If you are a first-time Mama, you might eagerly look forward to your first few months postpartum. After all, these will be crucial months where you will get to bond with your sweet, new baby.
For many of us, it’s also the first time in our adult lives that we have an extended amount of time off from work. Many first-time parents make grand plans for these months. Finally, you’ll declutter the closet. You’ll finish painting that wall. You’ll clear out your email inbox.
Mama, we say this with love: it may be time to slow your roll.
Postpartum is a beautiful, powerful, and overwhelming time. Not only are you tasked with caring for a new human, but your own body needs time to heal and adapt.
The key is to find a way to manage your time. And that starts with a whole lot of mindset work.
Read on to discover our best tips on how to prioritize and make the most out of your postpartum time.
Focus on What Matters
New parenthood comes with a lot of new, unprecedented challenges. Between the sudden life shift, lack of sleep, and opinions of everyone around you, it can be easy to lose sight of what really matters.
You are now in charge of a brand new person who requires a lot of time and attention. They’ll only be this little once. Everything else can take a backseat.
Sure, it feels nice to get the laundry done or call back that family member who is dying to hear about your first few days of parenthood. But when it comes at the expense of giving time to your sweet new baby? It’s never worth it.
When life starts to feel overwhelming, focus on what is important, which will help put everything else into perspective.
Stick To A Schedule
Newborns are sometimes unpredictable. It can be hard, even for the most intuitive of Mamas, to always anticipate what they need.
The best solution? Create a schedule and stick to it.
While newborns are too young to fully stick to a schedule, teaching your baby subtle cues can help them start to recognize the difference between sleep time and playtime.
When your baby is awake during the day, engage in play with them. Not only will this help brain development, but it will also help tire them out, leading to longer, more consistent naps. Other habits, such as swaddling and dimming the lights, can help train your baby to recognize that it is time to sleep. In fact, many experts believe that early attention to building a sleep schedule can make for easier sleep training when your baby gets older.
Working towards a schedule will help you slowly build a day that looks more consistent.
Ask For Help
Newborns are dependent on their mothers, particularly if they are being breastfed. We’ve been there, Mama. We know that it can feel like your baby’s well-being is entirely on you.
The most important thing a new parent can learn is to ask for help. Asking is the hardest part, but when you do it, you’ll be surprised how many people are willing to pitch in. You aren’t just limited to asking your partner and immediate family, either! Oftentimes, friends are eager to help but aren’t sure how particularly if they aren’t parents themselves.
Let Go of Naptime Pressure
All new parents, at some point, have been told to “sleep when the baby sleeps.” Maybe that works for you. For some of us, napping alongside our little ones is not realistic. After all, most of us don’t sleep during the day.
Or you could have the opposite problem. You are dead tired but feel pressure to get things done during baby’s naps.
We’re here to give you permission, Mamas, to do whatever works for you. No one is as hard on you as you are in your own head. If you need to rest, rest. If it feels better to be productive, do that. Above all else, get rid of the idea that there is something you “should” be doing while your baby sleeps.
Create Realistic Expectations
We’re all for checking items off your to-do list. When you are post-partum, though, your to-do list has to shift and change.
Everything takes longer to do when you have a newborn. Knowing that can help you create realistic expectations of what you can and can’t get done in a day.
Our tip? Take your regular daily to-do list and cut it in half. This will give you a much more manageable set of tasks that will leave you feeling productive instead of overwhelmed.
Take Care of Yourself
We’ve talked before about how self-care is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. When you are postpartum, that is particularly important.
If you want to maximize your schedule during the postpartum months, start by ensuring you are taken care of. After all, it’s true what they say. You can’t pour from an empty cup. Make sure yours is filled.
Prioritizing self-care will ensure that your moods are regulated and your mind stays sharp. Self-care can help increase your productivity, helping you to make sure that you can create a day that feels productive and satisfying for you.