Hamilton Postpartum

N.E.S.T.S. - Part 5
🪺
Support
If people offer help, say ‘Yes!’. Make a list of things people can help with — not everyone can help with everything, but everyone can help with something. Practical - help with groceries, meals, toddler pickup/drop off, walking the dog, mowing the lawn, errands. Emotional - a listening ear is world of help. Calling someone on the phone is better connection than texting. Professional - what professional help might you need? Lactation consultants, physiotherapist, psychotherapist, childcare, postpartum doula… Peer - talk to people who are on the same journey as you are. This isn’t going to solve all the problems, but helps you realize that you’re not the only one.
💪🏻

N.E.S.T.S. - Part 4
🪺
Time to yourself
This one feels selfish but it’s not. If you’re busy taking care of everyone else’s needs but not your own, it will wear you down and you will forget how doing things that you love, for yourself, makes you feel like yourself. A walk by yourself. Reading a chapter of a book - or listening to an audiobook, reading poetry or short stories if you can’t get into an actual book right now. Doing art or crafts. Finding this time doesn’t come naturally anymore, you have to schedule it and may need help carving it out, but it’s necessary and worth it.
🎶📚🎨🎧

N.E.S.T.S. - Part 3
🪺
Sleep
This is a hard one, I get it. But can you go to bed earlier instead of scrolling? Can you lie down for 10 minutes instead of doing the dishes or flipping the laundry? Can a support person take over a night time feed 1 or 2 times a week so you can get an uninterrupted stretch of sleep? When your baby has been sleeping through the night, and all of a sudden they go through a sleep regression or illness, dial back your activities during the day so you can catch up on sleep again.
😴😴😴