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A newborn can exhaust you. From the 1am crying to the 5 minute naps that don’t allow you to get any rest. Between the baby, the house and your spouse, you really can’t find time in between to catch a break and relax.
I feel your pain. I’ve been exactly where you are. Except for me, I was doing it on my own entirely until my mom came in when my son was 3 weeks old. And by that time I was exhausted. I was in uni full time and I gave birth when we were doing our mid semester exams. It was tough. I remember I gave birth on Friday and on Monday I was in class doing my criminal justice system examination.
So if you’re here as a newborn mom, whether first time or not – because all kids are different. I’m here to assure you that you’re in the right place.
But what do you really need to relax? Most moms think relaxing means doing nothing and lifting your legs up only to be served some non alcoholic drink since you’re breastfeeding.
Which btw is a form or rest/relaxation.
But its not only the form of relaxation you need to have.
You also need psychological relaxation where you’re not thinking about anything. And I know that can only happen when you sleep. You know when you’re not really worried about your newborn. But it’s crucial to have mental breaks especially as a newborn mom.
I know you’ve watched those TikToks where moms just break down when their newborns cry continuously and they just don’t know what to do even after doing every possible thing on the book.
That is classic mom life. It’s bound to happen once in a while
That’s why you need to be giving yourself mental and emotional breaks. You need it to take care of your baby, to anticipate their needs and to also take care of yourself.
And that’s exactly what you will get in this post. You’ll learn the simple ways you can relax when your newborn is both asleep and awake.
Lets get into it.
Take a Warm Shower to Relax
Taking a shower leaves you feeling refreshed and relaxed. Your muscles tend to let lose and if done when you’re about to sleep, you get into that dream quite fast.
Now, the trick to taking a shower undisturbed is to create a routine for your newborn from day 1.
That way you’re able to know when you’re baby will be asleep so that you can take a shower undisturbed.
In short, you have to work around your newborns schedule.
But if you don’t create a daily routine for your newborn, you’ll be one overwhelmed mama.
And if you’re married, that will quickly take a toll on your marriage.
So start creating a routine for your baby today.
Meal Prep Your Food for the Week
You can pretty much meal prep anything under the sun.
You can choose to meal prep the ingredients and use this tool to make chopping any vegetable or fruit super easy and fast.
Or…
You can choose to entirely cook the food and set aside portions in these glass containers that are super easy to wash and preserve food quite well. Then put the food in the refrigerator and you can just heat it up when you and your spouse want to eat.
The thing I like about the glass containers I’m talking about is that they preserve food so well that it doesn’t have that weird leftover taste in food.
I never liked to meal prep because of how the food tasted after I reheated it after refrigeration. But after finding these containers, meal prepping has really now become a thing in my house.
Meal prepping in itself isn’t relaxing but the time it frees up for you to do other things like relaxing is why it’s on this list.
Reheating takes 5-10 minutes max. But cooking takes 1hr -2hrs depending on how fast you are.
Meaning if you do meal prep, you have around 45 solid minutes of relaxation that can help with your fatigue.
Learn to Ask for Help
Asking for help does not make you a bad mother. It also doesn’t show that you’re weak or you can’t handle your child.
Remember youre a human being. You need rest. You can’t go go go…. You need rest and plenty of it for that matter.
When you have a newborn you also need to relax because your body is also producing food for your baby and still producing energy to maintain your adult life.
That takes a huge toll on your body.
So say it with me…. It’s okay if I ask for help.
Dont be embarrassed. Just ask. Ask your spouse, your mom, your sister, family, friends. The whole gang. After all, it takes a village to raise a child. You might as well start it from day 1.
Plus, most grown ups love newborns. They think they’re cute (so do I). So take the opportunity to relax and take care of yourself.
Finally, get a nanny. If you’re not comfortable with the nanny handling the baby, you have other options. You can have the nanny clean the house, cook your meals and walk your dogs.
That will free up your time and give you time to relax when the baby falls asleep.
Help Your Newborn to Sleep Throughout the Night
The one thing that all newborn moms agree on is the lack of sleep. Newborns don’t have systemic sleep pattern like adults. They can sleep at night and during the day.
But there are simple things you can do that can help your newborn sleep throughout the night.
And when I say sleep throughout the night I mean for 5 hours max.
But that’s better than running on 2 hours of sleep. Don’t you agree?
And the best part is, you can reset those 5 hours depending on what time you sleep.
For example. If you put your baby down at 8p.m. they will most likely wake up at 1am.
So if you’re not going to sleep at 8 and you end up sleeping at 10pm. You’ll have 3 hours of sleep.
But in this post, I show you how you can be able to reset that 5 hours to start running when you go to sleep.
So instead of waking up at 1am, your newborn will wake up at 3am if you’re going to sleep at 10p.m. So that will give you a total of 5 hours of continuous sleep.
