Those First Few Weeks; Bringing Your Baby Home By Charlotte Paxman

So, you have spent the last 9 months waiting and preparing for your new arrival and then finally the day arrives and at last, you get to meet your baby, it's the most incredible and life-changing experience. I am Charlotte a Mum of two, I have a daughter who's 2 and a son who's 8 weeks old and I remember those first weeks when you bring your baby home it's a complete adjustment and you're finding a new normal. The first few days you are running an adrenaline but eventually, that does wear off and you feel pretty exhausted, so here are my 5 tips and thoughts on the first few weeks of becoming a parent and things I found were helpful.

1. The first thing I would highly recommend especially if it is your first baby is to make sure you have a few days to yourself and to allow yourself that time to rest as much as you can and to simply enjoy your newborn. I know everyone will say that time flies by, but I promise you it really does I never acknowledged that advice with my first and I wish I had. It's absolutely okay to sit on the sofa, rest, drink tea, eat cake, watch awful telly and just cuddle and enjoy your gorgeous new arrival.
2. The second thing I would recommend is if you have time before your baby arrives when your cooking dinner just make a little extra and then freeze it. It sounds so silly but when you are feeling sore, tired and a little emotional you don't want to have to stress about cooking and sometimes eating properly can be forgotten. So simply getting a meal out of the freezer and heating it up can be a lifesaver especially if you have other children to feed too!
3. This may be completely down to the individual and everyone is totally different but let's talk about friends and family coming to visit. I really think it's best to pace the procession of visitors, it's a fantastic distraction and seeing your friends and family can really take your mind off any pain or discomfort you might have and they tend to be amazing at bringing cake and yummy things with them which again is great. However having visitors every day really can be quite tiring, as lovely as it is to see everyone I think having a day in between really helps. Also if you see everyone in the first week, when life slowly finds a new normal its nice to see friends and family in the coming weeks after having your baby, it gives you something to look forward too.
4. My fourth piece of advice and something I should probably take on board myself is to make sure you look after you, don't forget that amongst taking care of your new baby you also need to take care of you too. As without you being well, you are not able to be the best Mum you want to be and more than that it's very hard work looking after babies and children when you don't feel well as unfortunately they don't understand and nor do they wait or let you rest. So looking after yourself is so important. Make sure you eat and drink properly, sleep and rest when you can and listen to your body it will absolutely tell you when you have overdone it and at that point, it's so important to listen to it.
5. The final tip, do not be afraid to ask for help whether that's from friends or family, its more than okay to ask for help. Although having a baby and giving birth is completely natural there is a still a recovery process no matter what kind of birth you had. There is also a lot of hormones running through your body which can at times make you feel overwhelmed and emotional and that's on top of the lack of sleep. So, it is totally normal to feel tired and out of sorts and that's when it is so important to ask for help, that may simply be a grandparent or friend coming to keep you company, help make tea, put a load of washing on or letting you have a nap. You most definitely haven't failed by asking for any help.

So, there you have it they are my 5 tips and advice on how I managed the first few weeks at home after having my baby. I am not going to lie a lot of the above I didn't do with my first, it is more of what I learnt the first time and carried out the second time around. The beauty of hindsight is a wonderful thing! I do hope that some of them help you when you bring home your beautiful newborn baby and finally the most important piece of advice I have, is enjoy it, enjoy it all there will be lots of up's and down's but I promise you even sometimes when it doesn't feel like it, every moment of parenthood is 200% worth it.