Anonymous wrote:Agree with DH which he will do - garbage he is capable of managing I hope. Rest - load washer/dryer with baby strapped to you in a baby carrier, or put him in a pack and play when he is fed and content and load/unload dishwasher. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I was a horrible bad very bad no good mother and I coslept
I am also the queen of freezer meals.
People who cosleep universally pretend it’s the easiest way and the rest of us won’t do it out of fear. I can’t imagine cosleeping. I barely like sleeping with my husband. I love blankets. I do not WANT to cosleep. Why don’t you just say it worked for you and not try to be cute.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The other tip that I got from a mom of a big family, is when evaluating housework/chores, think about what multiplies if you ignore it, and what stays the same.
So - cleaning a floor or a bathroom is a pretty similar amount of work whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. So, ignore those chores for now. You'll get to it when you get to it.
Laundry multiplies. That's worth staying on top of. But if you don't fold clothes, they'll just get worn anyway cause you'll be desperate. So skip folding, dress out of bins of clean laundry for now.
This is a great tip.
Anonymous wrote:The other tip that I got from a mom of a big family, is when evaluating housework/chores, think about what multiplies if you ignore it, and what stays the same.
So - cleaning a floor or a bathroom is a pretty similar amount of work whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. So, ignore those chores for now. You'll get to it when you get to it.
Laundry multiplies. That's worth staying on top of. But if you don't fold clothes, they'll just get worn anyway cause you'll be desperate. So skip folding, dress out of bins of clean laundry for now.
Anonymous wrote:I was a horrible bad very bad no good mother and I coslept
I am also the queen of freezer meals.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Your baby should be sleeping most of the day. You should be resting or napping during this time.
Mine hardly ever slept more than 45 min, and never reliably to the point it made sense to try to sleep with him. Many many many cups of cold coffee in those days.
Yep, I’ve had one of each. First baby cat-napped and struggled to go more than 2 hours in between feedings overnight until she was probably closer to three months old. I got so upset with everyone telling me newborns should sleep all the time, and I should have no trouble napping. That was NOT our reality, no matter what we tried. She is 5 now and has always been on the low end of sleep needs.
Second baby slept like a dream from day 1. She was such a good sleeper that I actually took her to the pediatrician in between regular checkups, convinced that there was something wrong with her. Turns out, she was a normal newborn who liked to sleep. Our pediatrician was familiar with our struggles with our older DD and remarked that we had gotten lucky to get the tough baby over with first!
I learned not to complain to people because they literally did not understand what I was saying. Neighbor quizzically looking at me while I'm out with my kid the same age as his who's having a 3 hour after lunch nap. I went 2 years having watched less than half a dozen rated R movies because this kid was up till 10 or 11pm. I am not exaggerating.
The other one that triggers me is "Let the housework go". Ok, that's great, but what about the garbage can disappearing under a mountain of garbage, no clean spoons in the house, no clean laundry?
Anonymous wrote:You hire help.
But also, with your first baby it's much easier to find pockets of time to rest. Mine would do a 5/6am feeding, and then still go back to sleep, so I would too. Sometimes she'd sleep until 8/9am after that, so I often wasn't getting up for the day until then. It was still only in 90 minute to 3 hour chunks here or there, but we muddled through.
If you really feel like you need solid sleep, you have your DH take over for a night time feed. There is no reason you should be tasked with only sleeping in 90 minute chunks while he gets 6-8 solid hours. He will do just fine with 3-4 hour chunks as well. Every single woman who goes back to work at 12 weeks goes back to work doing that.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Your baby should be sleeping most of the day. You should be resting or napping during this time.
Mine hardly ever slept more than 45 min, and never reliably to the point it made sense to try to sleep with him. Many many many cups of cold coffee in those days.
Yep, I’ve had one of each. First baby cat-napped and struggled to go more than 2 hours in between feedings overnight until she was probably closer to three months old. I got so upset with everyone telling me newborns should sleep all the time, and I should have no trouble napping. That was NOT our reality, no matter what we tried. She is 5 now and has always been on the low end of sleep needs.
Second baby slept like a dream from day 1. She was such a good sleeper that I actually took her to the pediatrician in between regular checkups, convinced that there was something wrong with her. Turns out, she was a normal newborn who liked to sleep. Our pediatrician was familiar with our struggles with our older DD and remarked that we had gotten lucky to get the tough baby over with first!
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Your baby should be sleeping most of the day. You should be resting or napping during this time.
Mine hardly ever slept more than 45 min, and never reliably to the point it made sense to try to sleep with him. Many many many cups of cold coffee in those days.