One thing I realized as a new parent was how quickly a day can go by. It’s as if one second you’re in the middle of a morning feeding the next you’re singing bedtime lullabies.

After the first three weeks of Motherhood zipped past in what seemed like a blink I realized that if I was going to enjoy and not just survive Motherhood I needed to manage my time better.

“Sleep when the baby sleeps” is the one piece of advice everyone gave me and while that is great advice for the first four weeks — what really worked for me was sleeping when it made sense.

I realized early on that there wasn’t a way for me to break down my day neatly by the hour with a breastfeeding newborn so I decided on these five rules to live by so I could regain control of my time :

• Wake up Early ; if you can track your babies sleep schedule try and wake up an hour before your baby. It provides a valuable chunk of “me time” that can help set the vibe for the rest of the day, also having breakfast early means you actually eat — because as we all know being so busy you forget to eat is a thing.
• Keep a Sleep/Feeding Cycle chart ; Keeping a simple chart to track my Sons feedings and sleep cycles really helped me stay aware of how much my he was eating and to develop a routine for both myself and my him.
• Sneak in Self Care when you can ; “Me time” can go a long way during postpartum recovery and I found a 10 minute selfcare routine of a shower, applying body creams, face oils, brushing my hair and teeth helped restore my headspace. Taking care of myself for just 10 minutes really made my days much easier. I usually snuck this routine in during his morning catnap so between 8ish and 10 am . _{* I definitely suggest you purchase a baby cam that either comes with a portable monitor or allows you to view via your cellphone.}

• Complete all major tasks First ; Making a list of tasks based on priority helps me to stay on track and even if I fall behind, the next days tasks are listed out and I can pickup where I left off. Also getting all the important tasks out of the way early will make your days easier .

• Schedule a Nap ; One thing that works for me is planning ahead to nap during one of my Sons longer midday naps, so from around 3-5:30pm. Although he takes a few earlier catnaps during the day I found it’s easier to sleep midday after early morning business hours that way my sleep isn’t interrupted and I don’t have to worry about missing important calls.

Doing this helped me get through the first few months of motherhood. and after tracking sleep and feeding cycles I was able to map out our days on a Time table. I can admit I don’t follow it perfectly everyday but having a loose breakdown of the day makes it easier to complete tasks, remember what needs to be done, fulfill personal needs and get rest.