My 5 New Year’s Resolutions as a Parent
I hope everyone is having a great start to their year! So far it’s been pretty great on our end! We rang in the new year with our neighbors and have been able to spend a lot of quality time as a family over the Holidays. My husband was able to take 10 days off of work so we’ve had a great time being together as a family of four.
Our newest daughter, Gabriella, was born almost two months ago and we have been adjusting quite well. Surprisingly enough our older daughter, Lucy, has been harder to deal with than a newborn. I can’t imagine how it feels though to a 3-year-old to have your world rocked and go from an only child to having another little human around. Lucy is adjusting now, but for a couple weeks, we had some trying moments. Lucy is a great big sister though and loves to hold her little sister and does a great job of calming her down when she’s upset. It melts my heart to see her love on her little sister.
5 New Year’s Resolutions as a Parent
Now that life is settling down I wanted to come up with a few resolutions for myself as a parent. Life can get busy and I want to be able to stop and smell the roses and enjoy every minute possible with my daughters.
Calm/Patient Parenting
This is something that I really want to work on this year. It’s easy to get frustrated and upset with your child at the moment. 3 is a tough age and I want to parent my children as calmly as I can. I don’t want my anger to come out onto my daughter. Typically children respond better when you handle the situation in a calm manner. I also want to practice my patience as well! 🙂
Healthy Meals
Not only do I need to make healthy meals for my family but I need to make healthy meals for myself! I lost a bunch of weight when I was pregnant with Gabi and I would love to keep that weight off plus some! I plan to join Weight Watchers in a couple weeks and get myself and my family eating the best we can!
One on One Time With Each Child
Now that I have to divide my attention between two kids I see how important one on one time is. Especially for my older daughter as I tend to have Gabi attached to me at the hip…or boob! Lucy does pretty well with this but I do have to tend to Gabi more often so I want to find special things to do with just Lucy as well.
Date Night
Not only do I need to have one on one time with my children but I also need one on one time with my husband. I want to make it a point to have at least one date night a month with my husband. If possible I would like to do two. It may just depend on the month but it’s important to keep that spark there with your significant one. A healthy relationship with your spouse makes your family life even better!
Last but not least….get more sleep!
Granted I know I have a newborn and my full nights of sleeping are a little bit down the road but I do know of some things I can do to help with sleep. First off I find it very important for my daughter to sleep with us in our room. Gabi has been sleeping in the HALO Bassinest LUXE and I love how close it gets to me in bed. It feels like she is sleeping right next to me while she is safely secure in her own little bed. Having Gabi at eye level with me while sleeping really helps me relax and get a little bit better sleep. It’s a great way to practice safe sleep habits.Another feature that I really like is the floor light which is included in the LUXE series. It helps me to move around and nurse the baby without disturbing her too much. The bassinest includes different soothing sounds, a nursing timer and two levels of vibration. You can also get various accessories to go along with your Bassinest. (Click on the links to find it on Amazon.) You can get a bird mobile or owl mobile for eye candy for your little one’s eyes. You can also purchase a waterproof mattress pad and fitted sheets.
Another great tip and tool to helping your child sleep better at night (which in turn helps you sleep better at night) is HALO’s Swaddle SleepSacks. Both of my daughters loved to be swaddled and this is such an amazing and quick way to swaddle your child. The best part is in the middle of the night I’m able to un-swaddle her little arms so I can nurse her in bed and then swaddle her right back up again with ease. It makes for a quick transition to make sure she gets back to sleep quickly. There is a great program where some hospitals are starting to give swaddle SleepSacks to their newborns rather than just blankets. The hospital where we delivered in Minnesota was one and it was a great way to start things off with Gabi. Plus it was fleece which has been amazing for this cold Minnesota weather. The SleepSacks are a great way to swaddle without loose blankets in your child’s sleeping area. Win/Win!
I’m going to try my best to be honest with these resolutions and better my family and home life with these resolutions. What is your New Year’s resolution?
What feature is your favorite about the Bassinest? Do you own any SleepSacks?
* Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SIUD) still claims more than 3,500 infants each year in North America. More than half of these deaths are preventable when proper safe sleep practices are followed. To help keep all babies sleeping safely and avoid these unnecessary tragedies, HALO is dedicated to putting the health, safety, and well-being of babies first. In fact, over 1,400 hospitals use HALO® SleepSack® wearable blankets through the HALO Safer Way to Sleep Hospital Initiative. Through this program, HALO has helped Hospitals and Birth Centers throughout North America create their own safe sleep programs, which utilize the HALO SleepSack Swaddle to demonstrate to parents and caregivers how to keep their babies sleeping safely. To date, HALO has donated more than $4.3 million in its efforts to promote safe sleep education. *
Kary says
Your daughter looks beautiful and big eyes. I’m sure Lucy looks fantastic as well and is a proud big sister. My grand daughter was not to thrilled with new sister at first , had issues with needed help with potty or ” I can’t do this need help “. But now after few months she’s wonderful with her except when sister has her toy.
Ruthie says
Yeah Lucy had a few hard times with her little sister at first but now has adjusted! Life is good! 🙂