Newborn Night Routine

[Whatsgoingon16]

Me (F34) and my partner (M35) are first time parents and been both sharing the night time shift together (me breastfeeding, him changing nappies and settling baby back to sleep)

partner is going back to work next week and we both are wondering how to do the night time routine - any suggestions? I have been expressing breast milk as top ups so that’s possible for DH to take over a shift with feeding baby a bottle.

any tips greatly appreciated!

There is no routine with a newborn, just divide and hope for the best. We had the witching hour for a long, long, long portion of the evening. So whenever the witching hour stopped I went to sleep (we would both need to trade out during the witching hour). DH would stay up later and do a feed. I would then do the night feed, DH would prepare a bottle in the morning when he woke so I could give a bottle in bed about 5am and then mostly go back to sleep until about 8/9. So I would get 9-1, 2-5, 6-8 and DH would get 11-5. So I got more sleep but it was broken.

I wasn’t breastfeeding but found partner doing the first bit of the evening (8pm-12 midnight) while I went to bed early worked. I then did the rest of the night. If he managed to feed her close to midnight she would usually sleep until 2 or 3am so I got a solid block of sleep.

DH took the first shift and around 1am would go sleep in another room so he would sleep 1am - 6am so at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep which allowed him to cope well at work.

If baby woke between 9pm and 1am, he would bring him to me to breastfeed in bed and I'd go back to sleep.

Don't be tempted to let him get a full night sleep while you handle every single night waking. You might think you can cope and then you'll hit a brick wall you can't recover from. He has to work but so do you.

No routine can be expected with a newborn. Follow the baby’s lead, feed when hungry etc. maybe ask dh to take the first half of the night and you to do the second so you both get uninterrupted sleep?