausted.
For breastfeeding support specifically, the Czech Breastfeeding Support Association offers consultations and a helpline. We used this twice and found it more practical than general advice from books.
The Emotional Side Nobody Mentions
I felt competent at most things before having a baby. In the first two weeks, I felt incompetent at almost everything. I could not tell what my daughter wanted. I was not sure I was doing anything correctly. I cried more than I expected.
This is normal. It does not mean you are failing. The baby is also adjusting to being outside the womb, and you are both learning how to communicate with each other. It takes time.
If the low feelings persist beyond two weeks or feel severe, please speak to your doctor. Postpartum depression is common and treatable, and there is no benefit to waiting it out alone.
Practical Things That Actually Helped
- A good nursing pillow. We used a C-shaped one and it made long feeds much more comfortable.
- Blackout curtains in the bedroom. Even during the day, darkness helps some newborns sleep longer between feeds.
- A white noise machine or app. Our daughter responded well to the sound of running water.
- Accepting help when it was offered. My mother-in-law came twice a week for the first month. I initially felt I should manage alone. That was wrong.
- Lowering expectations for everything else. The apartment was messier than usual. That was fine.
When It Gets Easier
Around six weeks, something shifted. Our daughter started having longer alert periods during the day. She began to recognize our faces and respond to our voices. Feeds became shorter and more efficient. She started sleeping in slightly longer stretches at night.
The six-week mark is often cited as a turning point, and in our experience it was accurate. Not because everything became easy, but because the rhythm became more predictable and we started to feel like we understood her better.
The first weeks are genuinely hard. They are also genuinely temporary.