You’re home from the hospital with your new baby. Now what? Bringing your baby home for the first time can bring on a rush of emotions – joy, fear, anxiety and confusion, to name a few. It’s an experience unlike any other, and many new moms aren’t prepared for what those first few weeks will bring. Sleep deprivation, stress and feelings of exhaustion and being overwhelmed can make the time difficult, but knowing what to expect can help to mitigate these feelings. Here are a few tips for how to navigate through those first few weeks and make the transition from pregnant to new mom smooth for both you and your baby.

• Relax your expectations. Things might be a little hectic or off schedule at first; it’s okay to let things slide. Don’t worry about keeping up with the laundry or dishes for a while – just enjoy your baby. Everything else will get taken care of when things calm down.
• Accept help. If someone offers to help you, take it! Let them do the dishes or take out the trash, or hold the baby so that you can take a minute or two for yourself. It’ll make you feel good, and make the helper feel useful as well.
• Put visitors to work. Don’t be shy about asking for help. If you need to get something done and want them to hold the baby, just ask. Or, if you need them to do something for you, make your request – they’re there to see you as well as the baby.
• Take care of yourself. You’ve been through a lot with labor and delivery – don’t forget to take care of yourself. Take frequent naps, eat a balanced meal and drink plenty of fluids, especially if you are breastfeeding.

Coming home from the hospital with a new baby can be overwhelming, but with these tips you can make the time much more enjoyable.

Being a parent is an exhausting job, there’s no doubt about it. However, you don’t have to feel exhausted all the time. Here are some things I’ve discovered that really sap my energy and make it more difficult to keep up with my energetic family.

Not Eating
I’ve found that I really need to watch what I eat if I expect to have enough energy to run after my 5 kids. I admit that mornings are a crazy time in our house. Sometime around mid-morning I feel my energy level crash and realize that I forgot to eat!

Over-Doing the Caffeine
It’s tempting to grab a cup of coffee when I need a quick energy burst. However, over-doing the caffeine consumption can actually make you more tired when the fix wears off. Plus, too much caffeine can make you irritable, irritate your stomach, or cause heart palpitations. It’s best to watch your caffeine consumption if you hope to keep your energy levels up.

Not Sleeping
Have you ever been so tired or stressed that you can’t sleep? Or worse yet, remember how you have finally gotten your baby to sleep through the night but you are still waking up for that 2am feeding and having trouble getting back to sleep?

It can be difficult to find the energy you need during the day when you aren’t getting a good sleep during the night. I’ve heard that sleep experts recommend that adults develop a sleep routine in order to promote better sleep habits. I guess if sleep routines work for children, they should work for adults. It sounds reasonable anyway.

I’m trying to work on this subject in my own life because the holiday season is fast approaching. While I love all of the wonderful things that go along with celebrating this special time of year, I realize that it takes energy to be able to do all the things I will need to do. That means that I need to work on creating good habits now (like exercising, eating right, reducing my caffeine and getting sleep) that will enable me to find the energy I need to take me through the holidays and beyond!

Today I decided to do my writing while sitting outside a local coffee shop at one of their patio tables. It was a nice change of pace, and it’s a treat I only usually get to enjoy while the kids are at preschool like they are today. The weather is beautiful, I have a coffee by my side, and I’m feeling like I could tackle any deadline.

I noticed something while I was sitting there writing. From the vantage point I had I was able to see every car that went through the coffee shop’s drive-thru. It wasn’t long before I noticed that every single car that went through while I was sitting there was some kind of family car: lots of SUVs and minivans. I then started paying attention to who was doing the driving, and it was then that I realized every single driver who came through was a woman, and all of them had car seats in the cars. Some of the moms had kiddos in the car with them, and some of them didn’t.

The other thing that all of them had in common was that they looked absolutely exhausted. Judging by the time of day – around 9:30 AM – these were all women who had finished up the hectic morning duties of getting kids fed and ready and had either dropped off their kids at school or were getting ready for whatever activities they had planned out for the day. Their stop at the coffee shop was a calculated attempt at getting a little energy from a caffeinated drink and maybe placating the kids with a juice or cookie.

It dawned on me that I am one of those women! When the kids are I set off for the zoo or library or whatever we go do, it usually starts with a stop at a coffee shop to fuel up mom. Am I running on caffeine instead of relying on the natural energy my body should be granting me from the food I eat and the sleep I get?

I think this topic needs some examination. All us stay-at-home and work-at-home parents need to take a look at how we get through the day, and what we’re teaching our kids about habits. Yes, I’m worn out, but I wonder if I need to lay off relying on a chemical to give me a little pep so my kids don’t think that’s the natural thing to do. What do you think?