When I first came home from the hospital, I didn't have a lot of energy. However, I have a particular way of doing things. I like things cleaned a certain way. I despise clutter. The only other person who can clean my house to my standards, so to speak, is my mother. And actually, she does it better. I wanted to make dinner, I wanted to clean, I wanted to open all the baby gifts and write thank you notes. But the baby, well, she had other plans.
In the beginning, both my children were frequent nursers. I swear I would put them down and 15 minutes later they were hungry again. Or inefficient nursers, who knows. So a lot of my plans were sort of left dangling. The bathrooms weren't getting clean; I barely had enough time to shower and pee, nevermind clean them. The kitchen floor had seen better days. But I didn't want to ask for help.
My mom came over one day and looked at the sight of our living room and immediately set to work. She brought me a basket of clean clothes to fold while I nursed and tried to calm the babe. She cleaned the house and left it feel fresh as a daisy. My mother-in-law came over and played with my other daughter in the yard, leaving me time to nurse, bond and rest.
I wanted to believe I could do it all, but I couldn't. Nor was I expected to. If I needed help, I just had to ask. Breastfeeding isn't easy. Neither is recovering from having a baby. Neither is keeping up a house with a newborn. Neither is having a toddler. Combine all those things and you have the perfect storm.
If you can't do it all, ask a family member or neighbor or your husband to take a few chores off your plate. It's only a few weeks until your baby is past that must-eat-all-the-time newborn stage and on to something else. Don't blink or you might miss it.
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