How to make time for YOU after baby.
I’m sure you all heard it during pregnancy, “sleep when the baby sleeps” or “get ready for it all to be about baby and not you.” Whenever I heard those things I always was like, “okay, yeah but really is it that bad?” Little did I know that they were ALL right. I had a hard time balancing it all and this wasn’t just RIGHT after I had my daughter it was actually when she was around 1 years old that I probably had the hardest time.
I was wondering where my social life went, where did my really awesome 2 hour gym session go and my dreamy life of taking overseas vacations go. How could I get some of that back? I knew I couldn’t get it all back just because of #momlife but I wanted to figure out how I could balance being a mom, home duties, work duties and still have time for ME.
Well, to tell you the truth I don’t have some magical answer for you. I honestly don’t even have a clear-cut answer for you. But, what I can say is that getting some of that balance back and making time for you is doable it just takes work as well as scheduling and a partner that is open to helping you with make it happen.
It wasn’t until my daughter was probably 1.5 years old that I finally got a schedule down where I could fit in at least 1 hour workouts, could still try to plan some traveling in my life as well as make sure to include girls’ nights. All of those things are different now, but at least I’m partaking in them. Vacations are not 12 days long, traveling solo in Bali… but they are 6 days long and I’m still having an amazing time being the adventurous person I am. I can’t spend 2 hours at the gym every day, but I at least get in an hour workout and just kick up the intensity every now and then. My social life revolves a lot more around play dates but every once in a while I make sure to do dinners with girlfriends with no kids and have some fun going out on the town. And sleep? Well, I’m still working on trying to get to bed earlier. That is a work in progress!!
The point is, yes, your life changes after kids but you don’t have to forget about YOU! The things you did before kids you can still do. Will they be different? Yeah, but can you adapt and make new things even more exciting and fun then pre-kids. Just take the time to plan out your week to include at least 1-2 YOU things. Gym, dinner with Girlfriends or even a mani/pedi. We moms need to keep the balance and that all starts with preparation and planning. Tell your partner that if you can get Saturday morning to go for a massage, he gets the afternoon to watch football! Get creative and plan plan plan… for YOU time! It will be so worth it in the end for you and everyone else around you.