My little girl went through what they call the “four-month sleep regression”. Which is basically when they decide to wake up all night, as though regressed to being a newborn. Not fun. Minutes felt like hours as we sat and rocked and patted and fed and played and rocked and patted and pushed and, well, you get the picture, almost to the brink of madness. This didn’t last very long, in retrospect, a month at the most. But that month of no sleep felt like a year and the only way we got out of it was to: GET HELP.
Now. It’s hard asking for help when you’re a mum. You think you should know everything! You’re a mum, for chrissakes, you should have it all sorted out, right? Uh, no. Definitely not. Say it with me: There is nothing wrong with asking for help. This applies to any mum who is going through any kind of struggle, whether it’s your first baby or your fifth. All babies are made differently so nobody is an expert and nobody has all the answers.
But as soon as I got help and began sleeping for more than an hour at a time, I started rediscovering myself. I could go and exercise, for example. Nothing helps clear the mind and redirect your energies better than a half hour of jogging or yoga. Those are my two staples.
You can try anything from walking to cycling or pilates and as soon as you start, you’ll notice the difference in your psyche. Suddenly, you’re able to cope better, you feel more alive, you have more bounce in your step, you can be a better mother if you take just a half hour out of your day to invest in yourself. Don’t think of it as exercise for your body, think of it as exercise for your mind. It works.
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