...how do you split the night? Or do you at all? DD is 3 weeks old and DH is back at work. He needs sleep in order to function properly at work and I need it in order to properly look after DD all day. I recognise nights of 8 hours + are a thing of the past (at least for the foreseeable future!) bur realistically a few hours a night are necessary. Last night DH was exhausted so I did the whole night-between feedings (formula, so the whole palaver of making bottles included), windings, DD taking ages to fall asleep and needing lots of cuddles, trying to put her in her basket, her waking up again, nappy changes etc etc I reckon I got about 2 hours in total. Now, part of this is me being new to the whole thing, not as organised as I am sure I will learn to be, and DD wanting to fall asleep on me rather than in her basket so I can't fall asleep until I've managed to put her down, which is an issue we need to work on as it definitely makes it harder. We can't co-sleep incidentally as the mattress is memory foam. I did last night in the nursery with her so DH wouldn't be disturbed but obviously it would be better to have her in with us (not us in with her, if you see what I mean) so we can share our bed as normal!
So how do people do it? She feeds on demand but is roughly in a self imposed 3-4 hour 'schedule'. We fed her at 6 she's likely to be hungry again around 9 or 10, 1 or 2 etc. So far we've tried taking a night on/off but this is really hard on DH when he's going to work, doing alternate feeds and sleeping in the nursery (so swapping beds at various points in the night), DH doing nappies and me doing feeds so we're both up each time but for slightly less time, having her in our room but taking her out for feeds etc so one or other of us can stay in bed...etc. None of these are workable long term.
How do people do it?! Apart from just not getting any sleep at all for the first few months! Any advice gratefully received.
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17 replies
Pippaandpolly · 10/10/2011 19:24
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