All Posts tagged Life after baby

Being a new parent not only means experiencing new joys in your life, but it also adds a heaping pile of new responsibilities. While attempting to schedule appointments and playdates, maintaining responsibilities at work and keeping house and home in order, it can be extremely difficult to fit any time for yourself into an already-packed schedule. However, there are some simple ways to scoop up a few seconds for yourself and restore some serenity to your routine.

Seek out “child-friendly” facilities:

Some stores, gyms and other commercial enterprises offer kid-friendly rooms or babysitting services while their parents shop, workout or accomplish other necessities in a timely and efficient manner. Those few extra minutes of silence and privacy could really help you accomplish all you’re trying to do while still soaking up some personal time.

Most childcare places have a time limit, but just having the chance to absorb the additional ten to 30 minutes of peace can truly restart and refresh your day. Not to mention give you the chance to remember everything you had on your shopping list.

Treat yourself as well as you would treat others

Make sure to treat time you’ve blocked out for yourself like you would treat any other important commitment. Even if you’ve only allocated yourself ten minutes from your busy day, consider those minutes just as precious as if they’re the ten minutes you’ve scheduled for your baby’s doctor appointment, or the five minutes you’re taking to fill up your gas tank.

Just like others are deserving of your time and attention, you’re just as deserving of some valued alone time where you can choose to do whatever you wish and take pride in that decision without feeling guilty.

Read, Write and Listen

After hours of kid’s television, baby talk and nursery rhymes, keeping your brain from feeling like mush might feel like an impossible task. However, keeping a book on hand or an audiobook uploaded to your music player or burned to CDs keeps your mommy mind engaged and on edge while wandering through a stimulating crime fiction novel or best-selling biography.

Keeping a journal, blogging, tweeting or utilizing Pinterest boards and Facebook pages can be a creative and fulfilling way to chronicle your parenting experience while also interacting with other parents and sharing ideas and advice. Some parents also use social media as a way to chronicle their children’s lives, adventures and daily quirks and silliness in hopes that they’ll have a chance to share it with them later.

While posting information about your child on social media can be a difficult judgment call to make, there are ways to protect your online privacy and keep your memories within the family and safe from online strangers, usually made available under the website’s privacy settings.

Stick together

You’re not the first parent to struggle, and you certainly won’t be the last. Find another parent and work out a babysitting schedule so that you’re trading shifts throughout the month. Make a plan so that some nights you have time solely to yourself while your friend watches both children, and other nights you take them both while your friend has time alone to themselves.

Having another parent to talk with and rely on for help and advice can really make the whole parenting adventure less intimidating and, at points, more fun for both of you.

Though being a new parent can be incredibly stressful, there are simple ways to find small moments during the day for relaxation. Taking the time to take care of yourself is not only better for you, but it’s better for your relationship with your child as well. Your baby deserves a happy, healthy mom as much as you deserve time that’s all your own.

Our team of physicians at Chouchani, Sayegh and Bagnarello MD are here to help you stay healthy before, during and after your pregnancy. Check back often for more parenting tips and women’s health tips in the patient education section of the WNY-OBGYN website.