New baby and partner is a shift worker

[Holl89]

Hi!
I have a 7 week old baby
my partner is a police officer
he does lots of late shifts, 11-9’s, 10-8’s, 12-2’s as well as normal day shifts

Mammas, how do you share the night / baby duties with your partners?

I’m finding it hard to know what sort of routine to have, I know his job is stressful and needs sleep but obviously I need sleep too!
At the moment he gives a formula bottle in between 10-12pm / whenever he finishes work but then I do the rest of the night, but cos my baby is up so much and doesn’t sleep, I’m getting hardly any sleep and it’s taking its toll ☹️ we have had lots of arguments

just wondering what other people do when their partners are police officers / shift workers x

My husband was a police officer. I did all the nights while I was on mat leave except he would do 1 when he was on his days off and I would sleep in another room so I really did have an indisturbed night. Would that work?

In also slept in the day when my DD slept and thought sod the cleaning!

your baby is only 7 weeks old so it’s normal
to be knackered and you getting used to broken sleep, which you will. But also, soon your baby will sleep for longer periods which does make it easier.

My husband is a paramedic. When he's on nights he just works and sleeps and I do 100% of everything.

When he's on days it all depends on what time he finishes which obviously varies hugely. It's nice when he gets back in time to eat tea with us as then he can be there to do his share of bedtime (we have 2 kids) and loads else.

When he's got the day off he's honestly brilliant and a real neat freak so loves cleaning and hoovering. The kids adore him and he gives so much of himself to them.

Shift work is HARD on a family balance/ marriage but eldest is 6 now and we've found a way to make it work and learnt so much about ourselves and each other along the way.

My ExH was a police officer working shifts when my DS was born and young. He would help and be very hands on when he was at home and awake but I did all the nights, childcare arrangements etc as his work was much more unpredictable than mine. I did what I had to do to get through including some co sleeping and napping myself during DS nap times. I also worked full time from when he was 3 months in a stressful job so I threw all my preconceived ideas out of the window and did what I needed to get some sleep.