Taking Time To Connect
Our time is guided by calendars, obligations, and technology. Smartphones keep us connected 24/7 with our emails, social media, obligations, and calendars. Our needs for self-care, healthy food, and exercise have to be put into our busy schedules, with pop-up reminders. Hallmark helps us remember special occasions as we schedule time for friendships, love, and affection.
But babies’ needs have not changed since human DNA was formed before clocks and calendars. They need to be held, breastfed, nurtured, and loved, the original formula for a good start at life. Babies can’t tell time. Their needs are immediate needs, not wants.
Responding to babies’ needs instead of trying to make babies fit our schedule can make our days flow more smoothly. Scheduling our lives around our babies’ rhythm in our multitasking, high-tech world is tantamount to a revolution.
But how do we take care of our babies’ needs while taking care of other obligations that literally “pop up”? A good baby carrier, supportive partners, and extra help from family and friends (or even hired help!) can assist us with dealing with the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry. After we’ve learned the “mother-baby dance,” even breastfeeding can be done hands-free (while babywearing), or at least leave us with one hand available to meet all our needs at once!