Organized New Mom Tip #6: Schedule one thing a day from your to-do list

There were several days back when Will was new that I felt I never got anything done and I went to bed with that overwhelmed, nagging, staring at the ceiling until 3 AM kind of feeling. Then, I felt even worse because I was sleep-deprived not from a newborn but from simply not being able to sleep when I should have.  For a control freak like me, it was driving me crazy.

While it’s completely normal to find yourself behind on normal day-to-day tasks when you are in the throes of new motherhood, I found a solution to help me feel like I had some sort of life preserver to keep me afloat.  It’s really as simple as pulling out your organizer, your cell phone, your wall calendar, or whatever you use to keep your life in order and scheduling just one little task everyday to accomplish.

If you really do have a love affair with organization like I do, I know you have a little calendar contraption of sorts. Mine until recently was my cell phone calendar which just turned into my Galaxy Tablet calendar. It really doesn’t matter what yours is, as long as it helps you stay organized and feel caught up. Here’s how I used mine to help me sleep like a baby (when I wasn’t taking care of one):

·         Make sure the task you schedule for yourself is easily attainable; otherwise if you don’t finish it you’ll end up feeling even more overwhelmed and frustrated.

·         Choose your daily task wisely. To help you decide from your mountain of must-do’s, schedule the one thing that would make your life the hardest if you didn’t get it done.

·         When you finish the task, go back and cross it off your list. This is nothing but therapeutic, but it still gives me a little surge of satisfaction whenever I do it. This silly little step really helped me through those especially frustrating times.

·         As you find yourself feeling ready to take on more daily tasks, go ahead and schedule them in slowly. Eventually you’ll be back to your old self juggling tons of appointments, errands and other adventures. The only difference now is you’re doing it with your baby on your hip.

I’ll leave you with an example of my initial calendar schedule when Will was first born. You can see I was not joking when I say to keep it simple at first.  Obviously I did more things during the week than what is listed below, but again, the point of this calendar is not to keep a log of your daily occurrences, but to help you get through that one rough day of the week when nothing gets done and to stay motivated and optimistic for the next one. God speed.

Monday: Water plants

Tuesday: Wash sheets

Wednesday: Groceries

Thursday: Target – Gotta love the Bullseye! J

Friday: Laundry

Organized New Mom Tip #5: Keep an umbrella stroller in the car

I used to keep Will’s umbrella stroller in the garage, and I kept finding myself out and about wishing I had thrown it in the car. Then I wised up and actually threw it in the back of the car one day and it hasn’t spent one more night in the garage since. I love the fact that it’s one less thing I have to remember.

Obviously if you have a newborn, umbrella strollers don’t do you much good yet. Here’s a list of other baby carrier items that are useful to keep in the car:

·         Baby sling

·         Baby backpack

·         Baby Bjorn

·         Grocery Cart Covers (I used one of these exclusively for months)

Think about your day to day life and keep what is useful to you in your vehicle. It’s much more pleasant than either forgetting it or having to lug it back and forth from the garage to your home.  Save the workouts for the gym.

One of Will's many cat naps in his umbrella stroller

Organized New Mom Tip #4: Different “diaper” bags for different trips

At my baby shower, I was so excited to receive the oversized, adorable diaper bag I had registered for.  When Will was first born, I carried it around with me everywhere, but by the time he was a few weeks old, my perfect diaper bag became more like dead weight.  Not only was I lugging around a baby carrier (with a 6 week old who was in the 100th percentile in height AND weight), I was dragging around a monster diaper bag which was only half full.

Here’s the solution: have 2 or 3 different sized “diaper” bags packed at the ready. If you’re just going for a walk, grab the small messenger bag. If you’re going out for a morning of shopping followed by playgroup, take along the backpack or tote. Save the oversized gargantuan diaper bag for full day or weekend trips.

This might mean you need to get duplicate items for the different diaper bags, but for me, it was totally worth it knowing I could just grab a bag and go. Here’s a list of a few essentials that I always had packed in ALL of my different bags:

·         2-3 diapers

·         Wipes Case

·         Changing Pad (for the small bags, I just used a small disposable liner)

·         Pacifier w/ Clip

·         Change of Clothes

·         Baby toy

·         Receiving blanket (this can also double as a nursing cover)

·         Bib/burp cloth

Of course, the bigger the bag=the longer you’re away from home=more things you’ll need to pack for Baby. The above list of items is just what I needed almost all of the time in every different scenario of my day.  

One more tip: upon arrival back to your humble abode, be sure to replace any baby essentials that you might have taken from your bag during the trip BEFORE you put the bag away; otherwise, the whole bag system goes down the drain. Trust me, it’s not pleasant being stuck in the grocery store bathroom with nothing between you and your baby’s bottom but a thin piece of receiving blanket fabric. J



The diaper bag that ate Tokyo: perfect for a weekend trip
(not for a trip to the store)



My preferred small day-to-day "diaper"  bag
Go Rox