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Life as a New Mom During a Pandemic

04.21.20

Life as a New Mom During a Pandemic

Sometimes I find it surreal what is actually happening to the world right now. It’s 2020 and the Covid-19 outbreak is happening and everyone is practicing social distancing. I, on the other hand, am adjusting to life as a new mom during a pandemic and a lot of my family and friends are always checking in to see how both Partaap Singh and I are doing. And, honestly, I’m doing great. Because truth be told, I was already kind of practicing social distancing since Partaap Singh was born.

Since PS was born, I have been super anxious about being alone or being away from the home. And with this pandemic, both of those anxieties have pretty much gone away. Although I live my in laws and my mother in law is always home, the times she did step away to run a few errands and I was home all alone with PS, I would be super stressed out. I was afraid something would happen to PS while she was out and I wouldn’t know what to do. Since Ontario is in a state of emergency and we are told to stay home, guess what? She’s always home. And if she isn’t, Gursheel is.

Because Gursheel is also working from home, I am beyond grateful. Gursheel had taken 2 months of paternity leave and then once it was over, he had a couple of weeks of vacation he needed to take since he started a new job. He did just one week of work at his new job and then everyone was told to work from home. So, basically, since PS was born, Gursheel has been home the entire time, except for one week. I find it to be such a blessing that Gursheel gets to spend so much time with his son.

Another thing I wanted to mention was PS HATES being in his car seat (but I love the Maxi Cosi Mico Max 30). The instant we put him in his car seat, he cries and the crying escalates to what I call “scary crying.” And when you’re in a moving car and your baby is in the car seat, there is not much you can do to soothe him. So, I’m so happy PS has not experienced any more of these traumatizing experiences in the car seat since we have been home the whole time. He does have his vaccinations next week so I’m super stressed about how that will go, but we shall see.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, I went out alone for a couple of appointments and I was super anxious about being away from PS. All I could think was I hope this appointment ends soon so I can be back home with PS. But now, with everything shut down, I am unable to even make any appointments. Although I would love a massage (my neck is so sore from nursing and carrying PS all day), my anxiety about being away from my son is gone for now.

So, all in all, I have been enjoying life as a new mom during a pandemic. I get to spend all day with my son and both Gursheel and my mother in law are home to help me along. With the weather getting better, I’m looking forward to going out for walks, but in the meantime I have been listening to a lot of books (check this post for some book recommendations). I can’t wait for the lockdown to end so we can finally see all of our family again but until then I am enjoying life as a new mom at home.

Hope you all are well 🙂

Collaborations

Is It Time to Upsize the Family Home?

04.02.20

https://unsplash.com/photos/561igiTyvSk

Your first home is a special one. It is the place where you start to build memories of your life together. It is the chance to start becoming a real adult, and it is the first chance you will ever have to own property. All in all, it’s an exciting time.

Still, while some people remain in one home forever, this isn’t the case for everybody. As needs change, families grow finances stabilize, so there are always families considering upsizing.

But how do you know if your family needs to upsize? To help give you a better idea of whether upsizing is right for you, here are some questions you need to ask yourself.

Is the Family Growing?

A growing family is always a sign that you need to upsize the family home. There is only so long that kids can share a bedroom, especially if they are moving into their teenage years. It’s not just physical growth, of course. If you’re planning on having more kids, they will need a room to call theirs, also.

You should also think about pets, especially if you’re planning on purchasing as many as your partner will allow. Pets need space to explore and play, and a larger house, possibly with a larger backyard, will make that possible.

Is the House A Perpetual Mess?

No matter who you are, it’s likely that your home gets messy sometimes, but if your house feels like it is perpetually messy, it could be a sign that you have too much stuff for the space that’s available.

A cluttered home is never comfortable to live in, so rather than try to stack games, camping gear, shoes and everything else you can think of on top of one another or shove it into a closet, moving to a place with more space could be the solution. You will be able to organize your things better, so you’ll know where everything is, and that in itself will save you plenty of stress.

Have Your Needs Changed?

As you grow older, your needs change. When you were younger, you may have only needed a studio apartment. As long as you had a bed and a kitchen, you were happy. However, when growing a family, there are other things that you require. You might want a backyard for practicing soccer with your kids; you may want to start a garden. Likewise, inside, you may discover a love for pottery, and you’ll need a workshop to make your vases and bowls.

A smaller home cannot sufficiently make this possible, but upsizing your house could allow you to explore all of these new hobbies that you have picked up as you’ve grown older.

Are You Feeling Boxed In?

When moving into your first home, you likely revel in the amount of space you have, especially if you’ve only lived in apartments beforehand. However, the longer you live there, and the more stuff you acquire, the more you will start to feel boxed in.

This is not good for anyone, and you might even start to feel claustrophobic in your own home, which is never what you need. Feeling boxed in can cause you to resent the house you are living in. You might feel like you never get a moment’s rest. So, to overcome this, moving to a larger home can help you breathe easy again, and you’ll fall in love with your new home instantly.

