This is me off on my first walk after having my baby. It was only three days after giving birth so I just went for a 10 minute walk around the block. I remember mentally it felt unbelievably good to stretch the legs and get some sunshine and fresh air.
This post is not going to state the obvious such as exercise daily, eat a healthy diet and get as much sleep as possible. You already know all that. The problem is it’s hard to actually do those things with a newborn. In this article I hope to share simple life hacks to show you how to implement the aforementioned habits. I found when I had my newborn I had far less free time than I ever imagined so here are some practical tips that helped me.
- Prepare your ingredients for dinner when bubs is sleeping. By simply laying out all the ingredients for dinner and maybe doing some chopping you will be less likely in your exhausted state to skip cooking in favour of ordering a pizza when 5pm rolls around.
- When working out, use a video monitor and ban your phone from the room to stop interruptions. I started doing some gentle workouts focusing on restoring my core within a few days of giving birth. I used a guide from a post-natal specialist personal trainer ‘Fit Mammas‘. Until I bought a monitor I found it hard to relax and enjoy my ‘me time’ because I was constantly ducking out the room to check my baby was ok and couldn’t have any music going in case I didn’t hear my baby wake.
- Get your bub used to a baby carrier and a pram from a young age so you can walk most days of the week.
- If your hospital offers a post-natal exercise class seize this opportunity. Despite mine being a 35 minute drive away it was so worth it! There were volunteers who would pick up and cuddle your baby if they started to get upset.
- When serving out dinner also serve out lunch the next day. It’s so handy to be able to just grab a container of food out the fridge and pop it in the microwave for lunch.
- Save your caffeine for pre-workout. If you’re like me and you try to limit your caffeine intake to only a few coffees and teas a day, plan to have one of those just before your workout to give you a boost. You’ll feel so good afterwards so it’s worth having that caffeine to help you make it through!
- Keep massive bottles of water at your feeding stations. A glass of water is not enough, you will go through that in one feed! I bought a pack of 1.5L water bottles from Coles and had them in my nursery. A bottle would last a few days which was handy because you don’t have the time to be constantly filling up a glass or even a smaller size bottle.
- Supplement where necessary. I knew my diet was not optimal, plus I had just been through the major experience of pregnancy and childbirth so I took women’s multivitamins every day. I also finished the iron and vitamin D tablets I had been taking during my pregnancy as these were nutrients that my blood tests had identified I was deficient in.
So that’s what I learnt when going through the newborn stage. I definitely found it a hard and overwhelming stage at times. I felt so out of control and like I didn’t know what I was doing. The above little tips and routines helped me feel like I was somewhat ‘together’ and kept me feeling as well as you can when you’re severely sleep deprived and going through one of the biggest changes of your life!
Holly x
Great job! Thanks for sharing this information!