u/Altruistic-Heart8969

Hello! Had a baby about 3 weeks ago and I’m just kind of curious about the parameters around the benefits of skin to skin contact? I know golden hour after birth is important and we both did skin to skin then- but I love doing skin to skin still these days so I was curious what the benefits would be doing it this far out? How long does it provide benefits for as the baby gets older? (Like does it impact development at all at 5 months in?) and is there a minimum time frame during the day we should shoot for to make a positive impact (like one hour a day?)

I ask mainly out of curiosity, but I have been trying to do skin to skin with my baby daily because I did read that it has so many benefits for her health and development. And honesty it tends to help me emotionally regulate as well so I just kind of take a quiet moment with her when I’m feeling overwhelmed and cuddle for a bit. But if there’s better research on how to actually utilize this as a “tool” for good development I’d love to know!

Had my second a few weeks ago and I’m struggling a bit with staying present in the moment. Since coming home it feels like time is moving at twice the speed it did before and it’s causing me a lot of anxiety. I feel like I keep mentally going to this place where I’m 20 years into the future and my kids are grown up and gone, even though they’re right in front of me and still little. It causes me deep feelings of grief and it’s hard because it’s not something I can ultimately avoid. I think seeing my toddler look so much older is contributing to this, and our newborn has been so easy and wonderful that I feel like I just want to stay in this season forever and I guess I don’t know how to cope with the fact that it’s passing by at (what feels like) an alarmingly fast rate.

Had a therapy session about it which was really helpful, and she suggested journaling every day on a calendar something quick about the day and maybe something I’m grateful for that day to help me stay more present. Wanted to ask if anyone here had some suggestions for journaling prompts specifically centered around parenting and this whole journey? And maybe if anyone has any advice on how to work through these feelings besides continuing therapy (which I am planning to do indefinitely going forward).