A newborn baby is life’s greatest gift. However, parents can feel like they are sacrificing their sleep for it. While most people agree that the struggle is worth it, parents’ insomnia during the first few months of a baby’s life can be a problem. Babies need to be fed and changed in the early hours of the morning. Sometimes they need comforting if being fussy.
You can overcome it with strategies that make it easier to manage and get more sleep.
If the mother is nursing, it can be especially difficult for her to get enough sleep. If you are breastfeeding the baby, it is impossible for you and your partner to share in the responsibility of feeding a hungry infant. So what can a mother do?
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Proper sleep hygiene for you and your child
As you adjust to having a new member in your family, make sure to establish a consistent bedtime routine. Experts agree that nighttime sleep is one of the most important things a child can learn. Your child will sleep the longest during the first night of rest.
It will be a signal to your baby and you that it is time to go to bed. Here are some suggestions:
- You can change their daytime clothes to comfortable pajamas or a new diaper.
- To help you both relax, read your child a bedtime story. Reading aloud to your child early in life can promote language development.
- Sing them a lullaby.
- Warm up the bath.
- When it is bedtime, speak in muffled tones and dimmed lighting.
The hard part is over
There are strategies that can be used to help a newborn navigate the world of sleep. It won’t take long for your newborn to fall asleep, around two to three months.
You will soon return to normal if you make it through the first 3 months.
While we said that you shouldn’t share the night with your baby while you are nursing, you can still stay up with your baby if you breastfeed. Before you go to bed, prepare a bottle and then let your partner feed the baby. This will allow you to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Many new mothers do not have partners. Ask a friend or relative to help you get quality sleep.
Without a nanny, there is no way to prevent sleep loss in the early months of a baby’s life. It’s a fact of parenting. We will give you some tips on how to get at least some better sleep than you would otherwise.
Strategies for sleeping
1. Good sleep hygiene
Good sleep hygiene is the first. You need to have a routine that you can stick with that will help you fall asleep. According to the CDC, good sleep hygiene includes:
- Every night, you should go to bed at the same time each night
- If the baby is in another room, make sure the bedroom is dark, quiet, peaceful, and comfortable.
- Remove electronic devices from your bedroom
- Before going to bed, avoid large meals, coffee and alcohol.
- Get some exercise during the day, but not too early before bed.
2. Sleep when your baby is asleep
It doesn’t matter what time it may be, when your baby falls asleep, turn off your phone, the stereo and TV, and pull the curtains or shades. will sleep as long.
One partner may be working from home while the other is at work. Unfortunately, it is not possible to sleep when the baby is asleep if the other is there.
3. When possible, take turns
If you have a partner you should take turns with the baby when you can. You can breastfeed the baby and make a few bottles so that the other partner can also feed it.
There is no reason to bottle feed if you don’t want to take turns. You can take turns if the baby is fussy or needs to change their diapers.
It is important to understand why your baby is crying. If the baby is crying after you have finished feeding them, it’s likely that they don’t want to eat.
4. Take a walk in the morning
After a long night, a morning walk will reset the circadian rhythm of your body and provide you with exercise to help you sleep in the evening.
5. Do not take caffeine too late
You can still have your coffee or Viter Energie Mints before 3:00 p.m. Avoid stimulants later in the afternoon. It is a good idea to avoid caffeine if your baby will be sleeping around 1 p.m.
Caffeine’s half-life is approximately 5 hours for adults. However, the length of the half-life varies from one person to another. Plan accordingly.
6. Sleep whenever you can
Napping can be your best friend in the first few days of your baby’s life. It is impossible to predict what the night holds so it’s a good idea to nap at least half an hour each day.
Experts in the Sleep
7. Consider separate beds
You can put the baby in a separate room. If you and your spouse have to share a bed, you can also sleep in separate rooms. One person can sleep in a single bed for a longer time and have a better quality of rest.
Here are some more tips for single moms
Super moms are all around. However, if you have to take on the roles of both parents, it can make things more challenging. These are some other tips for single moms struggling to get a rest — good sleep!
Stock up
When the baby arrives, grocery shopping and going to the mall to buy clothes becomes more difficult. You will thank yourself in the future for having prepared. Start stocking all essentials during pregnancy.
If money is tight, it’s a good idea to stock up on the essentials. We recommend that you have a lot of:
- Use diapers and wipes
- Easy-to-make frozen meals and foods like butter and cheese to make mac and cheese
- Use Tupperware to meal prep so that you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time relaxing.
- For easy cleanup, use plastic utensils and paper plates
- Wear loose underwear to live and sleep comfortably
- Shampoos and soaps
- Ibuprofen because it is the worst time to discover your stock is empty, is when you actually need it
Accept Outside Help
Even if you don’t have someone to co-parent with you, that doesn’t mean your loved ones can’t help. You can rely on the help of your friends and family to take care of your baby while you go for a nap. Even a 20-minute power nap can make you feel refreshed.
Don’t Forget To Exercise
Your baby and you should both be exercising regularly, even if it is only 20-30 minutes per day. This will be easy for your newborn. You can simply tummy-time your baby or place your baby on your stomach to encourage the development of your neck and shoulders. We encourage you to take a stroll around the block in a stroller. You’ll be more tired at night if you exercise during the day, and fresh air is always a good idea.
Watch out for these things
Talk to your doctor if you feel that you are suffering from sleep deprivation. A sleep deficit can lead to depression, anxiety, heart disease, obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, and high blood pressure.
Don’t rely on sleeping pills. David Brodner is a board-certified doctor in sleep medicine and tells Healthline that prescriptions for sleeping pills can cause more accidents in cars and more falls among older patients.
Foundation says Even 15 minutes of sleep can benefit your body and mind.