1. First week – Sleep and rest it out. Husband to take off for few days to look after toddler so that you can sleep.
2. Enroll Toddler to Playgroup – This will ensure guaranteed downtown for you. Sleep, chores etc
3. Eat well – First 6 weeks, focus on your health, so that you have the energy to look after newborn day and night non stop. I ate almost 5-7 kg of ghee, 5-7 kgs of jaggery or gud, which helped me regain the strength.
4. No gassy foods – My MIL play safe as far as postpartum food is concerned. I used to eat only daal, bhaat, shaak and rotli. Safe veggies are spinach, fenugreek, bottle gourd or dudhi, and avoid cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes and cluster beans, which are gassy foods.
5. Dr says moms food does not affect baby’s gassiness but i listened to my peers and their advise and my baby did not cry of gassiness.
6. Keep colic drops always with u in case baby cries. Khushank was colic nothing helped, i gave him gripe water didnt worked so every night i gave him Somva-34 around 0.5ml which completely took care of his colic.
7. Idea here is to first you gain strength, simultaneously work on baby so that he doesnt cry of colic. And get toddler enrolled in playschool so that u get 2 hrs to get some household work done and at night make Bushra sleep in another room with her daddy.
8. Swing- invest in indian swing or ghodiyu this will help you a lot. You can swing baby at nap time and cut veggies, make dough etc. But more than that u can establish a sleep time routine once baby is 6 weeks old. Swing makes baby drowsy. The side by side movement of swing makes baby drowsy, rather than back and front movement.
9. Align afternoon naps- Always try and align afternoon nap time of ur toddler and baby. You can pat your toddler and swing baby and once they both are down, you can take nap too. Trust me even 15 mins power nap works wonders.
10. Set up a toddler area- you can set up a playroom or play area for your toddler and encourage her to play there.
11. Positive mindset – this is not important but essential. You are what you think! If u think you are depressed, yes u r! If you think you are stuck with 2 babies, yes u r! If you think..it can only get better from here each passing day. Certainly it will! So have a positive mindset and pray to God every morning that you have given me this day please help me along the way. I do it every morning.
12. Make your toddler Independent – If your toddler can do things like brushing teeth, wearing undies, weeing in potty pot, eating, wearing socks or shoes etc than it will be very helpful and as a result a lot of meltdowns could be avoided.
13. Ask for Help – Do not hesitate to ask for help. My toddler and baby sleep in different rooms at night which is a great relief. Transition your toddler to sleep with daddy or grandmom if its possible.
Hope these tips were useful.
