Your House Will Look Like A War Zone

Your house will look like a war zone...its ok, you need to let it go. If you are anything like me, you'll have trouble accepting this. Pre-baby our house was pretty tidy. We'd spend a couple hours each weekend cleaning up the house on the weekend, picking up clutter that had accumulated during the week, vacuuming, doing a load of two of laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, you know typical DINK (dual income no kids) stuff. So when I got home from the hospital with our daughter and saw that the house was getting a bit messy, I tried to keep up and clean up and OMG it wipes you out! Not only do you have your stuff and your husbands stuff, but now you have mountains of baby stuff too. Our house looks like a war zone of baby stuff. We have bouncers and swings and play mats and exersaucers strewn about the house like land mines. You will be constantly picking things up - or stepping over them - so sometimes you just have to let it go.

Pre-baby we usually picked up the house when we knew we're having company over - so they don't think we live like slobs - and in the beginning I did that every time we had a visitor come over to see the baby. Well it stressed me out so much that the house was a mess when I knew people were coming over, I had to pick stuff up. But then people were coming over quite frequently, so it only stressed me out more to have to pick up all the time. I finally realized that no one cares what the house looks like, all the visitors care about is seeing and holding the baby. It was really hard to let this go. I felt that this was one of the things that I still had control over with this new phase in life - because I knew I didn't have control over the baby yet - so I felt giving up this was one of the last straws in my control of my new life. 

Letting this go was hard but also a little bit relieving too. Now I had more time to take care of myself. Every free second I had in the beginning I was using to clean or do laundry or pick up, instead of napping or showering or taking time out of the day for me. And I was exhausted because of it. I think I felt guilty that I wasn't helping out around the house or pulling my weight with the cooking or cleaning, I was JUST taking care of the baby all day, that was it. So I wanted or NEEDED to prove to my husband that I was helping out. Again I became exhausted and sometimes cranky. Once I started to put myself first and the house last, I got more rest and I felt better about myself and our new family!