When I was pregnant, I remember saying, “Now I know what exhausted feels like.” I had no idea. If you are a new mom (or dad), you probably feel like a zombie most of the time. You aren’t alone. Trying to navigate through hormonal changes and figuring out how to care for a new baby doesn’t leave much time for anything else–including sleep. I had no idea what a powerful force lack of sleep could be.
It took us about a week before my husband and I finally figured out that we both couldn’t stay up all the time together. Suddenly, Derek had an epiphany: we should work in shifts! This made a tremendous difference. I breastfeed Dylan, so I always have to be present and awake (sort of awake) for every feeding. When Dylan woke up, Derek would get him out of his crib, calm him, change his diaper and prepare him for a feeding. I would struggle to get out of bed and hobble over to the couch, strap on My Brest Friend and the baby would be handed over. At that point, feedings took forever, so Derek would go back to sleep and I would feed the little guy and try to convince him to go back to sleep. After our feeding was over, I would bring him back to his crib and climb back into bed and we would do it all over again an hour later. Even when Derek went back to work, he continued to be the one to get up and “prepare” Dylan for me at night.
This divide-and-conquer approach saved our lives in those early weeks.
If you’re in the midst of this now, just remember, there is a light at the end of that crazy newborn tunnel. Before you know it, baby will be sleeping for longer stints of time and you will begin to feel less like the undead. The more baby sleeps at night, the more you will begin to feel like yourself again. Now, if only there was time to shower…Eh, one thing at a time.
