How to survive at home with a newborn baby?

Our first 14 days at home with the baby were more beautiful than I dreamed of. Paternity leave is the best invention in the world. The crisis came a day later ...

 

I still remember that it was Monday. Wojtek returned to work, and I was alone with the child for 5 hours and I could not find myself in the new situation.

 

Organizing a 3-day wedding for 150 people turns out to be much easier for me than organizing a day with a Newborn or Infant. Seriously. Certainly not every mom has a problem with it, but my daily rhythm was always determined by school or work and I could not function without such a time frame, I felt completely lost in the new conditions, where every minute of the day was controlled by a certain Little Man, whom the way could not be programmed.

 

It happened to me several times to read from you that I frost up too much, but I'm just not in the habit of whining just like that, I have an attitude in my life aimed at solving the problem and that is why you had to wait so long for this post. I do not want to write for the sake of writing about problems, just to present possible solutions to the situation.

 

So how is it with a newborn baby? What helped me to embrace my life, which was totally incomprehensible, and it had a broken and disorganized self?

 

1. Frieze and eye

You think so. However, not many things spoil my mood like seeing a neglected self. Untreated hair, gray complexion and dark circles under the eyes in the mirror make me feel like *** whenever I go to the bathroom (two large mirrors) or stroll around the bedroom (large mirror). And after a few or several dozen such sessions alone with my reflection I am fed up with myself. I will not mention that I do not feel like all these cute pictures with a child and I feel even worse than I look. A crying and whining child does not improve the situation, you do not have to pee when you do because you either feed or scroll, or bounce, or wear, or in your free time you take a breath giving away hearts on Instagram. If you have the same advice I can do it: get up alone with other household members and spend at least 15 minutes in the bathroom. Thanks to this, someone else will be able to react to the crying baby, and you will have a moment to take care of yourself. For me, it was obligatory time to wash and style my hair, apply foundation and mascara (to my favorite cosmetics to 50 PLN). You probably think that I fell on my head, get up so early, but you are not prevented from returning to bed right afterwards? If I didn't do it myself, I risked wandering around the house in my pajamas by 16:XNUMX pm, pretending to the postman that no one was at home.

 

2. Cool clothes

Who said that clothes around the house must be old, pulled out and ugly? Mine are pretty, I buy them especially for this purpose. I have nice tracksuits, blouses, sweatshirts and warm sweaters in my favorite colors. Plus nice slippers and I feel more comfortable and better right away. I would not like to spend the whole day in old jeans, which I felt too bad to throw away. Or in the pants where I leave the house because I would still be afraid of getting them dirty. If you want to give you a few of my favorite, comfortable home clothes that endure everlasting laundry and won't ruin your wallet.

 

3. A moment for yourself

although I usually do hybrid manicure at home aloneWhen my child was about a month old, I decided to transfer this treatment to a beautician. Every two weeks on Saturday at 10 o'clock I would stand at the door of the salon to ... talk about anything and everything, have a coffee in the company of other adults, choose a new nail polish color, which has never been so exciting before, just let someone take care of yourself . Well-groomed hands and feet allowed me to feel attractive every day. What about that Child? There were two versions, in the first one I took my Child, Husband and a stroller with me so that they could walk while I was undergoing the procedure, in the second I left the bottle with food at home and they had to deal with it - they usually did better than I did, sometimes even my husband did the washing he managed to insert.

 

4. A phone call to a friend

I don't think it does anything as good as being able to talk yourself out. Here, it is only worth choosing people at a similar stage in life, because a childless friend sitting in the office may have a heart attack when she learns that you are all wet with milk and you have not washed your hair for 3 days. You don't have anyone like that among your friends? Sign up for a Facebook group or go to a club for moms with your child. On such a group I met a fantastic friend who lives on the estate next door, almost identical to my child, so the number of topics in the style of "and me", "my already", "my still", "and me", "and you got already baby shower? " we're not running out of time!

 

5. A constant supply of food

If you are hungry, everything seems worse than it really is. That's why, beside the bed and feeding chair, I always had a supply of water and snacks in the 3 style, a packet of biscuits, and when I opened the last one I brought two more.

 

6. Good reading

During the first months I spent some 8 hours a day feeding. Seriously! Every 2-3 hours feeding session, each lasting from 40 to 80 minutes. Such a case. Thanks to the Kindle, I was catching up with reading seriously. Easy, light and pleasant, holding a book in one hand and changing pages with one finger I could read one book a day and buy new ones without leaving home (you can read about good breastfeeding organization here).

 

7. Walk

Because movement is health and endorphins! A quick walk, a slow walk, every walk, refreshes thoughts, wakes the body and allows you to get back to shape faster before pregnancy (you can read about my return to form here). Therefore, a daily walk is needed as much for mothers and children. For many months I was able to rip my friend's walks from the estate, so we were up to date with all promotions in supermarkets and never overpaid for diapers.

 

8. Shawl

For colic, sleepless nights, unloved crying, a good headscarf for everything. You can read about our shawning adventure here. Are you afraid of scarves? Nothing is lost - they are here secure baby carriers for the newborn!

 

9. Car seat

It must be suspended from the ceiling so that the child can swing in it. More than once, tired at 3 am, we hung the car seat on the towing rope, we lay down on the floor to swing, swing ... our last resort, it always worked. Patent snapped from friends (who had a higher version of the invention using an elastic cord, thanks to which the seat not only rocked, but also jumped up and down!). Of course, we used it with common sense, not exceeding the time that the Child should spend in such an invention at once.

 

10. A child at hand

Personally, I was afraid of sleeping in the same bed with the Child, but sleeping in its immediate vicinity when it was right next to it in the wicker basket of Moses allowed me to sleep while it was sleeping, save time for running between rooms and the whole family to feel safe (about our sleeping solutions you can read here).

 

I loved the idea of ​​Moses' basket so much that with my second child I also decided on it, this time, however, I chose a different Moses basket.

 

 

What else?

 

And most important!

Don't be afraid to ask for help. Do you have problems with feeding? There are lactating midwives since they are solved, are you nervous with a delicate rash? The pediatrician will dispel your doubts. The list of phone calls to people who can help you at any time gives you a great sense of security, so it's worth taking care of it before delivery.

 

And what became the biggest problem for you when your baby appeared in the world? Write, we will advise you!