Your pregnancy surely takes your relationship to the next level—your baby is a beautiful little one that you and your partner have created. Soon they will be right in your arms and you would be a happy family of three.
However, before the story ends in living happily ever after, there are some milestones that you and your partner have to achieve. One among them is surviving through the sleepless night’s after the baby arrives.
There is no doubt that your baby will give you sleepless night’s, which is something that parents quietly suffer through. At one point it could be annoying—there would be many, well, let’s say more instances when it is just you who has to wake up because the baby needs to breastfeed at night. Surviving through these tough times, remaining sane through the baby cries and compromising your sleep could become a task.
Surviving through these tough times, remaining sane through the baby cries and compromising your sleep to cradle the baby to sleep could become a task for you and your partner. We have 7 tips for couples who relate to all of the above.
1. Discuss And Divide The Work
This is no A-rated mission, but sit and plan for it with your partner. Your baby will be sleeping in the same room as you, make sure your partner knows about soothing, feeding and changing the diapers.
Take turns to wake up at night and attend to your baby. Your partner could rock the baby could to sleep while you grab few more minutes of rest through the night.
2. Don’t Keep A Record Of Turns
You may feel like keeping an equal score of the number of times you woke up to attend to the little one as compared to your husband. You must know that you both are contributing towards the family in different ways and something like this will create bitterness.
3. Maintain Your Cool
There would be times when your partner might not do something as expected or do it in a wrong manner. Don’t tease, nag or criticize them about it. Remember that this is a phase of change for you both. Take a deep breath and know that eventually, things will get better with time.
4. Trust Your Partner
If your partner is attending to or caring for the little one, don’t point out or do a round of checks over them. Have trust in your partner’s abilities, don’t underestimate or criticize their ways of soothing and calming the baby. Give them some time, hold onto your patience.
5. Remember About Their Schedule
Your partner may have to get up early and go to work. While your baby may not be knowing it, make sure baby care doesn’t cost your partner a day at work, where he would be struggling to stay awake after rocking the baby the previous night. In short, consider their schedules as well.
6. Try Sleeping Separately
On days when your partner is in need of some good sleep, he could shift to sleep on the couch in the living room. This doesn’t mean you both won’t be sleeping together from now on and your relationship isn’t going well after the arrival of the baby.
It would ensure good sleep for at least one person. For instance, if your partner has to stay up late night to work or leave early morning to catch a flight, having a better sleep in the guest room could be helpful. You both are compromising for the better, aren’t you?
7. Keep Your Partner Updated
Let your partner know about the little changes, for instance, baby wakes up to sounds, has pooped or fed an hour back or likes to be swaddled and rocked. This will help your partner carry his part of duties in a better way—keep them updated about the little developments in your baby.
Some nights will be exhausting, irritating, and frustrating. Remember that this phase will be over, probably when your baby will be a month old and will start sleeping through the night. Hold onto each other through, keep up the love and before you realize these days will pass away.
