Bringing home a new family member is one of the best things one can experience.

It can also be extraordinarily difficult, especially when you are bringing home the first baby.

Here are some of the basics I found that helped me stay as sane as possible during those first few weeks with your precious newborn.  It’s a wonderful time, but also one full of stress…not to mention lack of sleep! 

So whether it’s your first (or fifth!) here are a few things to keep in mind, so you don’t lose your mind!

Accept any and all help offered to you.

Resist the urge to try to appear as super-parents, and just say yes.  A neighbor offers to bring over dinner?  Yes!  A family member who is visiting starts doing dishes?  Let them!  A friend suggests she take the baby for a walk so you can stay home and nap.  Thank them and let the drooling begin!

That being said, don’t hesitate to limit visitors.

Just because Aunt Maggie offers to spend the first two weeks of your newborn’s life in your home promising to cook and clean doesn’t mean you have to say yes.  Your family needs its quiet time to bond as well, and if the idea of having house guests at that time stresses you out, by all means just say no.

Realize that chaos will reign for a while, and go with it.

Your house just might be a mess.  Showering will likely be a luxury.  You’re pajamas, on more than one ocassion, just might serve you perfectly well as clothes the next day.  And then as pajamas again that night.

 Amid all of this chaos,  you just might have a visitor or two. 

Remember, you are still YOU.

 Just because you’re the mom of a newborn doesn’t mean you forfeit being an individual yourself.  You need to nurture yourself as well as your family.  Eat a balanced diet, sleep (Ha!) as much as possible, reach out to friends and family, reintroduce your hobbies as soon as feasible, continue to indulge in things you enjoy.  Certainly, having a newborn changes your lifestyle dramatically, but you need to be a happy and healthy you to be the best Mama you can.

This is a magical time, but a challenging one.  Try to enjoy even the roughest patches, because as they say, the days are long but the years are short.  I know…that photograph above is my son’s newborn hand in my husband’s.  Seems like just a few months ago, but my son is nearly ten.

Dr. Diva, when not editing the Healthy Bliss Channel here, can be found (sometimes) at her personal site Watch me!  No, watch me!  Her youngest is nearly five, and she still finds these hints helpful.