A New Mom's Life

Sleeping in? A luxury you’ll never have again unless baby is sleeping over somewhere. Even then, your “momdar” won’t let you sleep past 9 a.m. Your body gets to so used to responding to baby cries that it seems to wake on autopilot, despite your desires to sleep in all day. And once you’re up, you might as well get up, right?

One day, your baby will reach a great sleep milestone. “He’s sleeping through the night!” “She’s going down for naps without crying now, ” you proudly say to your sleep-deprived mom friends.

They may smile and say, “That’s great.” They will probably hate you for it, though.

Don’t ever, ever brag about your baby’s sleep. Your baby will have bad sleep for the next two weeks just to show you who’s boss.

If your baby is like most, it will sleep a lot during the first month or so. But usually in the day. At night, they’ll be up every hour, screaming and crying like there’s no tomorrow. It takes a while, but they will usually come around and switch their days for nights.

They say in the first two years of a baby’s life, new parents lose SIX months of sleep. I believe it.

The first month of your baby’s life, he will sleep through anything. You can poke them, prod them, turn on rock music at full blast and bring a marching band into your living room - they won’t wake up. You will be amazed and proud of how well your baby sleeps.

Then one day, your baby starts to wake at the slightest noise. A doorbell. The phone ringing. The tiptoeing of your husband as he enters the bedroom at night. You will become fiercely protective of your baby’s sleep, and anyone who messes with it will feel your wrath.

This is a huge decision you will make. When the time comes, will you let your baby cry it out?

Some moms swear by it; it’s the only way to teach your baby how to sleep on their own. They brag about the 12 hours of sleep their babies get and make it seem like it’s the only way.

Other moms disagree with this approach. They feel babies need to be cuddled/nursed/rocked to sleep sometimes, and that’s okay.

You may find yourself on one side of the fence at first, then flip flop several times before you find the right way for you and your baby.

This becomes a hot topic among you and your mom friends. How many naps does the baby take? Are they sleeping through the night?

If your baby is a good sleeper, you will brag about it, but not too much to make the other moms jealous. If your baby doesn’t sleep well, you may feel guilty or seek advice from other moms. Either way, it’s always a subject of discussion. It’s like the new Louis Vuitton – it’s what every new mom wants.

The first month, you will be a walking zombie. Trust me, you won’t know what hit you.

Sure, you’ve had late nights and all-nighters before, but not like this. Before, you had a bad night and you made up for it the next day. Now, you have a late night, and you still have an early morning. You wake the baby every three hours to feed them. They sleep during the day, but not at night. And if you’re like a lot of parents, you’ll have the crying baby sleeping (or not sleeping) in your own room.

It’s nuts, but it gets better (thank goodness!). The first night you have four hours of sleep in a row, you are so happy you could cry.