Unfortunately tiredness is an occupational hazard of being a new parent. Your new baby will not have any kind of routine for sleep or feeding and so they will sleep when they are tired and want food when they are hungry, even if this is in the middle of the night.

Tips for dealing with the sleep issue.

1.    Try to get your baby into a routine; feeding on demand is not conducive to a good night sleep.  If breastfeeding, your baby will need to be fed around every 3 hours, if bottle feeding every 4 hours. Try to get your baby into this rhythm, with the last feed before bed at around 11.00 pm, put them down and get some shuteye before the next feed at around 2.00 am then again at 5.00am.

2.    If baby only sleeps when you take them for a spin in the car or out in the pram, you may want to do this once in a while so you can get some rest yourselves. However, it’s probably best not to make a habit out of it and you don’t want to end up doing this every night!

3.    Share the feeding responsibilities with your partner, this may be easier said than done, as if breastfeeding you can’t really help out. However, if your partner is not dealing with the lack of sleep, it may be worth her expressing so that you can take over the feeding duties via a bottle for a night or two.

4.    If your partner is breastfeeding, selfish as it sounds, there is no point in you both suffering. If you have a spare room, make the most of it, if not use the couch. Then you will be in a better position to help out during the day and let your partner get some rest.

5.    If you are still at work, it may even be worth taking a time out at a hotel or on a friends couch once in a while, especially if you have an important meeting coming up. There is nothing worse trying to do a sales pitch or presentation on 2 hours sleep!!! Obviously don’t make a habit of this as your partner may, rightly, feel that you are abandoning her.

On a personal note, it took us 8 weeks to get our first to sleep through from 11.00 to 6.00 but 7 months for number two!  However I have friends that are still not getting a decent night sleep over year after their child was born. The thing to remember is that each baby is different and that there will need to be some trial and error before you get something that works for you and them.