A Day in the Life of a New Mom - Added Advice & Support

I am a new mom with a little man that is 5 months now. Learning the life and routine of a stay at home mom. The morning starts with feeding baby - then pumping, washing pumping equipment, changing diapers, trying to eat while baby is doing floor time or when he is sleeping. I like to make sure to interact with baby as much as possible with singing, talking about what we are doing, reading and social reciprocal play like peek-a-boo. During nap I try to eat, catch up on rest, or try and get some of the cleaning done around the house, as the laundry and dishes seems to be never ending. This takes up most of the day: feeding, changing, pumping and cleaning.

When my husband gets home, we try to run errands and helps me get out of the house as it’s easier to get out of the house with an extra hand and not carrying a baby and pushing a cart or pushing a stroller and carrying a basket of groceries. My husband tries to let me get a little break each day like to take a shower, just lay down for a little bit, or try for a quick little workout in the garage. Your alone time is very important, you deserve a break. You have a hard job that’s constant 24/7. Can’t say, “I’m done at the end of the day at 5 and see you tomorrow”. Nope, not the case since we are also up through the night to feed our little guys.

This is one of the biggest things I’m learning - how hard it is to be home alone all day every day for the past 5 months with not much sleep while taking care of my little guy. Please give yourself grace. One thing I always tell myself and husband when we are struggling. We are all learning. This is new to all of us. We are brand new parents who haven’t done this before, just as little man is brand new to this world and everything he is doing, he is learning in the process.

May sound silly but I am incredibly proud of our little family because the past 5 months, we have definitely had our own struggles but just working together as a team and always communicating our own needs and struggles we come to a common ground. As I would imagine most parents would want to do everything they can for their little one and provide for them the best possible life you are able to give to them.

I like to tell future moms, it is whatever method that works best for your own family. I know it’s very easy to compare to others but it’s what works best for you! We are all individual moms with different ways of teaching our kids morals and values. Let’s focus on supporting each other as mothers, not focus on the difference. It takes a tribe to get through this journey of motherhood, especially early motherhood. This is a huge transition in life, as we learn quickly it is no longer about us and 100% about our kiddo.

The internet is a good and bad resource. As I know for myself I would look online and always saw the worst scenario for babies weather it was sickness, development or so on. Just keep in contact with your pediatrician. I always wrote a list of questions and brought them to each appointment. I also had access to email my doctor at any time. As you are paying for insurance and most pediatricians understand you’re a first time parent.

Staying on topic/task is another daily challenge. It’s easy to start a bunch of tasks and lose track of what your doing. At least in my case I feel like I start chores and other things around the house but then baby wakes up, is hungry or needs to be changed. I finally accepted that it’s okay to not do everything every day. When you get the opportunity to get things done, then take advantage of that time but also don’t feel stressed about starting things and not finishing them. If you know you just need a day to rest then do that. Take a rest day and listen to your body, I would say is one of the most important things. You have to take care of yourself to take care of your little one. One thing that worked for our family was writing down priority tasks that need to be completed around the house each week that we’re reasonable and something we could do while little one napped. If we didn’t complete any we would accept that it’s okay. The weekends are easier to accomplish tasks for us since my husband is home on the weekends to help out. Taking care of your baby is a huge job in itself and is of course always number one. I hope you do have at least a little time each day to take care of yourself with showering or resting. Whatever you feel is the best for you - you must recharge. Eating and drinking plenty of water is very important for breast feeding to continue to get a good milk supply.

Coming from a very social job, driving for work all over the county and in families’ homes to not leaving the house most days or talking to other adults beside my husband is quite a drastic change for me. I am a pretty social person and enjoy having social time with others. I worked in a field helping people with children on the autism spectrum. It was a very big change for me and realized it was a lot harder for me than I ever imagined. Now my socialization looks like chatting with store clerks, doctors appointments, or other errands where I talk to people, if I in fact even make it out of the house. Please be kind to moms as this may be there only social interaction and outing for the day! As most of us had little to no sleep and have had lots of coffee to keep getting through this day.

One last note before signing off for the day, I like to let some of my friends know that are not moms themselves. When you are planning a get together with friends without kids, I like to remind them please know that it’s takes us hours to prepare and get ready to get out of the house. If you happen to bail last minute, please know that it takes parents hours to prepare to get out of the house for an outing. Also please have patience with new parents trying to figure out their new life style and a new routine with a baby. The new routine looks a little like this, feed the baby, change the baby’s diaper/clothing, maybe pump if you need to before you leave. Clean yourself up (throw on some clothes, brush teeth, deodorant, throw up hair, slip on shoes, maybe throw on some makeup). Depending if baby is allowing you to do all this without being fussy or needing something in between any of these morning routine tasks which makes it take even longer. Also never know when baby will throw up all over himself and will have to clean him up and change him again. Also sometimes he poohs all the way up his back which turns into bath time to make sure he’s all clean and pooh free. Finish up yourself if you didn’t have time to finish and then make sure everything is packed and hope nothing else happens when you are trying to get out the door. Our to go bag includes food, formula, burp cloths, bottles, wipes, diaper changing pad, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, lotion, Desitin, diapers, trash bag for dirty diapers in case there isn’t trash cans around, blankets, toys on the go,extra clothes for baby (hats, socks, warm clothes, onesies) and clothes for mom or dad in case baby pees/poohs or throws up on self or parents. Also have to clean out the backpack if anything is dirty in the back pack and refill with things missing. As we have to triple check to make sure everything is ready and available to use on the go. After all that has happened make sure you bring the backpack you just packed, your purse and strap baby in the car seat. Triple check you have everything. Then head out the door with your bags and baby. Pushing the stroller and bags out the door, lock the door, walk out to the car trying not to drop anything and time to load up the car. Unlocking the car putting baby’s car seat in the car putting all the bags in, folding up the stroller in the back and jumping in yourself. Start the car and you are now finally in the car ready to go. I myself usually give myself 2 hours to prepare to get out the door.