Baby Blues and Routine

So to be perfectly clear:  I am calling this Baby Blues instead of Post Partum Depression (PPD) for a reason.  I never went to a Dr to address my mood, didn't speak to a nurse.  I just drove around town crying and cocooning in my house.  I buried myself in projects and made serious use of my baby swing and remembered how to sleep with my baby.  If it weren't for my wonderful partner (DH) I would have been shipwrecked.

I am no stranger to the blues. 11 years ago I dropped in on them when I subjected myself to a two hour rotation of breast pumping for 4 months, and climbed out after I was delivered to my Father's cottage in Nova Scotia for the late Spring and Summer.  I had similar dips over the decade as I traversed the mountain range that was my life.

When my second marriage dissolved I ended up with a wonderful physician who specialized as a Life Coach doing a talk therapy approach to mood management. Through my conversations with Peter I garnered the following list of tasks to follow:

1. get your heart rate up for 20 minutes every day
2. Hang out with non-work friends once a week
3. Eat fish 3 times a week
4. Sleep
5. Pick one issue at a time and address a small part of it

So - up and at it at a decent hour - try to get in the shower right after my DH, and get that baby on a routine!

My girlfriends and I met at a local comedy club for dinner and a show, and my BFF came up from Altanta and spent a week with me getting her head wrapped around my life, and picked up the baby's cold.

I attended the Landmark Forum in September 2013 and it has been an invaluable addition to my life (in its subtractions and reductions)  and it has given me the tools I needed to deal with the #5s (above).  

Routine is huge.  Creating is huge.  Recognizing and expressing gratitude for the love I feel is essential.

Surprise! You're about to be an over 40 new mom!

The first time through I was 30 when my son was born, and THEN I was one of the older moms in my rural playgroups circles.  I was alone in a new town (my mother had passed away a few years before), with an absentee ex-husband, and only The Baby Whisperer to guide me, unless I attended the Better Beginnings meetings and playgroups.

I have done great - a working, single mom for most of my parenting life so-far - my son has made it to 10 and 3/4 without any major scars.  R has a manageable education barrier (his hand writing is terrible - identified as a learning disability), but he is super-bright about all things Greek history, and has exactly the right amount of fear.

So now I am 41.  6 months ago we realized that after all the years of failed pregnancies, I had a pregnancy that was going to stick!








A new bundle is due in the coming weeks, a new boy, and this time with a engaged, wonderful (first-time) father-to-be.