Get a Back Massage Right At Home With This…
It’s safe to say that your back will never be the same after you give birth. The fact that you carried almost 3kilos for 9 months puts a strain on your back.
So in the next few months after your new bouncing baby has arrived, youll experience a lot of back pains and discomfort.
And that can cause restlessness. The pain just doesn’t let you have a few hours of rest.
If you find yourself in this predicament, get yourself this massaging chair.
It vibrates and massages your back and bums. It’s such a relieving feeling and you can do it as you breastfeed, watch TV or even chatting with your spouse.
There are multiple ones you can get that also have temperature control.
But my personal preference is the one that has the temperature control. I naturally get cold very easily so I like that the chair warms me up fast. And when I’m not during the day, it cools me down while massaging my back.
Using this chair will really ease that backache. And I can guarantee you that you’ll fall asleep on the chair a couple of times. It’s that good.
Online Shopping for Yourself – not the baby
Yes. I specifically said Nott the baby. You see alot of moms are more concerned about their babies than they are about themselves. They do that and forget that the babies need their moms in tip top shape to provide the best care.
Lets be clear here though. You are shopping online to take care of yourself.
Because I’m assuming you have a ton of maternity dresses that you’re still wearing.
Its time to get that tummy belt to help the tummy contract. And btw, only use the belt if you’ve healed from the ceaserian operation. If you gave birth naturally, you can use it the next day after you give birth.
Get dresses and jeans that make you feel good about yourself.
Its very easy to let yourself go when you have a newborn. Your social life becomes non existent. Because you’re always tired you just want to sleep all the time.
And slowly, you begin to lose yourself. And shopping can help you regain that excitement that can help get yourself back when youre losing yourself. Plus, it brings back excitement into your life. When that doorbell rings with your new outfits, you’ll be excitedly telling your man how he needs to rate your outfits. Heheehhe ??
Buying clothes new clothes will also give you confidence to get out of the house and take walks with your baby.
Speaking of walks, let’s talk about that.
Go Outside for a walk/ a Drive with your Newborn
Going outside is good for your mental state. Being around trees calms people down and lowers stress levels. This study was able to show that people who look or workout in the forest have lowered stress levels.
Not only is the walking good for you but it also helps your newborn form a systematic sleep pattern faster. The baby is now able to know when people need to be awake and when people need to sleep.
And if you happen to go out every day, within two weeks you’ll notice that your newborn is able to sleep pretty much throughout the night.
Finally, the walks help you clear your mind and think through any stressful situations.
I find that taking walks helps me find solutions to difficult problems that I’m struggling with.
All in all, walking will avoid the meltdowns that you may experience because of how overwhelming taking care of a newborn can be.
Watch Your Favorite Netflix Show
Since your baby came, when was the last time you watched your favorite show?
Do you even have time to sit down and follow through an entire episode?
Dont worry if you haven’t been able to do it. I understand.
You want to be there for your baby. I get that. But you also need to be there for yourself so that you can present the best version of yourself to take care of your baby.
Otherwise youll always be stressed, cranky, annoyed, frustrated…. You know all those negative emotions.
And if you figure that your baby is always cranky maybe you can start checking those emotions.
Did you know that babies pick up their mothers moods? Yep, they do that.
When you’re stressed, the baby becomes cranky. When you’re angry, the baby starts crying non stop.
So doing something that puts you in a better mood means that your baby will also be in good moods.
In short, find time to watch your favorite show when the baby is asleep. It will lighten your mood and in turn youll have a happy newborn.
Sleep Along with your Baby
When your baby sleeps during the day, take that opportunity to also rest up. Work on getting your daily sleep hours to 7 hours like you normally should.
If youre a work at home mom, sleep in for an hour the first time the baby falls asleep. And then when the baby falls asleep again, work on your projects.
That way you don’t burnout. After all you aren’t running on jet fuel. We can’t really say ey, the jet fuel is over. Come and add some more. You need to rest as much as you need to work. Just remember that.
Allow your Newborn to Entertain Themselves
This is by far the best advice I ever received from my mom.
My mom is a true believer of this point right here. She told me when I first gave birth not to allow the baby to get used to being held.
So i would bottle feed my baby, burp him and lay him on his mat or on the chair.
And he would not fuss or want to be held. But I would never leave him alone in a room.
If i was in the kitchen I would make sure he was facing me so that he knew I was around.
In the case where I didn’t have to do anything, I would simply out my hands on him or play with him without carrying him.
That allowed me to get a lot of things done without getting overwhelmed.
I know alot of people will go to the comment section and say that it’s different with each child. But it’s really not.
Your baby forms habitual patterns just like you do. If you cuddle or rock your baby, they get used to it. So when you stop, they cry in frustration because they are already used to the rocking. And just like it’s hard for you to break a bad habit as an adult, the same applies to newborns.
