Cheap joy therapy

Before Chloe was born, I never watched television. I just didn’t have the time, what with work projects and family outings all the time.

Since Chloe joined our family, though, I’ve become a big fan of sitting on the couch all evening. I didn’t have much of a choice—it’s when she likes to eat. Chloe essentially put herself on the same schedule we had to force Caden to follow: eating every three to four hours during the day, then cluster-feeding at night.

Except that Chloe’s version of cluster-feeding is to munch on me virtually every hour. I can’t complain … it means she sleeps five to seven hours straight through each night.

All this couch time meant I needed some kind of entertainment, especially while Chloe dozed between feedings. I quickly exhausted our arsenal of feel-good movies and vetoed watching any action flicks. I didn’t want all the loud noises and violent music to aggravate my baby. (By the way, when I watch TV with Chloe in my arms, I tend to have the volume extremely low—sometimes even resorting to subtitles. It works for me and keeps her from getting needlessly startled.)

After that, I was stuck. I didn’t want to go rent a new movie every night and our local programming is less than stellar (we don’t have cable by the way—not because we live in the dark ages, just because we don’t usually watch a lot of TV).

Fortunately for me, I discovered Glee. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a comedy/drama about a group of high school students who make up a dysfunctional but highly talented glee club in the state of Ohio. I’d heard of the show, but never bothered watching it before. As it turns out, that show is dang funny—and highly entertaining! Thanks to a ready supply of episodes on Netflix, Cam and I blasted through the entire first season in the early weeks of Chloe’s life. Now we’re getting ready to watch the second season.

I’m sharing this not because I think you should become a big Glee fan, but because I want you to know how watching a feel-good comedic show every night can have a terrific effect on your mood as a new mom—especially when you’re confined to one place for long hours of nursing.

When Caden was born, we did the same thing—except in his case, we watched all ten seasons of Friends (my all-time favorite show). It meant night after night of pure and simple laughing, and that’s what I’m doing again with Glee.

For me, it’s a form of joy-therapy. And since I used up my supply of crack (aka, placenta pills), I’m constantly on the lookout for any kind of joy-inducing activity.

Soon those Glee episodes will run out. What other shows can you recommend for joy-therapy?