As part of the Ultimate Guide to Baby’s First Year, today I — and over 30 other bloggers — are helping new parents take care of themselves. Because it’s a weird, insular world, those first few weeks with a new baby. You don’t get out much. Babies are frigging demanding. They don’t do anything for themselves. But doing one small , simple thing for you…sometimes that’s all you need to re-energize and feel better about taking care of everyone else also. Here are a few suggestions:
1.) For the love of Bath and Bodyworks, take a shower already. New moms and teen boys seem to be the only social groups who brag about how long it’s been since they’ve showered. We even take it as a point of pride — we must love our babies so much if we refuse to leave them even for five minutes. I’m giving you permission to shower. Actually, more than that — I’m asking nicely if you would please shower. You’ll feel better afterward. You’ll smell better afterward. It can change your whole day.
2.) Take a walk. With or without baby. You just need a little fresh air, and the exercise from a light walk can wake you up and reinvigorate you and change your entire frame of mind. Sometimes you just need a little change of scenery.
3.) Pray, meditate, sit still. Just for five minutes. Without folding laundry or anything. It helps to just be for a few minutes before pushing on with the day.
4.) Get a cup of coffee. Or tea. Or hot chocolate. One of my big luxuries is, on occasion, running into Starbucks for five minutes and sitting all by myself. I like getting out of the house, but if that’s not possible, even a cup of coffee on the back deck, or in a garden, or on your couch, can be all you need to reset for the day.
Make sure you check out the Ultimate Guide to Baby’s First Year, for more great advice and articles! And enter the giveaway for a ton of really awesome baby stuff!
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Thank you for your great article! You probably don’t hear this enough, but your articles are very helpful and invigorating! Have a great day. 🙂
Great tips! As I’ve discovered in the last weeks just a few minutes for myself, even if it is just to take a nice shower, can do wonders in improving the outlook on life 🙂 Spending over an hour by myself at the hairdresser’s the other day felt like a luxury.