Secrets on how to get sleep with a newborn

New moms lose a lot of sleep in the first few months they bring a baby home. Here are some EASY tips on how to get sleep with a newborn.

New moms get all kinds of baby advice from family, neighbors, friends, and coworkers. Many times new moms are so focused on baby they they forget to take care of themselves.

My biggest issue with having a newborn was sleep deprivation. I remember when my first son was born. I was still in the hospital and my husband was sleeping on the seat that turned into a couch. My infant son was crying like crazy and I was trying to breastfeed. My husband was sound asleep and didn’t even stir.

He had good intentions of helping but he always is in such a deep sleep. I ended up throwing the empty water bottles I had at him to wake him up for help. I realized then that I was going to have a problem and that he wasn’t going to be as much help in taking the night shift as I had thought.

lady with long brown hair sleeping on white bed in white long sleeved tee with black and white eye mask

Tips on how to get sleep with a newborn baby

Sleep when baby sleeps

I know all new moms have heard “sleep when baby sleeps“. Well, it’s pretty good advice. I had a hard time with this at first, but it didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t need to do laundry or clean up at the exact time the baby slept.

Babies need to sleep in another room

If possible, let the baby sleep in his room. My babies slept in my room at first, but I moved them in their own beds as soon as I could. Every little peep they make, you are inevitably up and checking on them.

Babies do wake up at night and they need to learn to put themselves back to sleep. It’s hard to get the longer stretches of sleep you need when they are right beside you.

Have a comfortable bed

If you are complaining about your bed, that’s it’s uncomfortable, just go get a new one. Don’t wait! This is when you will need it the most.

Check on baby as soon as you think about it

This is the last and #1 advice for all new moms, if you wake up in the middle of the night and think to yourself, “I should go check on the baby”, then go do it immediately.

There are so many times that I laid there and was so tired. I just kept thinking, what if the baby became unswaddled and is cold, his leg is sticking through the crib, or he rolled over on his stomach. I could lay there drifting in and out of sleep for hours and then finally get up.

I recommend that you should just get up and check your little one the first time it pops in your mind so you can lay back down and really go back to sleep instead of worried, tossing and turning.

I hope this helps all you new moms out there and get some well deserved rest.