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Welcoming a new child to the world is rarely easy. Usually, it’s far from it. However, over time, you begin to get into something of a rhythm and a routine, you make a home for your child and things feel like they’re moving along nice and stable. Then a new, unexpected problem rears its head and kicks everything back into chaos. It can be stressful to handle as a parent, but you can get through it, especially if you know what to expect.
Here are a few of the common difficulties that parents find unexpectedly appearing in their new baby’s life, and what you can do to handle them as best as possible.
Getting better after giving birth
There are a lot of changes that the body undergoes after giving birth. You can find yourself sore and much less independent than you were before, and this can be frustrating. It’s important to look at ways that you can help speed your recovery after childbirth and to talk about it with your partner and family members so that they might be able to help out where you feel like you’re having trouble. Over time, you should be back to full strength if the birth went without any complications.
Managing those sleepless nights
It’s very much a cliche at this point that new parents get no sleep. There’s a lot of truth to that cliche, however. Your baby is going to spend a lot of its time sleeping, but that time might not be as regular as you would like, and, over time, things like the 9 month regression happen, which can feel like you’re sliding back after making progress in helping them sleep at night. Learning to adapt your sleeping pattern to theirs, grabbing sleep when you can, and creating healthy sleep habits for your baby can help you make it through these tough months.
Feeding them
Your baby doesn’t make it very easy to care for their basic needs, at times. Aside from the fact that they seem to sleep only when it’s most inconvenient for them, a lot of women can find that feeding isn’t as easy as they might like, too. It might feel like your baby isn’t latching or milk isn’t coming out, for instance, or you might find it difficult to produce the milk when you need to. Talking to your midwife about help with feeding can allow you to find the setup that works for you, and there are ways to stimulate the production of breastmilk, including taking care of your own nutrition.
Coping with the crying
The sound of a crying baby is, to put it very simply, unpleasant. It can make you feel worried, it can frustrate you, and it can add to general household stress, especially if you have other kids. Crying is very common for the first two months, but there are plenty of tips you can use to soothe your baby. Holding them, feeding them, swaddling them, and singing to them while rocking can do a lot of good. Alternating between these and putting them down to help them cry themselves to sleep are vital things to keep in mind.
Baby fog is very real
A lot of women find that their minds aren’t quite as sharp as they used to be in the months after giving birth. This isn’t just you being tired, though that certainly does play a factor. Women experience a lot of hormonal changes leading up to and after childbirth and one of the effects is that they can find their memory isn’t quite as good as it used to be. Taking the time to destress and getting as much sleep as you can may help your hormonal levels return back to where they should be much quicker.
Keep your mental health in mind
All women find themselves coping with more stress when they have just had a baby. However, you need to know when things are more stressful versus when you’re really having a tough time with your mental health. Postpartum depression affects a lot of women and there is help that you can get to manage it, you just need to know when to ask. It’s important to bear in mind that postpartum depression is not any kind of personal failure, it’s your mind’s reaction to physical stimuli, such as changing hormones.
Needless to say, raising a baby is never a smooth process, by any means. However, with the tips above, you can at least get a better idea of what to expect and how you can handle it to the best of your ability.
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