There are plenty of places to get lists of all the baby gear you need to take care of a newborn. Whether you want it or not, you will probably be inundated with more onesies, blankets, and baby socks than you could ever imagine using. What people think about less, though, is what a new mom needs to take care of herself after birth. Many expectant moms overlook what they will need to recover.
We’ve all been there. The moment when you finally have a few minutes to yourself and you are racing through ideas of what to do. You think, I could clean the bathroom, or write that email, or make dinner, or read a few pages of my book, maybe have a cup of tea, maybe do a load of laundry, maybe watch an episode of Orange is the New Black. There are so many options and what do you choose?
Whenever I talk to older moms about how things are going for me they inevitable remind me to enjoy every moment because time flies. So, I’ve started pre-empting folks by stating, “I know time will fly,” or “I’m trying to stay in the moment.” But the truth is, for me, not every moment is really worth remembering.
I recently had a humbling mothering experience. It was during a trip to my in-law’s house, they live 8 hours away. It had been a busy stressful week of organizing our belongings and cleaning our house in preparation for our trip. Nary a kind word had been exchanged between myself and my partner in at least 5 days. After a long drive after a full day’s work we arrived at the inlaw’s at 1:30 am.
Today I want to talk about the power of silence over our wellness. To start I want to reflect on the first outing with my daughter when she was a newborn. She was probably 2-3 weeks old and I went with Taylor (NMP co-founder) to a Birth Network Central New York meeting. It couldn’t have been a better setting to take a newborn. It was a small group of mothers discussing birth advocacy in our area. If anyone would help me brave this first outing it would be this group. I was anxious about my first adventure as a mom.