by Silva Payne

Created on: January 31, 2009

The biggest tip for new mothers is this: the sky will not fall down if you do not do everything today that you intended to do.

New mothers often don't realise how tired they will be, physically and mentally, once their baby (or babies) arrives. Nothing can prepare you for it, especially if you give birth naturally; you will find you had muscles in your back that nobody told you were there and that now are so sore you feel like you've been run over by a truck. Twice. The pre-birth brain fog that everyone thought was so cute, now just annoys people. Your boobs are leaking, you smell like baby sick and you are wondering if you will ever wear anything other than sweat pants ever again! Take a deep breath, then exhale, and know that you are not alone and there are ways to get through this strange and mysterious thing called Motherhood.

Before the baby came, you may not have paid much attention to what clothing got washed and ironed because you are a woman, and generally we have lots of clothes we can wear at any given moment. For then next few months at least, you need to keep the ironing down to a minimum (and let Hubby learn how to do his own shirts). Sort out your clothes into those that need ironing and those that don't, and put the ones that don't at the front of your closet. Baby clothes do not need ironing. Ever.

Now look around your bedroom: is there anything in the room that belongs in a different room in the house? Laundry? Dirty cups or plates? Garbage? This is important, because you are about to learn tip number 2. Never leave a room with your hands empty. Get into the habit of doing a quick scan around the floor and surfaces before you walk from one room to another and see if there is anything you should be taking with you.

So you make it into the kitchen and the baby is still napping. There is a pile of dishes to do, dinner to make, an empty washer, and the cat has brought something unmentionable in as a present for you. Before you launch into any of it, take a moment to work out a strategy: loosely prioritise things in your head (because loosely is the only way you are going to function at the moment) and decide if there is anything you can set in motion that can take care of itself while you do something else. If you walked in with laundry in your hands, there is no point just dumping it by the machine and then going to clean up after the cat, because laundry wont do itself and you will have another trip to the washer just to get it going. The cat's

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