Day by Day

As a SAHM (stay at home mom) that deals with extreme fatigue, it can be hard to get through daily tasks. Some days are great and you check off your entire "To-do list," while others you don't cross off a single thing.

A lot of people think being a SAHM is easy and relaxing because, hey you can sleep in if you want too! But the reality is you need to play with your kids, wash the dishes, get laundry done, get the house clean, get the groceries, and put dinner on the table all by 6 PM. After dinner you need to bathe the kids, pick up the house, tuck the kids in and still be available to your husband. All of this is a lot to handle for a "normal" energetic person, but when you add fatigue to this, it makes it damn near impossible!

So how do you deal with it when some days it feels like you have ran a full marathon after doing the dishes? You find out the cause of your fatigue and take things day by day. There are many things that cause it, from depression to dehydration to a lack of vitamins or even your thyroid function.

So where do you start? Start by drinking more water and taking a once a day multi vitamin and vitamin D, and see if that helps.

So what if it doesn't? Make yourself an appointment with your General Practitioner and go from there. Get tested for depression, check your thyroid levels, iron levels and all that. Make sure nothing is out of balance.

So what if you have gone through all the steps and nothing helps you? That's where I was at (still there some days). I started taking a supplement called SAM-E along with my multi vitamin and vitamin D3. This has helped me a lot, though I still have my days where I don't have much energy, but I still get most of my "To-do list" done. The main thing that has helped me though, is having a supportive husband who doesn't mind if the house isn't spotless and dinner isn't always done (or great). Also a few of the other things that have helped me are: giving myself a deadline or time limit on when things need to be done (usually when my husband gets home at 5:30), blasting the tunes when I clean, setting certain days a week for laundry and cleaning the bathroom, not stressing about the mess and mainly just remembering to take it day by day.

So just remember you aren't the only one dealing with extreme fatigue, and being a SAHM is hard but very rewarding! I hope this helps others that are struggling as well to take things day by day.