Use your visitors
It can be a revolving door of visitors when you have a new baby and while the gifts and love are genuinely wonderful, there are also a few practical things your friends and family can do to help you. We’re talking about taking your baby for 20 minutes so you can have a shower, or even better, a bath!
Or what about a nap?
There’s nothing worse than entertaining guests and looking at your sleeping baby thinking ‘I could be asleep too right now’. Grandparents and friends may relish the opportunity to hold your bundle while you have a rest upstairs.
Go for a walk
You’re probably getting loads of miles under your belt walking with your pram but this isn’t relaxing if you’re trying to settle a crying baby or get them to sleep. A solo walk with a coffee and podcast can do a world of good especially if you’re finding being at home more than usual a bit suffocating. If your partner works and this is tricky during the week, maybe you could find the same time each weekend to get out into the fresh air.
Have a solo coffee with a book
If you feel like you do enough walking with the pram perhaps a coffee, alone or with a friend, might be what’s needed. A hot coffee - and the obligatory piece of cake - that you can take your time over, while also chatting or reading a book, might have been something you took for granted before you had your baby but we can reassure you that when you have a newborn, it will feel like SUCH a treat!
Treat yourself to a manicure or massage
Everything might smell faintly of baby sick and the laundry pile might be bigger than ever but that doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself. If you can sneak out for an hour, why not book a massage or manicure? It will give you the opportunity to switch off from everything and also feel a bit pampered, which you TOTALLY deserve!
If getting out of the house is tricky, there are loads of companies which offer mobile treatments and will come to you. Secret Spa offers everything from manicures, to massages and haircuts.