Meet Nastasia or Stass as I know her! The beautiful mama behind For Eva After. I have known Stass for 10+ years so this is a super special post!
Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do:o:
My name is Nastasia, I am 28 years old and am a full time mama to my 19 month old madam named Eva. I have my own health and wellness business with Arbonne, a blog For Eva After and I am currently working on social media and business stuff to help other mamas who want to dive in to the entrepreneurial world. Age when you had your first baby:
I was 27 when I had Eva. She was completely unexpected to her dad and I who hadn’t known each other long at all (full story on my blog). What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant? I actually laughed, Josh pretended like I hadn’t said anything and carried on drinking his beer and my cousin/bestie, who was with us looked at the pregnancy test and was like “No, there is no line... OMG I am going to push you down the stairs!” hahahaha. She was obviously joking but I will never forget this moment.
What has been your biggest challenge with running a business and being a mama at the same time?
I have been recently diagnosed with Postnatal Depression which I have been dealing with since Miss Eva was born (read more on my blog). This has been one of the hardest things I have ever dealt with and looking back, starting my business was in part a way to distract myself from everything I was feeling and trying to deal with mentally and emotionally.
Now that I am dealing with this and on medication, my biggest struggle is the balancing act of being a mama, a partner, house stuff, self care and my two businesses. Eva is only napping once a day now so I try and cram as much work in to that time as possible as well as getting up at 6am to work before she wakes up. She is going to start daycare two afternoons a week soon so that will help a lot. How do you balance Home and work life? (any tips/tricks to share?)
I now have a home office which is amazing! This means that everything is organised and I have a proper space. In our old house my desk was in the lounge which means I could never get work off my brain. Now, when I leave the office I shut the door which really helps to separate work and home life even though it is all under the same roof.
My tip would be to batch work everything. If you need to do some house work, spend an hour smashing out as much as you can then stop. If you need to spend time with your kids, put your phone away and only focus fully on them for an hour. If you need to do work, pick one thing to work on e.g I spend one hour before Eva wakes up only writing blog posts. I do not check Facebook or do ANYTHING else. This will really help you to feel like you are accomplishing things during the day instead of getting to the end of the day wondering what the hell you actually did haha. Best piece of advice you were given about parenting:
Just go with the flow. Some nights your baby is not going to sleep... just go with it. If they need to sleep in your bed, just let them. If they are not napping during the day, spend some extra time chilling out and watching a movie. It may mean other stuff like work doesn’t get done, but so what?! What would you do if you weren’t doing your current job/running your business?
Honestly, I would probably be doing some random job living in Tauranga. That was the next place I wanted to live after my contract ran out working for the military. I am so happy I was pushed in to starting my own business. I now never want to work a 9-5 job for someone else ever again. Finacial freedom AND time freedom is my goal. Have you met any challenges being a mama in your 20s?
The fear of missing out and watching some of my friends live my once single, care free life. Because I didn’t choose to get pregnant I struggled with resentment a lot. What has been your biggest challenge in your 20s (non-parenting related)?
Struggling with depression but, before that it would have been finding out who the real me was and becoming comfortable with that. I know that sounds silly but when you are a teenager you care so much what people think and as you get older that just starts to go away. But, once it does, you have now spent so much time being what your friends what you to be that you need to learn who you are. If you could give one piece of advice to twenty-something’s pre kids what would it be?
Enjoy your life. Don’t buy things, buy experiences. Don’t get in to debt. Save money but also have a ton of fun.