Stress
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!
