by Charlotte A. Cavatica

Created on: July 27, 2008

The first thing new parents need to know is that all attempts to make your child give you more sleeping time within the first few months is time wasted. The baby doesn't need anything about his/her behavior altered, you need to find a way to work around your baby's feeding schedule. Babies' stomachs are only the size of their fist; they're very small. Because they're growing so rapidly, that tiny amount of breast milk or formula is put to use the moment it enters your child's system... which means it's depleted very quickly, causing their need to eat so frequently. Trying to find ways that will make your child "last longer" (cereal in the bottle, for example) is pointless; the only way you're going to get a little extra shut eye is by getting someone to help you.

After my son arrived, my husband took two weeks off from work. It didn't take long for us to figure out that the both of us waking up every time the baby cried was not an ideal situation. Since I had trouble breastfeeding, our son was being formula-fed. We tried taking turns for each time he cried, but no matter whose turn it was, we'd both wake up every time. Neither of us was getting any sleep, we were both miserable and exhausted.

One night, it was my turn to get up for the first feeding. I jumped up at the first cry and immediately scooped up our son and left the room. I gave him his bottle, but rather than going back into the bedroom to place him in his bassinet, I put him in the bouncy chair where he took a good chunk of his naps during the day, while I laid down on the couch. When our son began stirring again about three and a half hours later, I was that much closer to the kitchen and was able to get his bottle to him in record time; he had barely made a whimper before the nipple was in his mouth. Because he wasn't fully awake yet, he went back to sleep so quickly once the bottle was finished. Since the entire feeding time had been slightly shorter, I found that it was easier for me to fall back to sleep as well. I handled the next early morning feeding the same way.

That morning my husband came out of the bedroom and asked what happened, how come I never woke him for his turn? I explained what I had done and proposed that rather than each of us taking a turn for every time he cried, why don't we try each of us taking a turn with having him for the night? That way, we'd each get a full night's sleep every other night - whoever had the baby stayed out on the couch with the baby in the bouncer

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