Alone Time

Having a baby is a huge life change, in every way.

I wasn't working before my daughter was born, so I suddenly went from having too much alone time to not enough! As an introvert, I need to have time to myself to kind of re-charge. I used to get plenty of that while my husband was at work all day. And I'll admit, I could be pretty lazy at times. But everything is different now.

Now I am responsible for another human being! Someone who relies on me for EVERYTHING. I have to be constantly paying attention, even if it's just out of the corner of my eye, or during nap time, when I still have to be available and listening.

It is so much harder now to get that alone time I need to keep functioning. I often catch myself zoning out when my husband is home because I know he can take care of our daughter if she needs something.

If I get an opportunity to go out while my husband watches the baby, I sometimes feel like I'm wasting it by doing social things. I often want to just stay home and let my husband take our daughter somewhere else, so I can get that alone time I need. That isn't always easy though, especially because she nurses about every 2 hours.

One big thing I've noticed also, is how draining it is to get up and have to change and feed my daughter right away. I feel a lot better when I am able to get up before she does and take my time to get ready first. I am so not a morning person though, so at this point, it's more worth it for me to get every minute of extra sleep I can!

I still haven't figured out a good way to get my alone time in the midst of all my new responsibilities, but I'm trying different things. Hopefully I'll find something that works well soon!

Many times my husband will take our daughter downstairs and give me time to do whatever I want, and that's really nice. But living in a small house makes it hard to block out little noises. Maybe I should try to listen to music!

What do you think? Do you have any tips on how to get real alone time once you become a mom?