You are finally back home with your baby after delivery. How are you going to take care of a newborn while caring for yourself?? Your loving partner must be there to help you out, but he too needs rest. How would you tackle sleep deprivation? Your postnatal period need not be stressful.
The combination of euphoria and nervous energy would make it difficult for you to sleep. Here are some tips to catch up with your sleep to get the renewed energy to cope with the non-stop demands of the newborn, and also to boost your confidence when you are in self-doubt.
6 Tips To Combat Sleep
1. Express Milk And Sleep
If you start giving your baby bottles early, it would be easier to feed. You have to just express milk in the bottle and go to bed. Tell your partner to take the night shift to give the pumped breast milk. If your baby wakes up many times in the night, maybe you can take the next shift. If you plan the time schedule clearly with your partner, you can both get some shut eye.
2. Midnight Shifts
Find the best way to protect your sleep and make sure you are functional for work. Take shifts. Let your partner handle the first shift (10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.), while anything after that falls into your shift (2:30 a.m. to 6 a.m.). Taking turns to feed your baby in the night is a decent survival tactic. One night on, one night off also works great. If you take charge on Monday night, Tuesday night can be your partners’ responsibility and so on. If you have twins, then this arrangement wouldn’t help much.
3. Early To Bed
This might sound very difficult, but try it out. It is tempting to use the evening to catch up on all things that you missed out during the day but go to bed when your little one does. You would want your peace and quiet time when the baby sleeps, still, go to bed. It helps. Make a cozy corner and snuggle along with your baby. If you have a toddler, sleeping when the baby sleeps doesn’t work. But if you get the timings right, you can relax rather than madly organizing everything else before the baby wakes up.
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4. Sleep-Sharing
The best strategy is to sleep with your newborn next to you on the same bed. If you put the baby in the bassinet and wake for periods of four to five hours every night, and walk around to nurse until the baby sleeps, it will drain all your energy. Your baby will feel good and wake up only briefly to nurse if you share the bed. Make sure the bed is away from hazardous things and make space by removing excess pillows.
5. Keep Away From Mobiles And Laptops
If you have trouble sleeping even after a tiring day, it might be tempting to sit in front of your laptop or mobile. It is not going to help you in any way. The light emitted from the computer, television, or mobile can be very stimulating and keep you up.
5. Say No To Visitors
Especially for first-time moms, visitors might make you feel obligated to entertain. Visitors with high expectations or who would want the attention would only sap your energy. But when you have friends and family who would want to help you, just accept!
6. No Caffeine
Caffeine can give you the intended energy, but overdoing it might also mask the need for sleep. Even when you lie down to sleep, caffeine might not let you sleep. So, don’t rely on coffee.
