Our daughter, Juliette, was born almost three weeks early so not only were we shocked with the reality of being first time parents, but we were also behind on all the “stuff” we needed to get done to prepare for her. So on top of being first-time parents, we were also playing major catch up.

Everyone who has had a baby — and many people who haven’t — all want to offer advice on how best to approach the first few weeks after the baby arrives:

• “Sleep when the baby sleeps”
• “Go out on date night once a week”
• “Have people bring you meals”
• “Document all of the precious moments”
• …and on and on and on…

And, all of those are nice things to do, but now that Juliette is almost six weeks old, I have found one thing to be absolutely priceless for me maintaining my sanity: getting alone time. 

My midwife offered me this advice when we were in the hospital and I didn’t really follow it. He said that I needed to take one hour every day for myself. As a mom, I work 23 hours a day and need to take at least one hour, where no one can interrupt me. And if nothing else, I should just go sit in the car for an hour.

It took me three weeks, but I finally got to Starbucks for some alone blogging time with a chai tea latte and a large water. It was heaven. I came back home an hour and a half later and Justin said I seemed like a different person — and I felt like one.

Tonight I’m sitting here again (almost three weeks later), this time I also brought my dinner (but still with my chai and water) getting some amazing alone time.

I haven’t taken alone time every day, but I’m looking forward to increasing the frequency to recharge me. It has been one of the single biggest actions that has made a difference for my sanity and the ability to come back a better partner and better mom. And I’m starting to associate the taste of chai tea lattes with heaven.