Womb to Bloom - Maternity & Beyond

When my children were infants I felt like a zombie walking around with out enough sleep. After my second was born and I had a day where I spent a straight 24 hours holding one child or the other. At that moment I decided I had had enough and it was time to get some sleep.

Here are some of the tips I used to get a few more zzzz’s.

Tip One
Sleep when the baby sleeps. I used to turn off the phone ringer and snuggle with the baby in a lounge chair. This way I was holding my baby while sleeping. If you are lucky enough to have an infant who is willing to sleep in her crib, great, go for it. Let the baby sleep in the crib and you nap in your bed. The dishes will wait and the laundry will still be there when you wake up. Take a nap while you can.

Tip Two
Give yourself some space and room to sleep. I found that listening to my baby move at night kept me awake. The best way to handle this is to move the crib out of your bedroom and turn the baby monitor to low so you only hear when the baby cries. The gentle sounds most babies make while sleeping keep moms up at night.

Tip Three
Let someone else watch the baby for a while. In the beginning you are likely to have lots of visitors, let them help by watching the baby while you take a nap. This will do two things, first you will get some sleep and second your family and friends will feel like they are really helping out.

Tip Four
Share night time responsibilities. It is often easy for one parent to stay up late and the other to get up early. Here is a sample schedule that seemed to work out well for me. My husband went to bed at 8pm and I woke to care for the baby until 1 am. At 1 am I went to bed for uninterrupted sleep and my husband woke to care for the baby until 6 am. This gave each of us an uninterrupted 5 hours a night. The other hours we could doze and sleep around the babies’ schedule.

The best advise I can give is keep in mind this is only temporary. Most babies can sleep up to 5 hours a night by the time they are three months old. Then by age six months they can sleep up to 9-12 hours at a time.