If you’re dealing with post-partum overwhelm in your homeschool, I have a story to share.
Ain’t she gorgeous? Hard to believe that someone so pretty, a baby who hardly cried, slept through the night by 3-4 months, loved sitting on daddy’s lap while daddy studied federal election results, had a mama that felt overwhelmed.
This is my story of post-partum overwhelm in my homeschool.
Somewhere after this cutie was a few weeks old, my husband suggested I might not just be “normal” overwhelmed, I might be experiencing post-partum depression. (People, I was a post-partum nurse pre-parenting. I taught moms about this very thing before moms left with their babies from the hospital.)
I sure didn’t see it in myself tho.
Not even when I cried at the drop of a hat. (That was normal, right?)
Not even when I’d lose my temper with my other two girls over inconsequential stuff. (Normal too, right?)
Not even when I wanted to sleep all day. (Cause this was my third baby in 4 years after 3 years of night shifts in L&D, so I surely was sleep-deprived, right?)
I was getting more sleep than I had with my older babies. I had a high school student helping me clean the house.
And yet…
I was still not coping.
I would discover within a few weeks that antidepressants have their place.
Unquestionably, there was a shift in my emotional wherewithal. (Gradually. Not immediately.)
It was a tool, not a magic potion.
I still needed therapy. Not just because I was overwhelmed with babies/hormones/lack of sleep. But because I had a whole lotta other stuff unresolved in my life.
I’ve seen in myself and a whole lotta other people that there’s never a “one and done” approach to depression or overwhelm.
- It’s not just one session with a coach or counselor.
- It’s not just one self-coaching journaling workbook.
- It’s not just an anti-depressant or natural supplement.
- Or psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist.
- Or prayer or mindfulness or “thinking the right thoughts”.
That first step was profoundly useful.
A first step. The hardest step. The step declared: “I have an issue.”
(See? Definitely the hardest step).
People also ask:
- Do you offer one-on-one homeschool (& life) coaching? Why, yes I do!
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- Homeschool Mama Big Emotions Toolbox Part 3: Your Feelings
- Homeschooling Little Kids & Taking Care of Yourself with Isis Loran
- Reclaiming Motherhood with Homeschool Mama, Bonnie Way
