Monday, February 25, 2013

Good advice

I'm all ears again. Hoovering up advice like the rookie mum that I am.

So far my favourite two pieces of advice for surviving the first few weeks after birth are these:

1. Never stand when you could be sitting, and never be awake when you could be asleep.
Wise words indeed from the Wondertwin. It's true what they say about that whole giving birth and caring for a newborn baby: it really is rather tiring.

2. Never cancel your day's plans just because you had a bad night.
So if I planned to have a coffee with a friend, even if my sleep was decimated the night before, I should still make the effort to go. I may be grumpy, and look like crap. But at least I'll get out and about, which is a lot better than being grumpy and looking like crap and stuck in the flat feeling sorry for myself. My sister, who had twins and a c-section to contend with, gave me this advice. She knows a little something about sleep deprivation. So if she can make this philosophy work (not that I'm being competitive....) then I shall certainly try to do the same.

What's the best - or the worst - piece of advice you've heard, for dealing with life-after-birth?




3 comments:

  1. Your sister is absolutely right.

    I also think that when you have a baby you should go as many places as possible with them, e.g. cafe art gallery etc, whilst they are still portable and can't break stuff. It gets much harder with toddlers. So once you are over the first exhausted patch, do that thing of bringing baby along to everything whilst it's still possible!

    Ooh, I never knew I oculd be pompous and give baby advice :-)

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  2. Best advice given to me without a doubt was from my sister-in-law. “Remember it’s only a phase”. When 6 weeks has passed and you haven’t had any sleep, before you break, remember it won’t last! The end is in sight. When she suddenly decides feeding is the worst thing in the world and every feed is a struggle, it won’t last, it’s just a phase. Don’t stress. This kept me sane.

    I pulled the advice back out last week when at 19 months, H suddenly after 14 months of 12-13 hours of unbroken sleep, decided he hated his bed and had me up a few times a night. Instead of stressing about what had gone wrong I enjoyed our 4am play sessions with his cars (!) and waited for it to pass. Guess what, it was only a phase and we are back to our 12 hour night’s sleep. Bliss.

    Good luck! Lisa C

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  3. Good advice both, thanks! Cumulus, we are priding ourselves on cooking and eating a proper dinner so far. Next weeks target - eating out with Lady P, and maybe one of those baby-friendly cinema screenings (deffo not toddler friendly!). And Lisa, I'm already using that phrase to console TLOML after another broken night's sleep. Just don't point that that the sleepless nights phase can actually last for a good while...! Well done for enjoying that 4am play session, I'd want a whiskey with that!

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