Tips to survive the first 2 months

With Gabe being almost 7 weeks, i'm just about to finish my 2 month mark as a mommy. I officially know how it feels to be away from civilization and feel like i'm in my own little world. My nights turned into days, and my days into nights. My pj's became my choice of apparel 24 hours a day. But to ensure your sanity and your inner goddess, you cannot do this -which i soon came to realize.


Dressing up, even just to stay at home, does wonders for your esteem. This along with other tips, reminds you of who you are as a person within your home, and as a person in this massive world.

A happy mommy means a happy baby, as they say.

So, here's what i learned to stay sane:


1) stare at your baby everyday and thank God for your blessings. Babies are such miracles and truly a gift to our lives. Remember how lucky we are. Also don't forget how fast time flies and how fast babies grow. Cherish every moment.


2) take a shower everyday and dress up. i'm not saying you have to wear an evening gown. But wear something other than pj's or sweats. even if it means wearing a long single strand necklace with your v neck tee or even a funky cocktail ring that you can stare at every time you hold your baby, play with them, change their diaper, or anything else you do with your baby. Remind yourself of who you are.


3) Get a new mommy haircut. You don't have to do anything drastic, but even just trimming the split ends improves the appearance and luster of your hair. Plus its nice to be pampered for a bit- especially getting that nice head massage :).


4) Do your nails. You probably feel like you don't have time to do this, but with all the hand sanitizing, washing baby bottles, washing hands after changing diapers, your hands turn out to be a mess. Make the time to do it. Moisturize your hands regularly. Paint your nails a happy color. Make it your favorite color or even the color of the season. Plus, i'm sure you've been taking a lot of pictures of you holding baby so wouldn't it be nice to have nice hands in the picture?


5) take advantage of friends and family. If people offer to help, whether its to cook you dinner, clean, babysit, or whatever - take advantage of it. Its easy to not want to bother people, but trust me, people really want to help -it makes them feel important in your life.


6) sleep - of course the thought of a good 8 hour sleep is out the door, but sleep when your baby sleeps. Its easy to do chores, go on the computer, watch tv while your baby is down. But none of these are as important to your well-being as sleep. This will help prevent you from being a zombie the whole day.


7) Get out of the house. Don't let yourself get cooped up. You and your baby need fresh air. Whether its for a stroll in your neighborhood or even going to dinner with outdoor seating. You'll feel a hundred times better seeing people and being around people. Obviously baby is still young so you can't go to the mall/grocery/anywhere congested with people. But open air places like the park are great places for a mini-getaway from home. Getting that exercise will make you feel better too.


8) catch up with your girlfriends. Have them come over, or in my case, have a nice long chat with them on the phone if they live far away. Hearing that familiar voice and laughing over stupid things will make you happy


9) Make sure you and your husband/partner share a minimum of a 5 minutes hugging. Sometimes its just nice to be in each others arms, feeling protected, instead of being the "protector" all the time

Nesting in overdrive

I'm not sure how to explain these past few weeks. You read and read all these baby books in the hopes of being ready for exactly this time. But its a weird feeling to actually be in a phase that i've read so much about.

Everyone always says, you have a hard time sleeping in the end, you'll feel so anxious for baby to come out, you'll be in nesting mode and get the house ready. People and books couldn't have hit it more on the nose.

My sleeping schedule is like this. 3 hours sleeping in my bed, on my side cuddled with my snoogle. I force myself to do this because the nurse practitioner said this aids with the functioning of my kidneys. I hate doing it because when i wake up, my tummy hurts on one side from all the weight and pressure falling on it. Potty break. Then for the next 3 hours, i move downstairs to the family room to sleep on my chaise with a firm back pillow where i sleep sitting up. Of course i usually can't fall asleep right away here. So i spend the next hour catching up on facebook status updates. Then, knowing that i'll be annoyed having to go to the bathroom in the middle of my sleep, i make one stop to the bathroom and then i finally go into the last leg of my sleep sitting up on my chaise. Everyone says to get as much sleep as i can now before baby comes. Let me tell you, i try and try - but it is NOT working. I guess my body is getting me ready to not sleep.

Anxiety - yes, I'm excited to meet baby. But with meeting baby comes the labor, delivery, and the recovery and i can't get over that part. in fact it makes me scared! i know, millions of women have gone through this, including our mother's and grandmothers, but it still doesn't appease the anxiety. Everyday this week, as i wake up to contractions or mild cramps i'm always wondering, is today going to be the day? Its a really emotional time, not feeling in control of when things are going to happen. And when i say things, i mean, life changing events!! The car is packed with our hospital bag but, i constantly feel like i have so much more to do before baby comes.

This is where nesting comes in.

I can think of a million and one things that need to be done here in the house before baby arrives. And that is probably what kept me so busy last week at like 3 am in the morning. I cooked dishes to freeze for future use. I cleaned the kitchen to my heart's content.

I literally spent 3 hours in the baby room organizing diapers i got from diaper cakes. 3 hours!! diaper cakes are great - i love making them and and i love getting them. But, its a pain in the ass to figure out which diapers are what size, which i should use first since they're smaller, etc.

I did like 5 loads of laundry between mine, wil's and baby's.

I guess doing these are not so bad. its just that fact that they're done in 3 in the morning that made me feel insane.

I honestly loooove being pregnant. I know I am blessed and so lucky to be in this

position. Only a year ago i remember recovering from one of my miscarriages. But i know that nothing, no reading, or no advice from people can fully prepare me for this new adventure i'm about to face within these next 2 weeks. All i know is that this baby is what will give me the strength to be a good mom, wife and person in this world.

So every night, i kiss his picture, waiting for the day i can kiss him in person.