I love posting Q&A’s to Instagram, but often find that I have so much more to say than a simple story response can provide. So I asked my Instagram followers to send over some questions for Substack. Which let me start off by saying, I typically get flooded with questions, but for some reason since I framed it as “questions for Substack”, not that many came in. Meaning, these aren’t necessarily my most asked questions; that tends to be “did you vaxxx?” “what’s the face plunge for?” “why olive oil?” etc etc etc. Which honestly, great questions and would love to do a newsletter on those too.
Here is what I’ll be discussing in today’s post:
How do you balance between your life and raising your child?
How to food prep with a nursing baby - I get interrupted so much it feels like it’s not worth it.
What do you do for yourself on days you feel you don’t get the most hydration / nutrients?
Found you through your food prepping during pregnancy, did that work? Would you do it again?
How is cloth diapering going with your little one eating some solids now? Tips for that stage?
Any recs for high quality clothing and undergarments that aren’t toxic?
How are you able to make content with a baby?
If you HAD to use disposable diapers or wipes… what options would you consider?
Sunscreen and toothpaste for babies? Recs? Feel lost with these.
xoxo Tessa
How do you balance between your life and raising your child?
My first thought was “there is no ‘my life’ and ‘my raising my child’”, but to be honest, I know what this person is trying to say and that kind of response isn’t helpful. I feel like my answer would be very different if I were a stay at home mom - but alas, I am a stay at home working mom. I don’t really get the option of whether or not I have “me” time, because I must have time to work. Other than that, my time is pretty much spent with Celia and being a mom (which to be fair, is most of the time).
Though, through the past 8 months I have made it a priority to carve out time for myself. I think as a breastfeeding mother it’s so easy to let every minute of your life be intertwined with your baby. I mean they’re quite literally attached to you so often, how do you get away or ask for help? So I capitalize on her happy and awake, napping, or sleeping times. Happy and awake and Daniel is home? Amazing it’s Dada and Baby time so I can work, workout, shower, clean, etc. Napping? Same deal. Asleep? Wow ok let’s shower, do a fun skincare routine, stretch, foam roll, watch a show, read a book, cook something yummy, snuggle Daniel, etc etc.
In addition, I have found it so much more fulfilling to do enriching things like meditate, breath work, or read while breastfeeding. This in a way feels like ~me time~ even though I am giving so much of myself to her. Working, doom scrolling, and online shopping tend to spike my cortisol and I’m left at the end of the feeding feeling like I didn’t even get a break.
I’ve also bit the bullet and scheduled massages and acupuncture for myself a couple times now. With Ehlers Danlos (and honestly just being a mother carrying a baby and nursing all the time) I deal with a lot of pain. So scheduling a 50 minute massage around Celia’s rough schedule and Daniel just makes it work.
How to food prep with a nursing baby - I get interrupted so much it feels like it’s not worth it.