Mom Sleep Support, Because You Need Sleep Too!
Sleep tips aren’t just for babies; moms need help getting rested too!
Anyone will tell you that one of the biggest challenges the new parent will face is the lack of sleep. At Welcome Baby Care, we take sleep seriously. Here are a few new mom sleep tips to help relieve some of the exhaustion of those first months with a newborn.
Put sleep first.
We live in a culture that naturally puts sleep last. We brag about how little we need, how early we get up for workouts, how late we stayed up working. That means we can experience some guilt around doing normal (and very necessary) things like taking naps, going to bed early and sleeping as late as we possibly can. Just as the flight attendant tells us to secure our own gas mask before assisting others, we have to get the sleep we need in order to do the million things that being a new mom will ask of us. Get the rest of the house on board; this is a team effort.
Sleep when baby does.
This is a cardinal rule. We know, you have a million chores to catch up on, photos to post and emails to answer. And no one can blame you for just wanting to check out for an hour in front of Netflix. But if baby is sleeping, you should be too. Even putting your feet up in a quiet room with no distractions can help refresh and restore.
Keep your circadian rhythms in check.
Sleep is going to be all over the place and you’re going to grab what you can when you can. This is going to shift the normal patterns a little bit, but it can’t be helped. However, there are a few things you can do to try to keep patterns stable. That means avoiding screens an hour before bed (and definitely in the middle of the night) and watching the caffeine intake. Yes, when you are exhausted, three lattes seems like a good idea, but when baby is off to dreamland for a precious few hours and you’re staring at the ceiling, you’ll be rethinking that.
Manage stress.
For a lot of women, once baby is snoozing, their minds are hopping on the anxiety train, overwhelmed with all of the things they have to do and all the things that could potentially go wrong. We understand. Having a newborn is a stressful time with a lot of unknowns, and anxiety isn’t uncommon. That said, it might help to look around at the millions of people in the world—they were newborns too once and their moms shared that same worry, but somehow everything worked out. It will for you too.
Take all the help you can get, even hired help.
As we like to remind new and expectant mothers, no one is giving out capes and medals for going it alone. Help is available to you and rather than resist it, you might as well take all you can get. Why suffer if you don’t need to?
It helps to be clear with friends and family about your needs. Yes, everyone wants to come over to chitchat and hold the baby, but maybe what you really need is a meal or some help with the laundry or someone to stay the night so you can sleep without interruptions.
Welcome Baby Care Night Doulas provide the kind of overnight new mom help that helps keep families sane. Sleep deprivation is not only hard on relationships, it can actually be dangerous, and can even increase the chance of developing mood disorders. Night nurses are trained to take care of all the night needs so Mom and Dad can rest. She’ll even make you breakfast. Learn more about Night nurses and mom sleep support today.