Can You Afford It?

Perhaps the biggest question you need to ask yourself is whether you can afford to upsize the house? Thankfully, you can use a mortgage calculator to understand the payments, and this will give you an excellent idea of whether upsizing is the right move for you.

If you can’t afford it right now, there are alternatives. You can consider getting an extension, as this is an investment that can add value to the home while also giving you more space. Extensions can also be expensive, though, so it’s worth proceeding with caution when considering this. Often, you are never too desperate to move, and so you can always wait a while to get your finances right to ensure you are financially ready once you feel that you need to move home.

Upsizing

Upsizing the family home is a great way to explore a new chapter in your life. While it will never be your first home, and leaving this house will be bittersweet, moving is still something to look forward to. You will get to make new memories, have more space to move around and live, and have the opportunity to make a house yours all over again.

If you haven’t found the dream family home you have been searching for then there is one other option. You could think about building your own home. Yes, it may be a lot of work but it will be worth it in the end. You could have all the rooms you have ever wanted and make it your own by cusomizing the sizes and layout of the rooms. If this is something you are interested in doing, you can learn more here! This option can be a bit pricey, but if it is your only option then there are ways you can do it on a budget. You could buy a home at auction, knock it down, and then rebuild your own custom home on that exact site. Make sure you are only using valod companies with previous reviews and testimonials from other customers and clients.

Bekaming a mom

Partaap Singh – 3 Month Update

03.23.20

Boy, I’m not going to lie, but the first three months with a new baby were hard! I had an idea of what to expect, but you only learn when you go through the experience yourself. Looking back, it feels like time literally flew by and I can’t believe my little guy is already 3 months today.

All PS did the first month was eat, sleep, pee and poo. I was getting up every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-4 hours at night to feed him. Then I would change his diaper and get him to go back to sleep. Putting him back to sleep in the first month was so much easier compared to the second month. But the first month was hard mostly because I could barely move as I recovered from giving birth. Read all about my postpartum essentials list here. I also found breastfeeding to be quite challenging this month as well and didn’t think I would be able to do it for very long.

The first month we were doing laundry every 2-3 days and were changing PS outfits several times a day. This is because he kept peeing through his diaper. Mostly the reason for this was we didn’t know how to put on a diaper properly and the other reason was the newborn Pampers swaddlers were too small for him. Once we learned how to properly put on a diaper and switched to size 1 diapers, we only went through one outfit a day and did laundry once a week. I’m planning on doing a minimalist baby wardrobe soon so watch out for that.

The second month I found to be the most challenging. PS was still napping majority of the day (16 hours on average), but getting him to sleep proved to be super difficult. We would have to rock him for a while to get him to sleep and stay asleep. He outgrew his bassinet at 7 weeks so we moved him into his crib for night time. But, he was doing all of his day naps on the couch in the living room, although truth be told, we held him for most of them. Around 8 weeks, I noticed he would start crying loudly every time he woke up from his nap. It would sometimes take a good 20 minutes or so to calm him down which also gave me so much anxiety.

Starting from around 10 weeks I started putting PS for naps in his crib as well as for night time sleep and noticed that he was crying a lot less. In the mornings he would wake up smiling at me and when he woke up from his naps, he was crying from only a few. At 2 months, PS was sleeping around 4-6 hours consecutively at night before waking up to feed. At around 11 weeks, he even did a couple of nights of 8 hours before waking.

At 3 months, I realized the main reason of PS cries was he wasn’t napping properly. He took short naps (30-40 minutes long) and therefore wasn’t getting proper sleep. Even though he still continues to wakes up after 45 minutes from a nap. I now feed him or rock him when he wakes up and he sleeps another 45 minutes or so. This I noticed is the sweet spot for him. He wakes up happy and plays well for the next 1.5 hrs he is awake.

We also started co-sleeeping near the end of the second month. I was so anxious about doing this at first, but I realize I’ve become a light sleeper now. I wake up to the smallest sounds. Co-sleeping is easier in that I don’t have to get up from bed every time PS wakes up for a feed. Although, I’ve noticed, he is sleeping shorter increments at night compared to when he was in his crib at night-time. His longest stretch is 4 hours right now.

Also, now, at 3 months, I absolutely love breastfeeding. It doesn’t take that long, doesn’t hurt at all and I find it to be so fun to bond with PS. I remember the first month thinking I would never make it to 2 months and here I am at 3 months looking forward to trying to do this for a year.

Our biggest struggle now is getting PS to like being in the car seat. Every time we put him in the car seat, he starts crying and is so difficult to soothe. Especially, since in the car we can’t really do anything. If its a long drive, he will fall asleep, but if it’s a short ride, I try singing loudly, playing with him, but nothing really has been that effective. I would love to hear your suggestions.

As I’m writing this and looking back at pictures of PS from when he was first born, I am shocked at how much he has grown. From sleeping all the time to now playing and talking to us, it is crazy how fast he is growing. Although I am looking forward to watching him grow up, I’m really going to miss these first few months as a newborn.