Everyone has their favorite tips about bringing a newborn baby home, freezing meals, sleep when baby sleeps, cabbage leaves in the fridge, bottle of gin in the baby bag etc. But here is the secret that was the game changer for me when #3 joined the madhouse…

I gave my husbag a promotion…not only was he chief tea maker and toddler minder, but he was now on VIP doorman duty (uniform optional) while I camped out in my bedroom with the newest offspring, like an engorged, exhausted, hormonal princess.

I admit this, my bedroom generally resembles that of a teenage girl (minus the posters and expensive clothes) but I used the nesting period – and my obsession with changing sheets every 3 days – as the perfect opportunity to clear out, clean up and to create a spa-like space (ok I tidied and lit a Yankee candle but you get the idea) and when I came home 24 hours after Jack was born, I retreated into my cocoon.
Here’s the magic…people won’t walk into your bedroom uninvited, (even mother in laws seem to know not to cross that particular threshold) so I was able to ward off the onslaught of visitors .

I didn’t have to worry about hastily shoving my boobs back into their nursing bras because someone was tapping on the window (people do that you know) or when there were voices in the hallway. I didn’t have to make cups of tea or share my chocolates if I wasn’t in the humour (who am I kidding, I was never in the humour to share chocolate), and I didn’t have to hand my precious bundle over for cuddles if I didn’t want to!
This is how it worked…people would call and husbag would say “she’s up in bed, I’ll check if she’s awake…” most people would protest at the idea of disturbing my well earned rest (I had just given birth you know – I deserved a medal, and ALL the chocolate) hubs would come up and the ball was in my court whether I’d crawl out of my pit or not…more often than not, I came downstairs to greet my public! But I may have hidden up there once or twice or even shuffled upstairs when I heard a car outside, just in case! Don’t judge…the first few weeks are bloody hard going, so at a time when you are totally dictated by a miniature human being, and you have a tendency to burst out crying with no prior warning, it’s nice to have something that you can control!

I spent a good two weeks, while hubs was off, hiding out in my room…the bigger fella would come home from playschool and clamber up on the bed for snuggles and tv and I had some lovely visits from my sister and my best friends who came up to my room (obviously carrying cups of tea) and climbed into the bed beside me to eat bickies and admire the only baby in the world!
Husbag returned to work after the second week and that was the end of that ‘blissful’ babymoon (as blissful as it can be when you’re dealing with leaky boobs, a sore undercarriage and more raging hormones than an episode of the kardashians)…but I gotta say playing hide and seek with your guests is highly recommended, and got me to the point that I could pull up my big girl (granny) pants, put on some baggy kneed leggings and a puke stained top…and face the world!