How about some new parent tips?
 

Specifically, how do you keep yourself rested?
Right now my weekdays go like this:

6:15am - wake up

7:00am - drive to work to help out for an hour (its very busy first thing in the morning at the service center)

8:00am - take care of the baby while mom goes to work (part time for now)

1:00pm - mom gets back home and I head to work for the rest of the day.

8:00pm - I get off work and take care of some cleaning up or laundry.

9:00pm - go to bed.


On Saturdays I work from 8:00am to 6:00pm, and then on Sunday I am off.
He usually wakes up every 2 or 3 hours to eat during the night, and we try to take turns getting up. It's exhausting. I have so much respect for all you other parents that have gone through this.

In bed by 9 PM.... Wow I ususally don't go to bed 'til 1:30 am and up again by 6:30. I've got 4 children, 10, 6, 4, 1 and the last year has been probably the worst with our last child.. up every 3 hours. Lucky for me my wife nursed her, but still I had to get up to get her.

If you have more, the amount of work involved only grows and grows and grows. I don't complain, since we wanted 4.

I raised 5 -- biggest thing that helped me when they were babies is to get them to sleep through the night. To do that I would wake them every 2 hours during the day. Waking can be done with a simple diaper change, a bath, etc. It can be for as short of time as 5 minutes, or longer if possible. Soon the baby will sleep through the night because he/she will desire uninterrupted sleep. This will help your baby learn the difference between night and day and will give you the opportunity to have uninterrupted sleep.

GOOD LUCK! Your baby is lucky to have a dad that cares!

Thanks guys. I'm gonna be sure to make sure he doesn't sleep too much during the day. I need to keep taking more classes when the fall comes around, that should be a fun ordeal :)

yeah, i was way lucky to have so many cousins older than me, whenever i visited them (every three and a half weeks for a couple of days) I learnt so much about kids then. Don't have any myself yet but when i do i'll at least be more ready than some.

I'd agree with sexymama...

I am just going through the 9th month with my second child (my first is now 8.5)...

With both, getting them to sleep through the night was key. Luckily for us it didn't take long before this happened. My daughter goes to bed around seven and doesn't wake up until 5:30 or 6:00 am... This is much better than being up several times a night...

First child slept through the night at 7 weeks. We were spoiled.
Second child slept through the night at 7 months. Ouch.
Third child slept through the night at about 3 months.

Now the biggest problem is getting them all to sleep at a reasonable time. The oldest (5) fights falling to sleep before 9pm and the youngest (1) is always up before 7am. Since we go to be at about 11pm, it makes it pretty difficult to get anything done around the house.

Good luck with your first child. You don't realize it now, but just one child is easy. You'll realize it when the next one comes along. With three (or more), you've got to drop back to a zone defense and hope your kids don't kill themselves or each other.

Yeah, that 9:00pm bedtime isn't working too well.. It's more like 11:30pm now. This morning I actually fell asleep with him in my arms, and we both took a nice nap.

Just wait until the first time change (i.e., daylight savings time). If the kiddies are up at 7 a.m., after you turn the clocks back....

Question. How much is holding your baby too much? Little Tyler is 3 weeks old tomorrow, and he just loves to be held. He is completely happy if he is in your arms or on your lap. I try to make him learn that he can't be held all the time. Did you guys do the same?

Rested? Forget it!

My kids now are 17, 14 and 10. My wife and I are tired all the time. The good news is you get used to the pace. It's like a 20-30 year sprint. You rest when the last one leaves for college.

This is why we are all pre-programmed to have kids when we are young. We need the energy.

Thanks for listening.

Vodka. For the baby. :D

Seriously, the only thing we found effective was to sleep when the baby sleeps. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be an option in your case.

For ours, we had the baby in our room for the first year. Unless baby has a need (food, changing), the baby can still hear you while you sleep and more easily comfort itself back to sleep. This works better when they're older, but there's going to be little benefit for a 3 week old.

*YOU CANNOT HOLD A BABY TOO MUCH* With that said, you do still need to put the baby down often enough to get your own tasks done.

Until very recently in human history, babies slept next to Mama for the first 2-3 YEARS and never was put down for more than a few seconds. A sling to help carry a baby while gathering food may have been the first human invention. Putting a baby down in a safe place wasn't an option because there was no safe place until 3 or 4 generations ago.

By about 3-4 months, the baby will start wanting to explore. Until then hold the baby all you can; you'll miss it soon enough.

I like your advice. I love holding him :)
He just wants to be held sometimes when I'm trying to doze off. I think we're doing alright so far. We try our best.

Don't dwell so much on the lack of sleep (not an easy thing i know, my first child didn't sleep through the night till 3 yrs) just remember that they will only be a baby once. Before you know they will be off to school and then everthing changes.

:crazy: I feel your pain!

you will get used to it.

we've got a 3 1/2 yr old and an 8 week old. i had forgotten how hellish it is the first few weeks (i think nature blocks our memory on this stuff so there is even a remote chance of us doing it again!).

i can take heart in remembering that they change for the better, and we get used to dealing with the day-to-day. you'll get a routine going & life will be normal again. not your old normal, but you will find normalcy. that really didn't make much sense........

it gets a lot better!

There is nothing very odd about your schedule - pretty close to what we went through, never easy. How the hell do you go to sleep so early? That is the weird thing! I don't have much time so this is what I would do:

Baby sleeps in nursery. Take turns with your wife being the one to get up to feed baby. This way you BOTH don't wake up every night and at least one of you can get a full night's sleep every other night. Have coffee at 4 or 5 PM so that you can stay up until 11:30 like a normal human. This way, you can actually be an adult and enjoy yourself after the kid goes to sleep. If breast feeding then the kid won't sleep through night for ages. We switched to formula after a few weeks and our babies (and all of us older coots who only had formula) are no worse for it. The formula lasts much longer between feedings. ONce he is 15 lbs. he should sleep through the night and they you will regain partial sanity. At that point you can give a few spoonfuls of rice cereal mixed with formula so the bulk will keep stomach full. No harm to this as long as the number of ounces of formula that the baby eats every day stays the same. My babies would make up the ounces in the AM farly fast.

My wife and I also took turns, she pumped so we had breast milk and we alternated feedings when ever possible. My wife hated pumping, but it was better than no sleep. We just felt very stongly about feeding him breast milk. Good luck and enjoy it, I promise you will look back on this time and laugh.

What is rest ? I have not had a reel go nights sleep in 8 years. If the kids are not up I have to do things I could not get done while they were awake