If you're a new parent, you know how difficult it is to sleep well with your precious newborn baby now in your life. Here are some ways to get some solid, deep sleep every night.
Step1-Always sleep when the baby sleeps. Always. Do not read or look things up online. Do not do chores. Do not call your friends and family. Just sleep.
Step2-Inevitably, your friends and family will ask to meet your newborn baby. Schedule no more than two visits a day and allow 30 minutes to an hour per visit. Ask if your guests can bring with them meals that are easily reheated. Also, if you feel comfortable asking them to help with chores, do it. All of these things will give you more time to sleep.
Step3-Break your night down into two shifts. For example, make the early shift from 9pm to 3am and the late shift from 3am and 9am. When you are on duty, your partner must sleep. Likewise, if your partner is on duty, then you must sleep. During your shift, you are the one responsible for all baby duties. If the shift change occurs while your baby is awake, then wake your partner and pass the duties off to him/her. If it occurs while your newborn is asleep, that means that you are also asleep--remember step #1--and you should make certain to wake your partner to take on his/her shift. With the baby sleeping at the beginning or end of the shifts, this two-shift method will generally allow for about seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Step4-For those exclusively breastfeeding: during the non-nursing partner's shift, he/she should bring the baby to the nursing parent for each feed. An excellent way to sleep through the feeding session is to nurse lying down side-by-side with the baby in bed. (There are excellent guides online on how to do this. Do a Google search for "breastfeeding in bed" or "nursing in bed.") If the nursing parent has a pump, it may be easier to pump enough breast milk for the non-nursing partner to bottle-feed during his/her shift.
Step5-If it suits your chosen parenting method, put the baby to sleep in a separate room than yours. This way, if it is your turn to sleep, you will be less likely to wake up every time the baby cries.
Step6-Don't obsess over checking on the baby in the middle of the night. As a new parent, you can't help but check to see if your baby is still breathing while he/she sleeps. Try to limit your night-time checks as best you can.
Step7-Cluster-feed your newborn baby in the late evenings leading up to bedtime. For example, if bedtime is at 8pm, feed your baby every two hours starting at 4pm. This will help your baby sleep a bit longer and allow the parent on the early shift to get a longer nap.
Step8-If you and your partner get to a point where you cannot safely handle the baby, make sure you have enough breast milk or baby formula for a full day of feedings and ask a trusted friend or relative to come over to babysit. While they take care of your newborn baby, be certain to do nothing but sleep.
