newborn – NutriFoody Wholly Holism

Motherhood Challenges

Today makes 19 months of me being a mother and I can’t believe how quickly it has gone by. A year and a half later I can definitely say there are challenges with motherhood or being a parent. I won’t talk about all of those challenges in this blog post but I will focus on one that I’ve struggled with probably since the beginning and that is time management. As much as I want to make plans for my day, do things for myself or create content or study that doesn’t quite go as planned. Some days I can barely get to it at all if I’m lucky!

So the question is how do you manage your time or make time for yourself. Good question lol . To start nap time is your best friend. During a nap you can do one of two things. You can take a nap yourself or you can use that time to get EVERYTHING done! . Just kidding, do not do that and try to cram everything into that nap time because believe or not that nap time goes by quickly at least when your little one is past one year old. When babies are first born and in the newborn stages that is when they sleep more. My son used to sleep for 2-3hours and sometimes longer. So you have more time to work with when they are newborns but once they are a little older the nap times become shorter and shorter so do what you can with the time that you have.

One thing that got really bad after I gave birth was the pregnancy brain. Pregnancy brain turned into mom brain and mom brain is much tougher for me and I forget things easily so when I have ideas for content I have to make sure I jot them down right away or I will forget. So always write down your ideas. Always plan ahead if you can and have either a notepad or use a notepad app on your phone. Even if you can’t get to what you need to do, you know that you have everything written down.

So when it comes to time management when you have children no matter their age we have to adjust and that is one thing I’m learning on this journey of parenthood.

Written By: Vanessa J

Prepartum Depression and Postpartum Depression

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Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com

Prepartum and Postpartum Depression

This blog post is for all my mama’s out there and mama’s to be. Let’s get real and let us talk about postpartum depression but only not postpartum but prepartum depression which is something I experienced the first few months of my pregnancy.

It is said that the cause for postpartum depression is unknown but can be linked to rise and drop in hormone levels after giving birth. After a woman gives birth they given six weeks before coming back for their first postpartum checkup. In my opinion that first visit just goes by really fast and because postpartum depression is such a big topic of discussion in motherhood and pregnancy one screening for postpartum depression is not enough. Thats exactly how it went for me and several mama’s out there. During your six week check up you are given a questionnaire to fill basically asking you questions in relation to how you are feeling at that time. If you score above a certain number on that questionnaire it may mean you might have postpartum depression.

After my six week visit everything was good and my doctor said to come back in a year. I was thinking to myself a year? Thats it? That is all? This is where I feel things go wrong screening for postpartum depression should not just be after the first six weeks but should continue throughout that first year of being postpartum.

As for my experience with prepartum depression which I am not sure is really a term but that’s what I would call it, I experienced this between my 2nd to 4th month pregnancy. I just remember feeling really down and like I didn’t feel like myself, I didn’t want to get out of bed. Throughout most of my pregnancy I did feel very sick and was nauseated and dry heaving almost everyday so some of those things could have played a factor to making me feel more depressed but it just a different feeling that I never felt before.

It is very important that we know the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression which are:

Depressed mood or severe mood swings
Excessive crying
Difficulty bonding with your baby
Withdrawing from family and friends
Loss of appetite or eating much more than usual
Inability to sleep (insomnia) or sleeping too much
Overwhelming fatigue or loss of energy
Reduced interest and pleasure in activities you used to enjoy
Intense irritability and anger
Fear that you’re not a good mother
Hopelessness

If you feel that you may be exhibiting any signs of postpartum depression please reach out to your primary care provider

Written By: Vanessa J

Check Out My Youtube Video on Postpartum Depression

Blogmas day 13 – My Favorite Baby Items 2019 (add to your wishlist)

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I am loving being a new mom so far and there are a load of baby items out there. I wanted to share with all of you, especially for all the moms to be my favorite baby items. If your looking to get anything for the holidays take a look at these items:

#1. Boppy

I absolutely love the boppy and it has helped out so much. You can say it is an infant lounger but my son is practically in it all the time. Sometimes he doesn’t always like to lay completely flat and the boppy gives him an extra cushion and comfort.

#2. Munchkin Warm Glow Wipes Warmer

This is a must have because one thing babies do not like is getting their diapers changed. They do not like the feeling of cold wipes. Before we started using this my son cried for everything diaper change, now for most of his changes he is as calm as can be.

# 3. NoseFrida Suction

You will love this one even though I am not as great at doing this as my husband it gets the job done. If your little one has buggies in their nose grab your frida and suction away!

# 4. Medifrida

I absolutely love this! If your little one ever needs any medicine this is the perfect. Comes with a medication syringe and pacifier to dispense the medication through the pacifier!

#5 . SwaddleMe Velcro Swaddle

Sometimes the most simple thing is actually hard to do. It was so hard to swaddle my son when he first arrived home. He was very fussy and would break free from our swaddles. These velcro swaddles helped us to hold him in place better.

# 6 . Avent Anti-Colic Bottles

These bottles helped us out a great deal because the first month my son was extremely colic. Part of it was due to the discomfort he was experiencing from gas. These bottles will stop your little from swallowing too much air when they drink their bottle. The bottles come with an air vent stopper in order to trap any air in the bottle. This is a must have.

# 7. American Red Cross Deluxe Health and Grooming Kit for Infant

This kit comes handy with everything you will need for your baby such as a thermometer, comb, brush, medication syringe, finger toothbrush, spoon , and many more items. It is also easy to carry around do not skip this one!

I hope you all enjoyed this list and there will be many more posts like this. Happy Holidays!

Blogmas Day 12- Oh Baby!

December 12, 2019Leave a comment

This year I was blessed with one of the greatest gifts I found out I was expecting and the baby was arriving this same year! . I was excited and nervous at the same time. As much as I felt I had experience with children such as babysitting my younger cousins and watching them grow up there is nothing like having your own child. Then you begin to wonder what your child will be like , how will their personality be ?

There is no instruction manual that can fully prepare you to become a parent. For some reason I thought that babies just sleep all day 😩😩😩😩 boy was I wrong! My baby boy was born in October and when I tell you first month was rough , it was rough. Shortly after arriving back home from the hospital the baby was sound asleep peacefully then once night hit my husband and I were up for hours. We couldn’t figure out how to calm him down everything we did changing him, soothing him, and feeding him nothing worked. We were more than sleep deprived. We soon figured out that our baby boy was colic. I had heard the term but didn’t quite know exactly what it meant. Then I learned that it is the term for when a baby cries for more than 2 hours straight.

Then we started to get nervous because people were telling us “colic” could last for up for up to three months or more. Then at his first doctor’s visit the doctor told us “colic ” is not really a real diagnosis or condition but just a term. We soon figured out that the reason he might be fussy is because he has gas and his digestive system was very sensitive. He was not being breastfed so we tried changing his formula to something more gentle and that seemed to help a lot.

One thing to remember is that babies have to get used to being outside the womb after being in there for nine months. They do not know the difference between day and night, so during the day they sleep and during the night they may be a bit more cranky.

Now at two months my son is currently much better and started to develop a routine even though the routine is not permanent we are happy he is doing much better!

Oh Baby!!!!