No matter what your situation; motherhood can be one of life's greatest adventures.
I don't have children myself, but through friends I've witnessed that like every other adventure, it has its ups and downs, its peaks and troughs, and starry-eyed moments. It' can be busy and serene all at once.
If you are embarking on this adventure on a set of wheels instead of two feet, you don't have an impossible task ahead of you; you have a challenge, but it's one that you'll want to grab with both hands.
Parenting on wheels won't always be a happy-go-lucky life, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some fantastic parenting hacks to make it an easier time. Most parents with disabilities know that there are things that can help make daily life easier, such as adaptations to the house, or the Vauxhall Motability benefits for a car swap to get the kids in and out of the school without much interruption.
However, there are some hacks that aren't as well known, and that's what I wanted to tell you about today. Here are six hacks for mumming with a disability:
Use your furniture wisely. Why buy a changing table that you'd have to stand against to use when you can convert a regular desk for work into one? You can wheel your chair under it, and when the baby turns into a fully grown child, and you no longer use it as a changer, you're going to be able to use it as a desk again.
Cut the legs off a standard crib so that you can reach into it to get the baby in and out.
If you want to have the baby in your room up until six months, consider having the Moses basket on your bed next to you. The Moses is a lifesaver for carrying the baby around when you're in the house anyway as it can rest in your lap, but at night you can do bed transfers without using too much trunk strength to do it.
For your toddler, overalls are going to be a wonderful help. Overalls are perfect for helping you to haul your toddler up and down off the floor from the chair, and you can even buy a kids harness to help you to lift them up and down to you - it's genius.
Did you know that you can buy wheelchair seat belts? You can belt your child while you're on the go with a harness, to keep them on your lap and free up your arms to wheel yourself around.
There are so many different products out there that can make parenting in a chair much more comfortable, but the My Brest Friend is a revelation to mothers who want to breastfeed from their chair. You can layer it up with more breastfeeding pillows, too, to get it to the desired height.
Not every parent will do it perfectly, whether they're in a chair or not. The point is that it can be done - you can do it, too.
Love Tx