5 Shows to Binge While Breastfeeding

Those first few months can be brutal. Your body is somewhere between late pregnancy and new you. (It WILL get better.) Just when you want to whip your house back into shape and your body, you are pinned to the couch with an 8-pound bundle, 24-7. It’s a happy, lonely time. At 2 am when baby’s crying and your hair’s a mess and you feel like you’ll never be “you” again, you need some good binge-watching.

Here are some great choices to keep you awake and laughing (or crying ;)!

When You Want to Laugh:

The Letdown, Netflix

This is a hilarious Australian sitcom about the first few months of motherhood. She’s lonely, feeling distant from her partner, feels like she can’t keep up with the “perfect” moms in her neighborhood. It’ll make you feel better no matter how much of a mess you feel like.

The Full Catastrophe, Netflix

Two-season gem about an American guy and an Irish gal getting together and accidentally getting pregnant, but making it work. They keep it all afloat through cultural differences, marriage frustrations, etc. Then add babies on that. It’s funny, and light and it’ll make you feel better about any mistakes you’ve ever made.

When You Want to Cry:

Handmaid’s Tale, Amazon Video

Season 3 coming any day now. This one is a gut-wrenching story of motherhood--if thought-police took over the world and tried to recolonize us as semi-1800’s style families and force everyone to play religious roles. And the whole population is infertile, so the breeding young women are basically taken captive to breed for a family. It’s insane. Also the women wear red. And the filming is all grey-ish so it’s aesthetically beautiful and melancholy. It totally hits the spot. And when I watched it, it fired up those mama instincts and outrage over what happens out there!

Tully, HBO

The beautiful Charlize Theron gained like 70 pounds to play the role of a pregnant then nursing mama. (This should make you feel better right there!) So she’s struggling with the daily overwhelm. It’s can't-look-away-close-up look at life inside a family where life is average and hard, and sometimes it’s all too much. She dreams of a few nights of freedom like back in her single Bushwick days. Sigh. So familiar. But it’ll make you appreciate your life, however imperfect it is.

What else got you through?