1st timer asks the wise: tips on coping with sleep deprivation

[neuroticlady]

I love my sleep. I'm cranky after just one bad night. I don't know how I will cope, going from a solid 8+ hours of sleep a night to not much at all! I know it will be a shock and I know you just have to get on with it, but it would really help me to prepare to hear of any tips you may have for how you coped. I've been told to sleep when the baby sleeps, which makes sense. Anything else...? Is it a truly awful feeling? Do you just get used to it? How do you function/think straight when you're totally knackered? And does your bub simply make up for the way you feel with zero sleep? I'm a bit of an old bird for a first time mum, too (39) so worried this will impact on how I'll cope. Help! Thanks

Nothing can prepare you for the goddawful tiredness, but I find it is a different sort of tiredness to normal. I too was (still am) an 8+ hour a night girl, crap at napping, v cranky, but after a while you just get some sort of adrenaline rush that keeps you going and you just cope. The first time you get more than 5 hours sleep you won't know yourself!

Don't have any expectations beyond just looking after the baby and going to a few groups after a couple of weeks . Sod the housework. eat ready meals for a few weeks.

when they get to about 7 weeks and they wake you up with a huge smile on their face, all is forgiven!

agree with others -
-as it is first, nap with baby
-get dh properly trained into getting up sometimes in night / letting you have a lie in (I used to express milk so I could 'sleep' through a feed)

• for us getting baby into a routine was wonderful and meant baby was sleeping through after a relatively short time. We used Gina Ford, and were pretty happy with it, though in retrospect, I might use a slightly gentler system next time around. It will be difficult, but it will be okay - really.