Reply to Give it to me straight: sleep deprivation

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "Give it to me straight: sleep deprivation "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A night nurse if you can afford it

If you can't, a family member who can come stay with you and help during the day so you can catch up on sleep.

And yes, DH should be doing some of the overnight even if he has to go into work. [/quote]

+1. And don't BF exclusively. I said it. The DC area is full of La Leche League die-hard types, and don't get me wrong breastfeeding has benefits, but if you tether yourself to being the sole source of nutrition for your infant, you're gonna have a bad time sleep-wise. Introduce a bottle early - in the first two or three weeks of life. Otherwise it will all be on you, Mom[/quote]

I'm 100% pro-choice in how you feed your baby, just keep in mind that formula-feeding is not a guarantee that your baby still sleep through the night, or even "well".  Yes your DH can help with the feedings, but that doesn't mean you get plenty of uninterrupted sleep, and naps can be tough too.  I formula fed my first and he was a terrible sleeper as an infant/baby/even into early toddlerhood.  My second was breastfed and her sleep was better.[/quote]

+1 it can definitely help in some cases to have more flexible feeding practices but both my kids were formula fed and both dropped their last feed at around 9 months which isn't that different than many breastfed babies. My friend's baby who was formula fed was still waking asking for the bottle at 12 months. It certainly can help that it's easier to switch off though so that is valid. My recommendation would be to not make any decisions on feeding before having the baby. Givng breastfeeding a try is usually worth it while keeping an open mind to switch to formula if it's causing stress. There is just toooo much about feeding that is unpredictable that it is not worth it to be set on some plan. You can't predict how baby will react to any of the above things, how you will feel etc. (for example, some babies love formula, some will resist it! Some babies love the breast and breatfeed easily, many have all sorts of things they have to work through in the beginning to do it effectively, some women think they won't want to breastfeed and then love it, some think they will love it and hate it). Feeding a newborn for me (poster above who also is a big sleeper) and most of my friends was actually one of the harder parts of newborn life. The sleep you're prepared for. The feeding.. ugh. But you figure it out! [b]just don't get set on something like oh I'm going to do x becaue then it will solve the sleep problem. Go in open.[/b][/quote]

This is really the heart of things.  I think it's reasonable to plan to do at least some formula (so both parents can share night duties) but really every kid is different; how they eat is different; how they sleep is different.  There's no magic bullet you can decide on ahead of time that will let you avoid any specific problem.

That being said, I would definitely talk to the your DH about your concerns and figure out how you guys want to experiment with splitting duties in a way that takes into account your different strengths and weaknesses.  It's great that you're already considering the things you know the will make it much harder for you.  Personally, I do well with sleep deprivation (I can't nap and struggle to get back to sleep at night sometimes, but running on 5-6 hours of sleep doesn't kill me) so I have no issue being the Parent Who Gets Up Overnight even while working.  On the other hand, I'm easily bored so the primary way I "play" with my babies is basically keeping them near me while doing chores.  DH is the one who sits there with black and white cards and stacks endless block towers and tolerates the demands that he draw a snowman approximately 100 times in an hour.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics