Sarahs Diary

I thought I would write something for other mums and for even partners of women who are suffering from postnatal depression.

I have recently developed PND (postnatal depression) 8 months after having my son, I feel as though a big cloud has been put over my head and I'm trying to find my way through. At times I feel inadequate and bad about not being able to cope I constantly feel anxious and go into panic mode when D gets upset. Admittedly I snap at my partner for doing things that normally wouldn't bother me but he understands and just ignores my snapping and helps out where he can, it is so important as a partner or family member of someone suffering from PND to be supportive and help out, it is also important for the partner to get support too as it's not easy living with women with PND.

Luckily I have a supportive partner who has helped me realise that I have PND I looked into post natal depression online and I saw that the symptoms I had was the same as described for PND.

Here are some of the symptoms
. Sleep disturbance unrelated to baby’s sleep needs
.Appetite disturbance
.Crying
.Inability to cope
.irritability
.anxiety
.negative obsessive thoughts
.memory difficulties/loss of concentration
.loss of confidence and self esteem

it is very important that you talk to your GP or maternal and child health nurse if you think you may have even a couple of the above symptoms.

I have had difficulties finding new games to play with D my 8 month old son, I looked everywhere online and asked around and someone suggested playing in water but I used my imagination and took it further to make it even more interesting.
So you get a wide shallow bowl around 3-4 inches deep and at least 10 inches wide and fill it nearly to the top with water ( I used tepid water so it wasn't cold for him). I then found a few small objects that float i.e wooden building blocks, bath toys or you could go natural and use blades of grass, flowers etc and put them in the water for bub to get out and splash around with.

I then added something else: vegetable dyes, they're great to add a couple of drops in as bub plays, D tries to grab the colour and has fun mixing it around, you can buy the dyes from grocery stores for around $3 for 4 colours and you can use so many different things with them as you can also mix them with water and flour to make a non toxic paint for bub.

(please supervise baby at all times when playing with water)

So there you go, if your stuck for ideas give this a go. Also if you have any games you would like to share please don't hesitate to share below.