Coping with a newborn baby and blogging (+ a toddler!)  

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

I just read ‘Do I want to be a blogger with a newborn baby?‘ by Susie at This is me now and I thought, this is exactly what I’ve been going through coping with a newborn baby and blogging. It’s a hard mixture to get right, finding that balance in an ever changing world of newborn phases and toddler tantrums, coupled with growth spurts and the irregularities of breastfeeding.

It struck me that everything Susie talked about and debated in her post were things that I’ve just been through and am currently going through as Baby B is 3 months old. She wondered about stopping blogging and if living her life online was what she really wanted.

My comment on her post was this:

I’d have to say don’t make any decisions, your blog and social media will be there, and still there if you take a break. I’ve taken rather a few breaks and slowed down these last few months, and even leading up B’s birth. All have been for different reasons e.g just couldn’t find the time, couldn’t be bothered, couldn’t face it. Juggling it all right now is hard, night after night I turn my laptop on after H is in bed and then spend all evening feeding, so it just gets turned back off. However, I know when inspiration hits I write it on my phone and it goes live straight away, it would be very weird if I couldn’t do that. I love recording those moments and that I’ll be able to look back on them too. I also am stopping myself taking a silly number of behind the head photos and take their faces first and also deleting the behind ones I don’t use. It’s taking discipline but it’s helping keep all my photos more streamlined.

I have to add some more and expand on some of those points…

Blogging is all consuming at times, constantly  thinking I should get a photo of that, I need to write that, I need to publish a post it’s been X days.

Well, as I mentioned in my comment to Susie, I’ve been lax on all of this since Baby B was born, I just don’t have time. I’ve wanted to enjoy my time with my toddler as I do spend less time with her now, and, I want to cherish Baby B. I want to remember the moments and appreciate their developing relationship. I barely have time to clean, and we’ve had more takeaways than we’ve ever had before since Baby B was born. But it’s all about priorities. Like cooking, without even realising it I’ve had to ramp down my blogging.

Since Baby B’s birth, I’ve perhaps published 2 posts a week at most, but occasionally I’ve done none. I might have 80 drafts in my file, but they all need pictures, or, well, more than a few bullet points in them. They need finishing and, while that might sounds easy, it’s not. SEO is a pain. It takes time, every image needs to have alt tags to be found by Google, and titles for Pinterest, oh and then there is creating a long Pinterest style image for pinning. I’m a bad blogger and sometimes I only do half of it, it’s a case of bare-basics blogging. I’m sure that’s why my DA has always been lower than everything suggests.

Recently, I’m a spur of the moment blogger. Blogging on my phone following a conversation, or an event, or a day out. I have umpteen guest posts to write for other bloggers and brands and I’m sorry, I WILL get there, most of them are drafted, I just have to be happy with them. I am still doing reviews and working with brands so those posts are still appearing, just less regularly than before.

That brings me to linkies. I try, in my optimism I join and then each post takes so long to read I’m battling, I’m putting H in front of the TV, setting her up doing play-doh or colouring while I try to read. Of course I’m also breastfeeding Baby B. So it’s a huge juggle. So I’m sorry if I’ve not managed to comment yet, I WILL get there. Coping with a new baby and blogging is not easy and I’ve no idea how some ladies manage to blog 5 times a week with a newborn… especially if they have other kids too. I am just not one of them. I don’t have a baby sitter we can call on anytime, it’s mostly just hubby and I. We have amazing friends, who are an amazing support. Anyway, I want to appreciate these moments. I’m still working with brands and to be honest my stats haven’t really gone down, my Tots Ranking fell to 202 but that’s still a good rank!

Photos are a whole other ball game. I blog anonymously so all photos hide Toddler H and Baby B’s faces. That involves taking double the number of photos the usual ones to ‘catch the moment, capture them, their smiles, their laughs, capture them being them’ and then, a series of back of the head/funny angles to post on Instagram or for a blog post. It all clogs up my camera roll, it gets full and I miss a video opportunity. An opportunity I’ll never get back. That stinks. It stinks to know that I’ve missed it and it’s because I have 20 photos for Instagram that were never used sat there from yesterday. If I hadn’t taken those of have captured that moment. I’m now much more diligent, have nightly automatic back ups and my photos are all stores in the cloud. I know I can delete what is in my phone and it’s fine. I’m also deleting as I go, as I know with Toddler H I had 30 photos of her led on a mat each week, and that’s just silly. It’s too many. So by being more diligent this time round I choose those best few and they are the ones I keep. I kind of wish we still had to get our photos developed and only had a spool of 36 to take. 

Life with a newborn is all consuming and I don’t want to miss it. I’m still here, I’m still blogging and Instagraming and sharing. I’m still here and trying to join linkies. I just don’t have the time for everything and don’t want to miss a moment, after all that is why I became a stay at home mum.

My aim is to work on the #rockingmummylife Instagram group and do some round ups as I’m afraid I haven’t. I’d also love to set up a linky that just involves sharing posts. No need for comments, just a click and share on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Something that helps us all have our posts read and to reach each others audiences and followers. For the moment that idea remains on the drawing board.

I love blogging, but right now, it’s hard. I need another 3 hours a day to be able to do it like I want to, but breastfeeding really is taking up most of my evenings and that is not something I’m prepared to compromise on for he sake of the blog. It’s hard coping with a new baby and blogging… and having a toddler to juggle too adds another interesting dimension.  The days are flying by and right now I need to be mummy. Mummy-ing comes first.

Please do keep following,  Lynne  xxx