10 Self-Care Tips for NEW MOMS (postpartum health, wellbeing + what I wish I knew)

hello everyone out there how's it going welcome back to my channel it feels so good to sit down and just like chat in a video style that I feel like I haven't done in a while since I had my baby um today I want to actually talk about being a new mom and self-care for new moms in particular I do have a little girl she's two months old her name is Sadie and you know this is something that is just it's what I've been in is this postpartum period of my life that is like what I am currently in you know still in it still going through it but I want to share with you some of some of the things that have been really really helpful for me I don't think that I was very well prepared for the postpartum period I prepared a lot for pregnancy and prepared myself as much as I could for birth but my attitude towards postpartum was very much just like oh I'll just like figure it out when I get there but not really knowing what to expect or what it would be like or what would be helpful for me I honestly didn't really think too much of it um and boy have I learned a lot I just was a new mom and I was super overwhelmed and everything was happening and there's a baby and I'm trying to heal and adjust to this big life change and there's like all these major things that I'm experiencing and I just wasn't really very prepared for it but I hope that this video is helpful for any of you out there who if you are a new mom or if you're gonna be a new mom soon or maybe you're not a new mom maybe you're a little bit further down down the lane that's cool too I hope that some of these tips are still like helpful and relevant to you in some way I do want to thank primally pure for sponsoring today's video super excited to be working with them for this video and I will chat more about them in a few minutes and let's Dive Right In I remember being I don't know if it was like a weak postpartum or so and coming downstairs after spending like a week straight up in the bedroom I had a C-section so there was just not a lot of movement that I could do I mean even a week postpartum really was not moving a whole lot but I had come downstairs and I had gotten dressed and like just feeling like what even is my life like what do I usually do and in those early days what I found to be really helpful was injecting that sense of normalcy from kind of like some of the things from my old routine into this new routine this new life of mine even just making a tea it was like oh my gosh yes I'm gonna make myself a tea it just helped me to feel a little bit more like myself and like my life the life that I'm used to is still in there somewhere um it just looks a little different nourish yourself in little ways you know smoothies are a fantastic way to get a great dose of just nutrition in a glass actually a smoothie that I've been loving lately is a banana peanut butter green smoothie it's just frozen banana avocado spinach peanut butter and hemp seeds I like to throw in there too and some almond milk and it's really really good but yeah just focusing on you know foods that help to promote healing as well for the body you know adequate protein is important and vitamin C rich foods are great too for tissue healing so think strawberries and peppers bell peppers and spinach oranges these kinds of things as well as just really easy snacks I have been just on the snack train these days snacking lots I'm also breastfeeding so that's a part of it too but crackers with hummus yogurt with some fruit banana with peanut butter trail mix like keep these really easy things that you can easily grab accessible and on hand because you're going to need them drinking lots of water also key if you are breastfeeding really really important to stay hydrated and taking your vitamins as well even if you're not breastfeeding you're still taking care of this brand new baby and that takes a lot of energy out of you when you're in those early postpartum days you're definitely not cooking the whole time we had a lot of family and friends bring us meals which is so helpful if there's anyone watching this wondering how you can help someone who is a new parent um bringing meals meals it's really the best so postpartum can be a time where you don't feel particularly glamorous like let's be real here they're spit up everywhere you hardly have time to brush your teeth some days your house is Messier you know you're healing you're not sleeping as well not to mention as well oh my gosh I found that my my back and my neck were so much more sore from like from feeding the baby you know looking down or from rocking her holding her soothing her like all these things just take a toll on you physically in so many ways I highly recommend making a really quick list of some of the things that you that you know make you feel good and just having that little Quick List you can refer to as a little reminder if you're having a day where you're just feeling totally off this could be a hot shower oh my gosh there is truly nothing like a long hot shower as a new parent when you're able to snatch that time time in the earlier weeks I would still feel like I had to kind of hurry up and get back to the baby but still it would just be the best feeling ever taking a hot shower it's like you know you get some silence you get that bit of a break a bit of time to yourself but also having some some good hygiene moments there too some light stretching can be really great to help you feel good physically now of course if you're newly postpartum I'm not talking here doing some workout I'm just talking like sometimes even just putting your arms up over your head and just doing some like gentle like neck rolls or shoulder rolls can be so nice for if you do have like a sore back or a sore neck fixing your hair up a little bit like putting on a little bit of makeup taking an extra five minutes at night to wash your face flossing putting on deodorant