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Hi, love. I know I’m just a stranger on the internet and have no way of truly knowing if you read this, but I just wanted to hop on here and say that I’m so beyond proud of you. Being a mother is *hard*- my little girl will be 8mos on the 30th and her father and I were long distance (around 1,500 miles) for the first 5.5 months of her life due to expense issues, and while we might be finally living together it doesn’t change how hard things were or how hard they still are. I want to share some things that have helped me through motherhood and postpartum so far, but just know that you can totally scroll past this, too. This isn’t much of a consolation, but it *does* get easier as baby gets older. I’m not even necessarily talking about the regressions and whatnot (because then teething happens and lemme tell you firsthand it is ROUGH) but just the fact that they’re more independent and can maybe sit on the floor with toys while you’re on the couch folding laundry (I do this all of the time). My girl has been squirmy since the womb, making bath time difficult, so I popped her bath seat on the floor of our shower and I shower with her- I do wear a swimsuit just because poor girl needs something for better grip but it makes *my* showers more peaceful because she’s just playing on the floor with her silicone toys without a care in the world. Now I know that my next bit of advice is a bit controversial, but hear me out. We, admittedly, use a *lot* of screens in the house. The low stim baby dancing fruit videos on YouTube are our FAVORITE, but as she’s gotten older we’re big fans of shows like Sesame Street, Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, season one of Hi5, and Bear in the Big Blue House. We’ve got more that we rotate through, but anything educational and low stim is a go to for us. Don’t get me wrong, we have a LOT of moments where the tv is off and we’re either reading books or playing with toys, but as someone with PPD, PPA, MDD, and more sometimes the tv is our best bet. I’m not sure what the land and weather look like where you’re at, but walks have been *super* beneficial for us, too. I’m not sure why, but my daughter is on her best behavior whenever we leave the house (99% sure it’s because she’s nosy and there’s so much to take in outside haha) so she’ll sit calmly in her stroller while we go for a short walk (momma needs fresh air). A lot of times I don’t feel like walking, so we’ll just sit in the backyard or go to the park and I’ll pop her in a swing and we’ll be there for a half hour. We’re also huge water fans, so we go to the neighborhood pool a lot or I’ll pop her in the “bath” so that she can play with her toys (not a legit bath bath unless she needs one- more of an excuse for her to sit and splash in the water). This bath toy from Walmart is maybe $10-15 and it’s my daughter’s FAVORITE bath toy she’s got! I’ll put on my Big Time Rush playlist on Spotify and girl is set for like an hour haha. Again, OP, you’re absolutely nailing this motherhood thing. It’s hard. My daughter was very much wanted, but I also can’t help but miss the times from pre pregnancy because I wish I could’ve set myself up to be in a better spot than I am now. I was also insanely sick during pregnancy with a rough delivery, and it definitely impacted my relationship with my daughter at first. But it DOES get better. Sending you so, so, SO much love and support right now. I’m not the quickest to respond but my dms are always open if you need to talk or vent or anything🫶🏻