Supermom syndrome:

How is it possible to continue maintaining our lives when we are blessed with a baby? Before baby, life already seemed so hectic. Trying to cook moist dinners, keep our homes tidy and keeping up with laundry already seemed like an unachievable task. But now, you have a baby. On average, general newborn care such as feeding, diapering, bathing and soothing our newborns takes about 7.5 hours per day. That’s 7.5 hours we already didn’t have. 

The Supermom Syndrome means that we still try to attempt all the tasks we used to do with a new baby in tow. It’s impossible! Trust me, I tried it. Instead of resting when my babies napped, I would do a load of laundry and wash my dishes. I remember running back and forth from the kitchen to the family room, trying to cook dinner and keep my twins and toddler from having meltdowns. Once I got everyone settled into bed for the night, I would empty my dishwasher, do another load of laundry, wash my floors and even try to grab a shower. 

Needless to say, I always ended up with 3 loads of clean laundry sitting on the floor waiting to be folded for days, we often ate burned dinners and when I tried to take a shower I usually ended up falling asleep on my bed half dressed thinking I would close my eyes for just a second and ended up passing out for the night. And the next day it started all over again. No matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t keep up until one day I decided that all that could wait. If I didn’t do the laundry, eventually my husband would have no clothes to wear and decide to toss in a load and yes, we ate a lot of pizza but at the end of the day, I didn’t feel like such a zombie.

Ladies, we CAN’T do it all. There just isn’t enough hours in a day. If you can get the help from a friend, family member or even a volunteer from your community, get it. Our kids are small for such a short time. All that other stuff will still be there in the morning. One thing that I can be thankful for is that my babies did sleep well. And that is probably the one single thing that made everything else seem ok. So, as your Doula and Infant Sleep Specialist, I’d love to help you make life a bit easier. Send me your questions and hopefully, I can help you get over the supermom syndrome and at least help you get a bit more of that illusive sleep.