What was one thing that saved your sanity during the early post partum days?

[Allthesweets]

Hoping for inspiration. :)

Wireless earphones have been brilliant and as some others have said, bed sharing which saved my sanity.

Sertraline
Chronicles of St Mary’s on my kindle to read in night feeds.
Co sleeping
My mum moved in (appreciate this wouldn’t help everyone)
bottle feeding

Cosleeping
Breastfeeding
Netflix
Kindle for night readying in the dark
A very supportive husband

and chocolate

Doing shifts at night with DH (8pm-2 DH would be "on shift", then 2am-8am I'd be on shift).

DH would only fetch me if baby absolutely needed a a breastfeed. Meant we at least got 6 hours each per night in the spare room, without hearing phantom crying or thinking we'd left the baby on the bed 😵‍💫

Also, caddy with all my crap in it so I could relocate around the house when baby would only nap on me. (Caddy had phone, charger, water bottle, tissues nipple cream, lip balm etc).

Swaddling
A dummy
and best of all….my MIL who treated me like a Queen.

Going out for a walk every day. With DS2 I was doing 4.5 miles a day of walking on the school run by the time he was 8 days old. I felt absolutely knackered at first but it was brilliant for my MH. There’s nothing like getting your baby read for a walk when it’s -2 degrees at 8.15am to make you realise actually you really CAN do this.

Also free downloaded books from my local library’s app.

And watching “Breaking Bad”z

And my mum’s witty, comforting, super-helpful contribution as the best granny ever. May she ever rest in peace.

Real Housewives of (various cities)

Staying with my parents for the first 3 weeks.

Batch cooked meals
The fact I could finally sleep more comfortably (if at all, but yeah, it wasn't painful at least!)
The fact I could eat sweet stuff again after having gestational diabetes, that felt amazing
Getting out for a walk with DS every day from 4 days old
Not having any visitors at all for the first 2 weeks, a lovely newborn coccoon
Having TV in my bedroom, it was on during some cluster feeding sessions and it was blissful tbh, only time I ever used it 😂

Oh and straw water bottle and long phone charger USB leads in several rooms, so convenient when baby sleeps on you or during cluster feeding when you often can't move much!

My baby wanted to be on my boobs 24/7. My husband would take the baby downstairs in the morning and if she started to cry would put his finger in her mouth to buy me 1-2 hours of sleep. I think this actually prevented a sleep deprivation related psychosis.

The early post partum days have always been my favourite. Apart from spritz for bits which is a life saver for down below, it's just a lovely sleepy relaxing bubble! (In my experience of course)

Friday night lights box set and kindle for night feeds
Fast phone charger
Insulated coffee mug giant water bottle
Daily walk, even if just half an hour to feel I had achieved something

Baby wearing, an amazing NCT lady who helped me over Christmas with breastfeeding when the community midwives just threw some bottles of aptamil at me and said 'if she hasn't gained weight by the 27th she will be admitted to paeds and given all the formula she can manage'. I discovered mumsnet during those long, dark lonely nights feeding and I felt empowered. My ex was actually quite good at making me a packed lunch every day that I could eat with one hand while I was sat on the couch feeding or sat on the couch with a sleeping baby. Co-sleeping made a huge difference. Making the effort to leave the house every other day and being fine with the alternate days being at home and no pressure to get dressed if I couldn't manage it. Having high expectations from the ex at pulling his weight and not expecting a pristine apartment or tea on the table every night. 150 mls of red wine with my Sunday lunch each week.
I spent far too long invested in cloth nappies though! Don't regret using them at all but I have a ridiculous level of residual knowledge on the subject due to the hours I invested in the topic.

Richard and Judy! James Herriott vets book series, tea.

Just letting the baby set the pace, which I loved and could do when on maternity leave with my first. Not too many arrangements\visitors so if you had a bad night, you could just chill the next day. Badedas for the bath and a tin of biscuits for midnight snacks. I wish I could do it all again.

Cutting out stress, supportive partner, husband taking off time off work and dipping into life savings
Can't get that time back
Realising that everything is just a phase and having to keep repeating that to myself to keep sane
Being kind to myself

This! Limiting visitors

Co-sleeping and slings.

Wine and venting to friends. Getting out of the house

Initially dh being off and as helping to weed out visitors when needed

once I stopped breast feeding - taking it in turns every other night (from about Six weeks)

then my car - going off for the day with the double buggy

Supportive partner, dh taking extended parental leave, being served food in bed, staying in bed as much as we wanted (ignore pressure around taking the baby out every day if you don't feel well enough in the first couple of weeks), takeaways of my favourite meals for a week or two.

Absolutely "shifts". Did the same with DP. I did 10-3am, she (we're both women) did 3am-8am. The person sleeping would be in a different room. In the early days neither of us could sleep with him in the room. Every snuffle, grunt or wheeze would have us both leap out of bed.

Can I ask about co-sleeping with a newborn - baby is a week old and will not settle in his next to me crib for more than about 15 minutes so the last 2 nights I've ended up co-sleeping which has been so much better. I followed all the guidance on the lullaby trust website but my one worry is that my mattress (and the one in the spare room) is fairly soft so it's really easy for baby to roll onto his side. I ended up sort of wedging my arm under his side a little to stop him rolling towards me and keep him on his back but it was kind of uncomfortable for both of us.

Is there anything better I could be doing?

To answer the OP's question, it's super early days for us but I would say a breast pump as I've been expressing which means my husband takes baby in the mornings and k go and sleep!!