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Managing Sleep, Time & Work

Sleep

Sleep is what new parents get mostly deprived of, during the first few months after the baby’s birth. Babies usually sleep for few hours and wake for several hours during infancy as they are used to do so inside the womb. The stretching of wake and sleep hours takes some time, usually 4-5 months.

Nursing babies also demand more frequent feeding, generally once in 2 hours, all through the day and night! So it is harder for a nursing mother to be available to the baby all day and all night long for feeding and cuddling.

Sleep is required for the body’s regenerative processes, and to provide rest to all body parts. Sleep deprivation can make it difficult for parents to care for themselves and the baby as it leads to tiredness, irritability and lack of concentration. Caring for babies needs a lot of patience and stamina, so it is very important for parents to plan their sleep throughout the day and night.

Some Sleep Tricks for Moms:

Co- Sleeping with the baby at night will save you from the trips to the baby’s room, or to his/her crib. Co-sleeping with the baby is also believed to be beneficial to the baby as he/she gets your warmth all throughout the night and feels safe and secure in your presence.

During the night when the baby wakes up to breastfeed, try the side-lying breastfeeding position to feed the baby. This way you can sleep while the baby quietly takes the feed and your warmth. For this, you will need to bring the baby to your bed from the crib, or in case you co-sleep with the baby, then this would not be so difficult. The same can be done during daytime. But this requires a lot of care as there is a risk of smothering the baby. Position yourself on your side from where you want to breastfeed, keeping the arm on that side towards your front. This would avoid your body from rolling over while sleeping.

For bottle fed babies, sleeping for moms is easier if someone shares the responsibility of feeding the baby. As compared to breastfeeding, bottle feeding requires attention, as the flow of milk is not controlled by the baby, and it is not advised to leave the milk bottle in the baby’s mouth and sleep. Taking turns to sleep in this case helps.

And the most common advice you would get is to sleep when the baby sleeps. Yes. But the baby would sleep after every 3 hours or so, and it is not possible for you to do the same. That time is to catch up on some other important work, or to care for yourself.

Managing sleep, time and work

During the first few months after the baby’s birth, managing the new life as a mom can be difficult and demanding, but with few intelligent ideas, you can easily manage almost all your work and self care. Here are some ideas, but would like you to add few of yours using comments or a blog post.

- It is good to avoid inviting visitors/guests for the first 2 months after the baby’s birth, as you need a lot of time to care for the baby and yourself.

- Your baby would sleep frequently during the daytime, which would give you few hours to yourself. You can plan each few hours of baby-sleep-time according to your needs. E.g. “Next time the baby sleeps, I would just rush for a quick shower, and then have my lunch, while mom watches over her”, “Now whenever the baby goes to sleep, I would go for some shopping nearby, while sis watches over her”. Keeping the mind active won’t let you get bored or sad, and you will be amazed how you have managed everything so easily, but this is not entirely possible without family support.

- You can put a disposable diaper on the baby while he/she sleeps, which would prevent him/her from waking up from soiled cloth diaper, and help him/her sleep for longer (the baby must be watched regularly while he/she is asleep).

- You would require home cooked food for yourself, means you will need to cook for yourself and the family. You can buy food from outside for the rest of the family, in case you are not able to cook for everyone, and let someone from family or your hubby cook for you.

- Cleaning – Every family member should clean up their rooms, utensils and laundry themselves ideally. If this is not possible, sharing the work, or hiring someone definitely helps.

- Taking enough rest and sleep will keep you healthy, active, positive, effective and happy.