Friday Top 5 - Ways We Keep Our Sanity

Kathryn:

The first few days after we brought Ileana home I felt like I would never have any time for myself again. (I remember the first day struggling to find 5 minutes to remove my chipped nail polish, and the second day taking 10 minutes to dry my hair after taking a shower). Since then things have settled into more of a routine, and I’ve managed to find more time throughout the day to relax and take some time for myself. Here are the top 5 things I am doing to keep my sanity these days:

1 –  Taking Naps. I’m not sure if this counts as something I’m doing for myself, since the only way I can survive is by taking naps, as I don’t get to sleep a whole lot through the night. Curling up with the heating pad on my sore back and taking a few minutes to read my book before my nap has been a great way to relax.

2 – Taking Baths / Reading. Luckily the doctor has ordered 3-4 baths a day as I recover from the delivery, so I don’t have to feel guilty about taking 15 minutes a few times a day to to read my book. I must admit, as stressful as it is some days to squeeze them all in, I’ll definitely miss my baths when I’m all recovered. I think it’s something I'm going to keep trying to do at least once or twice week.

3 – Accepting the help of family and friends. I’ve never been the type to accept the help of others easily – I like to be independent and try to do everything on my own. But since Ileana was born I’ve really relied on the help of several generous people to survive. As hard as it sometimes was to go take a nap or a bath while my mom, mother-in-law or friend did my dishes, its something I needed to do – and its been very humbling too! One of the best things I’ve done is take people up on the offer to cook for us… I haven’t cooked a meal in 2 weeks, and we’ve been eating better than ever! Accepting generosity of the people in our lives has been an extremely overwhelming and humbling experience.

4 – Facebook. Yes, this sounds lame, but it makes me feel a little less isolated. I’ve never been the type to sit in the house all day (let alone for 2 weeks) so staying in touch with the outside world has helped me keep my sanity as I adjust to life as a stay-at-home-mom (for a year) – not to mention all the advice I’ve been getting from other mothers!

5 – Watching “The Office”. One of my favorite things to do with my husband is watch The Office. We started watching it together when we first started dating, and have now been through all 9 seasons several times. Cuddling up with him to watch an episode during one of Ileana’s evening naps has been a great way for us to feel a bit more normal and to spend some time together doing something we love.

Natasha:

1 - Baby Wearing. One of my biggest concerns with this pregnancy was how I was going to manage life with a newborn in my already-busy household. I homeschool four of my five other children (grades preschool-three) and I've never had to bring home a newborn in the middle of that yet (my last baby was six weeks old when I started homeschooling). I have other carriers but none that were useful in the newborn stage, so I asked a friend about her wrap-style carrier and she totally sold me on it. With a bit of research I settled on one, and it's been awesome! I've used it from day 1 (when my husband asked me to help him with the supper-time rush) and the baby is completely happy in it. I can teach, sweep, do laundry, vaccuum - you name it...all while the baby sleeps away. I love being able to get things done, be present to my other children in the ways I always have been, and especially to have my newborn so close to me in all of that.

2 - Stay home. You would think this would be a no-brainer for a mother six ages newborn-eight. The problem is that while my other children had a way of slowing me down (which included needing several nursing pitstops, and endless kilometres of crying in the car as newborns) this little baby is so much more content. If I'm only going to be gone for a few hours, I can often get away with nursing her before we leave the house and again when we get home (without a feeding in between). Which means if I get a hankering, say for chocolate chip cookies and we're out of sugar, there is very little talking me out of packing the whole crew up and heading to town. The problem is that we all suffer when I do that, and I am never the kind of mother my kids deserve when I throw too many balls in the air at once. We have two guaranteed days out a week (gym day and piano day) and last week, for the first time in the month since Mary's birth, I made those the only outing days in the week. And it was awesome! I need to be strict about the two day maximum for going out, to allow more time for me to breathe and spend time enjoying my little ones instead of always carting them to and fro. The sugar can wait until Daddy gets home.

3 - Taking others up on offers to help. I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for the kind and generous support of family and friends. Whether it's a nice hot meal (we've had supper dropped off at our house five times since the baby was born), a gift of housekeeping (my parents and Jeff went halfers to pay to have our house professionally cleaned every two weeks until Christmas for my birthday), or the 100% availability of mine and Jeff's parents to look after the rest of our kids whenever we need it, even coming to us when we were totally prepared to bring the kids to them. I don't pretend for a second that I would be nearly as happy as I am without this beautiful community surrounding us, and I am so grateful for the way their giving enriches these precious early weeks and beyond.

4 - Date nights. Okay, so we all know that life with a newborn doesn't exactly lend itself to nights on the town. But Jeff and I (who are enjoying the blissful newlywed stage that thankfully always seems to follow the birth of a new baby for us) by setting aside time in the evenings for each other. One of the things I couldn't wait for in the final months of my pregnancy was to snuggle up to my husband and be comfortable! And after many months of waiting, we're making up for lost time!

5 - Blogging. I am having so much fun doing this blog with Kathryn! I love reading her posts because I had no idea how much I forgot about doing this for the first time. I love having a friend to message at 3 am knowing she'll be up too, or to say, "hey, what's you're baby doing today?" Someone I can pray for and ask to pray for me, because among the things we share on this journey is our faith. I look forward to the rest of this journey together with our new little girls, who I pray will also find in each other the same companionship I have been blessed to share with Kathryn.