also getting yourself some new comfy clothes having had a C-section I definitely even still at like you know two months postpartum I still find that having like looser pants high-waisted pants are just more comfort even though my incision is largely healed it can still get aggravated easier so I just find yeah it's all about the comfy clothes especially because you know things aren't going to fit the same postpartum right understandably you've just had a baby maybe sizing up a size or two or more can just be really really helpful on the topic of feeling good let's talk about deodorant I did not quite realize just how much the way that you smell can change postpartum I was like hotter I'm like sweatier I just don't smell as good and so having a deodorant that works really well is also some something that is an essential if you prefer non-toxic skin care products like myself but that actually work primarily pure is amazing I had heard so many good things about their deodorant in particular although they have a range of different other skin care products but they're deodorants I had heard a lot of good things about so when I tried it I was really excited about it especially just being postpartum and it definitely does work really really well and I have tried a lot of different um natural deodorants and there's Works fantastic primarily pure is an all-natural skin care brand they specialize in non-toxic holistic skin care and Home Products using real ingredients that come from nature so that there is maximum Purity and potency and I also love that all of their products use really minimal ingredients like there's not just a long list of complicated ingredients they're very just simple minimal to the point but they work great um so yeah their deodorant is amazing I also have a couple of their um skin care products too I have their soothing serum their soothing cream I have their body butter is so good too they're soothing serum and cream has blue tansy essential oil in it which gives it that rich blue color it doesn't stain the skin don't worry but it gives it its anti-inflammatory benefits really good for like soothing the skin I've actually used it a little bit on my c-section scar for some scar tissue massage so if you want to give primary pure a try use the code 15 Megan for 15 off site wide I will leave a link for you in the description box below I want to talk about prioritizing what you feel like you deeply need during nap time or when you have a bit of time to yourself so we often hear sleep when the baby sleeps and 100 this is true it is true that when you are really sleep deprived snatching some sleep when the baby is napping is like it's like one of the only times that you could really do that when you need sleep and you should you were going to be a better person as well when you have more sleep like I'm a lot less anxious less impatient less irritable however there were many times when what I actually really needed even more than a nap sometimes even if I was tired was I just needed a moment I just needed a moment to recharge in ways Beyond napping I needed to feel like I was able to take some time for myself to do some of the things that helped me feel like myself maybe this is making myself a snack and just chilling just just chilling just quiet no one bugging me maybe it was watching some YouTube videos on like postpartum experiences which I totally did just hover by the way really love her on YouTube maybe I just wanted to sit on the couch and do nothing or maybe I wanted to journal or you know chat with a friend like text with a friend a little bit the point is that prioritize what it is that you deeply deeply feel like you need sometimes yes that's going to be a Nat but sometimes we also just need to take that free time that precious free time to do something else to recharge and that's okay too let's talk about sleep a little bit and one of the ways that we still are getting through the whole newborn sleep sleeping with a baby how do you get enough sleep how do you navigate that world is taking shifts with your partner if you're able to this has changed since Sadie was like first born she's now a couple months old um but the way that we do it is I take the nighttime wickings and I feed her when she gets up in the middle of the night and then my husband will take her starting at 7am and he'll you know take her downstairs or whatever so that I can sleep more so we're kind of taking shifts in that sense so that we're both able to get a good amount of sleep this might look like doing something more like in the evening where one of you takes the baby in the evening kind of finding what works for you but I've also heard from a lot of other parents too that kind of taking shifts in in this way is really helpful as a new mom something that I had to kind of get used to was being okay with doing less you know the amount that we are able to get done in the way that we would have before is gonna shift it's inevitable but not only that but recovery right when we are recovering when we're healing it's just par for the course that we have to go slow and take things easy and embracing that slowness is really important recognizing that we're in this really unique time of our life where we're already expending a lot of energy on our new Lil person and just that alone as like our Baseline is doing so much for me though even like a few weeks in I was getting restless because I knew I couldn't I still couldn't move around in the same way that I was able to before because I was still healing and it can be frustrating to feel like oh you just want to like be able to do things the way that you used to be um you know especially when it comes to like having less time for things it's okay to even like let go of things completely for a while as a new parent not even freshly postpartum but at any point like our priorities shift my priorities for sure have shifted and honestly in some ways it's been a good way a good way a