Most of you don’t know this but my husband had back surgery in August of 2016 which left him on bed rest for 3 weeks and at home on leave for 3 months. During his 3 weeks on bed rest I still had to work full time in Los Angeles with a 3 hour commute and be a caretaker to my then fiancé as well. This took so much planning and I learned some tips along the way to help me out. As a soon to be mother, I know I will need to apply these tips to my day to day in order to not completely drown in the waters of being a mom and a wife!
1 | Prioritize the importance of tasks
I cannot stress this enough. While going to the grocery store TODAY might seem to be the most important task of the day, sometimes, it can wait! If you are starting to feel overwhelmed by the day to day grab a piece of paper and write out EVERYTHING that is a must get done for the week and when you’re finished, rank them on a scale from 1-10 from most important to least. My next step is to take on 1-2 high level of importance tasks per day and then 2-3 low importance tasks per day. Why? Because everything gets done but you’re spreading it out in a way that stays efficient and key: not overwhelming!
2 | Establish expectations
It is critical to sit down with yourself (if a baby) or your significant other (if adult) and establish realistic expectations of care. If this isn’t established at the beginning you can start to feel resentful towards your charge.
I say this about a baby because while your goal is to be a boss babe super mom, establish expectations with yourself that it is OKAY to not be the Pinterest mom you hoped to be.
3 | Prep, prep & more prep!
Meal prepping saved my life! Literally SAVED MY LIFE! Every Sunday I prepared and froze breakfast, lunch and dinner for my husband while he was down so all he had to do was throw it in the microwave and enjoy! This started a really good habit for me that I continued to do until I was pregnant (because y’all the fatigue is real). This made it easy for me to not eat lunch out at work and to eat dinner before my long commute home so I wasn’t driving through McDonalds during my 1.5 hour commute! Another perk, you can make all your meals completely healthy!
This is a great habit to have with a baby too, if your hubby or a responsible family member can give you a couple hours on a Sunday to do this, it will make meal times more enjoyable and less stressful. OR, even better, if a person volunteers to help you do this, you can finally take that nap you deserve! If both of those options aren’t available, there are also some really good family owned businesses that provide delivery meal prep service as well! Any little bit helps!
4 | Be understanding & patient
You are the caretaker, the person being taken care of isn’t going to be a complete angel. They feel restricted, deprived and possibly a little depressed. Don’t place your feelings above theres but also realize, your feelings are still justified. Just provide a little patience and understanding of their perspective and also feel comfortable enough to address your feelings if the load gets to be too much.
When caring for your baby, this applies to your relationship with your spouse! You both are a team. It took 2 to bring the baby in to this world and it will take 2 to keep it alive! So be patient and understanding of one another and your needs/feelings!
5 | Take some time for you everyday
Whether it’s a 5 minute face mask before bed, listening to an audible book while folding laundry or just taking a 30 second deep breath. ANY MOMENT COUNTS! I started hitting Core Power Yoga when my husband was recovering so I could sweat out my work day and be my personal best for him. I am a very high strung person in general and I can admit that, any relaxation technique that I can obtain throughout my day, really really helps! As I type this I realize I probably need to take walk today because I nearly bit my husbands head off today for eating one of my chips! (SORRY HONEY).
