Five Minute Self Care For Mums

No matter what you do for a living whether you are a stay at home mum or the exec of a multi national we all need some time out and to concentrate on our self care. If we don’t look after ourselves we run the risk of getting severe burn out. This is when we are truly good for nothing. Here’s my Bloom Baby Classes guide to finding time to focus and find yourself again.

Juggling life as a parent can be one heck of a stress. Rushing from place to place returning to a house full of laundry and a sink full of dirty pots can make you feel even more overwhelmed than you do already. As a mum of three girls, all with big personalities I often feel like my job is never done and this often adds to my pre-existing condition of anxiety. However learning to take a little time of for myself helps me regain a little control and avoids me from burning out completely. The struggle really is real to stay on top of things but in this blog I will give you a couple of self care tips that wont break the bank and do not require you spending hours away from home.

There is lots of advice out there for “taking time out for you”, “take a weekend away with friends” when you are completely skint and too exhausted for company. For most parents these ideals of “me time” is just completely unobtainable. People would say to me “you need a break go and have a nice relaxing bath”. A bath in my house with at the time 3 under 4 year olds was just a recipe for disaster with the toddler trying to climb in, the preschooler needing a poop and the baby crying. Life became a stress and exhaustion takes it out of you. You quickly can become exhausted and start to burnout symptoms may include:

• Feeling parental fatigue

• Feeling constantly tired

• Being too tired to parent properly

• Feeling overwhelmed and not enjoying parenthood

• Feeling tired, grumpy and no longer like yourself

• Poor eating habits

• Poor mental health

• Feeling sad and anxious

• Insomnia and sleep problems

Finding ways to focus on your self care enable us to regroup and recharge our batteries and also take the edge of some of this symptoms. Here are my top tips to help.

Bedtime relaxation

Take just five minutes before bedtime to really focus on your breathing and try to relax as much as possible. If you have lots on your mind write a list before you start and get all those worries and parenting reminders out of your head they can wait till tomorrow. Count your breaths in and out. Breathe in and try to fill your tummy as much as possible with air, breathe out slowly and repeat do this ten times. Just five minutes will leave you feeling relaxed and ready for rest,

Take a break outside

The great outdoors is proven to help our health. Just five minutes of some fresh air can make you feel different. Got more time? Take a walk? Enjoy the outdoors , look at the trees and focus on the nature around you (if you have any) if you don’t just declutter your mind and think about YOU!

Read

Five minutes of reading can help you switch off. Choose a magazine you enjoy and put the kettle on. Chores can wait for five minutes. Enjoy!

Just five minutes a day add up to 35 minutes a week - go on treat yourself! Have more time to spend? Try 10 minutes - that’s over 70 minutes of self care a week. Go You! Imagine how much of that book you have been longing to read you could get through!

Nutrition

It’s all to easy to skip meals or over indulge on sugary snacks when your sleep deprived and I truly believe that ANY mum should give herself a break and not focus too much on her weight or worry that she doesn’t have her pre baby body back. Lets face it who cares and does it even matter? Drinking enough water though helps your body. I feel so much better after drinking at least 1 litre of water a day. Often I will challenge myself to drinking 2 litres and have to say it does me the world of good.

Take an early night

No going to bed early does not make you boring, it actually helps your body to get you through this parenting job! Even half an hour earlier than your normal bedtime can do wonders for your mental health. This is also so important if you are still getting up and down in the night with a child. Put that programme on record and catch up on it tomorrow. Though it might be completely impossible in those first few years of becoming a parent 8 hours is what your body needs to stay on top. A daytime nap when the baby sleeps can also help fill in the gaps. Don’t feel guilty the washing can indeed wait.

So even if your busy and feel you have no time for you just five minutes each day can be implemented into your daily routine and help your well-being.

How do you practice self care as a busy mum? I would love to hear so comment below or drop me an email at victoria@bloomwellbeing.co.uk.

Writer:Victoria Jennings Founder of Bloom Baby Classes.

#babyclasses #wellbeing #selfcare

Bloom-Baby-Classes-My-First-Baby-And-Me

23.10.08 01.50am

After 41 hours of a traumatic labour with a difficult delivery Ana Rose was born … The last time sleep had graced me was 3 days before and Ana arrived into the world bruised and scraped from the failed ventouse and the forceps. Flashbacks of a doctor kicking their white pumps off and putting her foot against the bed to extract her out of me ring back even to this day. Not one person had prepared me for this!

I was too scared to close my eyes through fear she would stop breathing, every time I tried to put her down she cried . The first night home she cried for over 3 hours and neither me or my now husband knew what to do. At one point he asked if we should take her back to the hospital! We were clueless, handed a bundle of crying red baby and sent on our way to cope by ourselves. Night four of no sleep made me see things, I kept staring at Ana and seeing her pull funny faces. I knew it was my tiredness at the time and not that I had brought a possessed baby home from the hospital but the thought did enter my head.

Most days she cried slept and fed repeat, and I held her, sleeping upright with her on my chest then after around a week we gave in and let her co-sleep. Dave would go to the shops for provisions on his way home from work and cook me a meal, id sit holding or feeding her unable to eat my meal and Dave would dutifully cut up the food so I could shovel pieces into my mouth every now and then.

Ana and I would watch box sets on the TV I spent a week watching all the pride and prejudices quite proudly and would report back each evening how many episodes I had watched. There were no baby classes to take her to or none that I knew of - not that I would of gone anyway.

When Ana was around 3 months old I felt a bit more able to go shopping and enjoyed the trip around Tesco perusing the baby aisle and would aim to get out of the house every other day. The supermarket became my best friend, Ana would fall asleep in the car seat on the way home, I would then sit in the car waiting for her to wake up as she slept lightly so attempting to bring the seat in the house always ended in her waking up. She rarely fell asleep in the pushchair so that was my routine. Some days I would just go for a drive waiting for her to fall asleep.

At four and a half months I returned to work, working almost full time hours and Ana went to my good friends who was a childminder so she was in very safe hands. There was little sleep at night as we were still co-sleeping and feeding in the night. Id leave for work at 730am and be home for 6pm life became tiresome, work was no longer enjoyable and at weekends all I wanted to do was sleep and pass Ana to her Dad.

That’s when I realised … I had started to feel different. I was different. I wasn’t happy one bit in fact I felt the complete opposite. I felt dread, sadness and an overbearing feeling of something literally hanging above my head. I didn’t want to socialise , I didn’t want to spend time with anyone. Spending time with Ana was tiring so I almost robotically parented her, handing her over to her Dad whenever I could. I was sad very sad and it scared me to death.

I decided after Anas first birthday to make more of an effort for my husband , Ana and myself. It was hard but I could no longer carry on in this way, it was difficult but small steps helped. I learnt about myself, ate healthier , walked more, got out more , made an effort to socialise more. Small steps, each day and I was able to self manage my sadness, enjoy my family more and the cloud started to lift…

For anyone reading this recognising those feelings feeling scared, reach out get in touch, talk. It does get easier you can feel yourself again. Bloom Baby Classes provided safe, relaxing and welcoming baby classes and know being a mum isn’t always so easy and we love getting to know our mums and their babies.

Vic x