If you were to ask me the hardest part about parenthood the first month, it wouldn’t be the lack of sleep or exhaustion. Yes, those things suck, but I had the hardest adjustment when it came to time – or a lack of it. It seemed like each day blurred together and rarely did I have more than 10 minutes to myself here and there. Add in the need to shower, do laundry, etc., and those 10 minutes aren’t really even yours.

Eventually, my husband and I realized that we both needed a dedicated hour to ourselves daily, no matter what. We are both very independent people and do well with alone time – something that wasn’t happening with a newborn. But eventually we both got that hour. How? It was all about each of us leaving the house with the baby once a day, for at least an hour.

Whether we took the baby on a walk or a drive, we left the other person to an hour of quiet solitude a day. An hour not to look at the monitor waiting for the baby to wake, an hour to do whatever the hell we wanted with the peace of mind that the hour was ours. And we made a rule that neither of us could do baby/house stuff during that hour – we had to spend it on ourselves (sleeping, reading, getting coffee with a friend, whatever).

It was incredible what a mental weight lifted off me when I knew I had that hour each day. And I actually loved the hour I had to spend outside of the house too, as it kinda forced me to get fresh air, exercise, or get used to leaving with the baby.

Tell me, how do you make time for yourself with a bebe or child?