Congratulations! You may be pregnant or maybe you just had a
baby (and lucky you if actually have time to read this)!
There’s no feeling more incredible than when you’ve just had
a baby. So why don’t you feel wonderful all the time?
Well, even the best events in life have stress attached to
them. Having a baby is exciting for everyone. You’ve been
flooded with company practically from the moment of delivery.
If you’re a first-time mother, hospitals don’t give you very
much help or advice; they send you home with this new little
creature with an array of demands that you have to try to
interpret. And new babies don’t sleep much. At least not long
enough to allow you to get some much needed rest.
Add to that the hormonal changes in your own body, and you
have a formula that’s guaranteed to be stressful. Sometimes
you think you’ll never get a full night’s sleep again. Until
the baby settles into a routine, you probably won’t!
To get through those first few weeks and months, here are a
few tips to help you get at least a little more sleep.
First of all, don’t try to be a supermom. When the baby goes
down for a nap, take a small nap yourself. The laundry can
wait and so can the dishes. You don’t need to have a perfect
house. There will be time for all that; give yourself a break
whenever you get the opportunity.
If you have a good friend or relative to help out, by all
means take advantage of that for an afternoon. Grandma would
probably jump at the chance to have the baby all to herself
for a few hours!
When you put the baby to bed for the night, take some time to
decompress and relax so you have a better chance of falling
asleep. Take a bath scented with lavender; put on some soft
music and baby yourself a little. Sometimes it’s hard even
without a new baby to fall asleep right away. There’s a lot
to get used to!
