Staying Organized when baby comes!
by Lindsay Harris, GlowBaby
Before I had children I was SUPER organized. I remembered everything. I did not need to write things down and I would freak people out with the details I could recall. I could get everything done and then I would look for more. I remember my co-workers saying to me while I was pregnant that I would lose my memory and chaos would ensue once the baby was born. I would just nod at them when they said this, thinking it could never happen to me. Boy, was I in for a shock!
When my eldest daughter was born I felt like I had been hit by and truck and my brain had left my body. The first night was a blur of feedings and diaper changes. When the nurse came in to ask me when my daughter had last fed, I looked at her like she was nuts. That was when the nurse kindly and patiently explained to me that I needed to write down every feed my daughter had as well as every diaper and whether it was wet or dry. Again I think I looked lost because I distinctly remember her look of sympathy (or was it exasperation). I know I felt lost as I turned to my husband to say “nobody told me that they would ask me to do this”. I felt like I had failed my first test as a mom.
Luckily I was a quick study and I took to recording these important details and added a few of my own to my tracking sheets including vitamins and baths. It’s amazing how the brain does not grasp the simplest of details when it is working on broken, limited sleep. I embraced this tracking as it brought back a sense of control into an otherwise chaotic time in my life and enabled me to feel a semblance of normalcy. When my paediatrician asked me about my daughter’s feedings and diapers I was actually able to answer with confidence. I was able to see my daughter’s progress with her feeds and was able to recognize the start of patterns which ended up helping me when it came time to sleep train. The tracking was also helpful when my parents came over to help with my daughter. I was able to hand over the information and my parents could infer from my notes what my daughter would need next. All in all, keeping these details really helped me organize my life with a newborn during a time when I was desperate to have a bit of control.
Lindsay Harris
Owner of GlowBaby
