Having a baby is a major life transition. So if you are having marriage problems after your first baby, you are not alone. No one is ever really prepared for the reality of becoming a parent. Education is incredibly helpful, but you still don’t know what you are getting into until you are in it.

So here are some tips to help alleviate marriage problems after your first baby.

Start an open dialogue about roles and responsibilities.

There are so many things to keep up with like managing household chores, nighttime feeding, changing, bath time, work, childcare, etc. It may sound funny but if you don’t talk about these things, you are setting yourself up for unnecessary conflict.

What I found for myself and see in my clients who don’t have an open dialogue is built-up resentment. This is due to consciously or unconsciously stepping into roles that were modeled by your parents which may or may not be appropriate for you and your partner today.

When you keep an open dialogue, then you are working together as a team. Collaboratively choosing roles that fit your strengths and interests as well as agreeing on what to let go of or outsourcing if possible will reduce the risk of marriage problems after your first baby.

An open dialogue means you can revisit the conversation if you have more children or as children get older and life changes.

Anxiety is a common human experience. While people have varying levels of anxiety, some anxiety is normal. The challenge is learning to live your life with anxiety instead of letting anxiety control you.

Meeting the challenge requires an understanding of nature vs nurture.

There is a genetic component to anxiety. There is also a nurture component to anxiety. Believe it or not, they are both passed down by your family. And it’s not the genetic piece that creates the struggle.

Our brains are wired to scan for danger. You know, the fight, flight, paralysis – survival response that every human being has. And this is very important for us to have when we are actually in danger.

Do you think you are struggling with postpartum depression? If you do, you are not alone. 1 in 5 new moms experience postpartum depression, and 1 in 10 dads do as well. Knowing how to cope with postpartum depression will allow you to minimize the severity and shorten the duration. And remember, you are not alone.

It is important to understand that postpartum depression is different than depression outside of childbirth.

While it does have many of the same symptoms of major depression, including anxiety, anger and rage, frustration, inappropriate guilt, and suicidal ideation, it also includes grief and loss. All the symptoms are connected to the baby and parenthood.

Postpartum depression has been used as a broad term for the many different perinatal mood and anxiety experiences.

Whatever your symptoms look like, the first step is to get a diagnosis from an expert in the field of perinatal mental health.

After your diagnosis, knowing how to cope with postpartum depression will support your recovery so that you can start feeling more like yourself.

How to cope with postpartum depression and the spectrum of perinatal mental health:

This might be obvious, but therapy is key. But since you aren’t with your therapist 24/7, you will benefit from having a support system.

Congratulations! You are having a baby! And you have ADHD. There are so many things to think about, plan, organize, and feel. Oh, I bet I am overwhelming you. But don’t worry, here are 4 things to you manage your ADHD while pregnant.

What do you do if you are living with a spouse that has depression?

Alcohol addiction is more common than you think and can exist in any marriage. It doesn’t discriminate. So what do you do if you’re dealing with marriage problems caused by alcohol addiction?

First, it is important to recognize that this is a complex situation.

It is not something you will solve just by reading this blog post. However, you will be able to have some understanding of what needs to happen by reading this.

We all know that parenting is hard. If you don’t, then you don’t have children. Parenting with an ADHD spouse might be even harder.

But this article isn’t going to be about how parenting is hard because your spouse has ADHD.

It will be about helping you and your partner with ADHD learn how to parent together as a team, working with each other instead of against each other.

So here are 4 tips for parenting with an ADHD spouse:

Postpartum anxiety is very real. About 6% of pregnant women and 10% of postpartum women experience anxiety. And moms aren’t the only ones, dads do too. But why is postpartum anxiety worse at night? And what can you do about it?

Recommended reading: What Is Postpartum Anxiety? And Can It Be Prevented?

If your baby hasn’t started sleeping through the night, then you may be thinking, “when will my baby go to sleep, or how long will my baby sleep before I am woken up again.” This can keep you in a hyperaroused state and make it difficult to quiet your mind so you can fall asleep.

What is postpartum anxiety, (PPA) really? Is it the baby blues, is it like postpartum depression (PPD) or just a little worry about how to take care of your baby? In a lot of ways, it can include all three.

The baby blues affects about 80% of moms. It can start at about 2 or 3 days after delivery and can include mild anxiety. However, it only lasts about 2 -3 weeks.

Postpartum depression affects 1 in 5 new moms, and 1 in 10 new dads. Yep, I said dads! Anxiety and depression often go hand in hand before and after delivery.

I have yet to work with a client that doesn’t have some sort of combination of both.

Anxiety is a trademark symptom of postpartum depression.

Living and knowing how to focus with ADHD can be a daily struggle. Put social distancing, working from home, and staying inside much of the time in the mix, and you probably feel like most or all of your systems, strategies, and self-care practices have been ripped away.

You may feel like there’s no real certainty of when you will be able to reincorporate these necessities back in your life.

Well, as a therapist who is also living with ADHD, I feel your pain.

There are some tips that might make life easier as you move through this time of uncertainty.

I have never been one to do well working from home. Having nowhere to go, no real reason to get dressed, no consistent structure, or pending deadlines can send me down a rabbit hole of feeling depressed.