good thing that I've accepted slowing down in certain areas because it's allowed me to like put my priorities in the right spots instead of feeling like I have to do everything the way I used to be able to do it or whatever or I need to like hurry up and be healed or I need to hurry up and recover all the things so take it easy be okay with taking it easy with taking it slow and going at your own pace as you continue on through the weeks and months as just a new person as a new parent it can be so hard to ask for help you know we want to feel like we can do it all or like we should be able to do it all we feel like if we ask for help or if we need help it means we're not competent enough um when I was maybe I don't know five weeks postpartum my husband was back to work at this point and he had gone into the office on this particular day so he was gone all day like I think he was gone like 12 hours I was alone with Sadie all day and I hadn't slept very well the night before and I just remember thinking like you know to begin with I was already having like a bit of a rough day but I was thinking like I'm going to power through I should be able to do this and my mother-in-law called me that evening just to check in and see how we were doing and I just broke down and was like I just needed her to come over and she came over right away and honestly had she not called I don't know that I would have called her or called anyone to come over and help out even though I needed it so much and it just shows how hard it is to ask for help I think especially as a new parent because we feel like this is my job this is my role I should be able to do it all but the reality is that sometimes that help comes in the form of just someone coming over to talk to you and just having someone to chat with or someone just holding the baby while you can make yourself some lunch or dinner or you know little things it's it's not that you're not competent it's just that sometimes we need to feel like we have that extra support because it's a lot it's a lot I think life with a child through any stage of having kids can be overwhelming at times and we need that support and um yeah so this is my reminder to you to if you know that you're having a day where you really need some extra support or some help reach out to that friend or that family member who um who could come over potentially or even just that you can chat with them over the phone foreign [Music] with other moms with other parents when you just have that sense of camaraderie it as a new parent it is everything you feel like you can chat with people who can relate to what you're going through you can get advice from others especially if you're experiencing the baby blues or postpartum depression like having someone to talk to um is so helpful connection feeling like you're not alone all of these things because it can be an isolating experience whether it's you know friends of yours that have kids that you can reach out to or an old friend that you haven't spoken to in a while but you know that they have a baby I've even found a lot of you guys have been amazing to chat with on Instagram and my DMs that's been really helpful and I have I'm part of a few Reddit groups as well that I can just sort of chat with some moms in there some parent groups something that I haven't yet done but I do want to do is join a couple of like um like activity groups like parent groups with baby you know where you can like meet other parents that's something that I do want to do actually this year um haven't done it yet but is something that do want to do to just kind of again connect with people lastly I want to finish off this video by talking about a little mindset shift so I found that the first roughly six weeks were the hardest but particularly the first like few weeks I was really really struggling I definitely had some of the baby blues I just found it so hard it was such a big life change it was extremely overwhelming I needed a moment so badly but you don't really get one um it's just a lot it's a big learning curve it can be stressful there can be a lot of anxiety and it's just it's just a lot it can be it can be a lot your hormones are also like going all over the place too that can impact how you feel mentally and emotionally and something that quite a few people had said to me and that at the time was helpful but still was hard for me to believe but that now I truly know to be true is that it does get easier when you're kind of in the trenches there and feeling really dark some days and feeling like it's really hard it does get easier as you adjust and as baby adjusts and as make it a little bit older as the weeks go by you get used to it you adapt you adjust and it gets easier so I want to just offer that mindset shift a little bit if you're having a hard day even so that is it for today's video 10 tips for new moms or just moms in general I hope that you found this video helpful and there's some little nugget in here that was useful for you you know I'm only two months postpartum so I you know have a long ways to go here but for any of you out there who have kids who are older you've been through this a few times please absolutely in the comments below share your words of wisdom for just being a new parent or just being a parent generally at any stage but also for kind of postpartum share your tips below what are the things that helped you the most whether that's with self-care or with mental health or with your physical health with healing recovery whatever you want to share share below let's get a little conversation going because I think it can be really helpful for people to read through myself included and that is it thanks again to primally Pure for sponsoring today's video and I will see you all in the next one

Channel: Meghan Livingstone

Views: 25,064

Keywords: meghan livingstone

Id: Ybyo5nRmr1Y

Length: 19min 38sec (1178 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2023