Babies generally sleep in fits within the 24-hour period, with feeding demands that come in more or less two-hour intervals. This costs parents of newborns at least two hours of sleep every night until the babies reach their fifth month. This article on Medical News Today states that new parents lose an average of six months of sleep during the first two years of their child’s life.
And don’t think that this is just an issue of adjusting to a new sleeping schedule or finding new sleeping habits. Even women with unhealthy or unorthodox sleeping habits before pregnancy still found staying up to care for an infant taxing. Iryn recalls the first few months of her now one-year-old son, Tristan, “I used to sleep late and wake up early before I got pregnant. Yet, after Tristan was born, I still felt like I was losing a lot of sleep. There were times I would only sleep for two to three hours [at] a stretch.”
While new moms abound will tell you that having their little bundles of joy is a blessing, many would probably admit that it would be nice to be able to celebrate their new additions minus the bloodshot eyes and sore bodies.
Are you intimately familiar with the plight of the sleep-deprived new mommy? Here are 10 tips for new moms to help them grab extra hours of sleep as well as be more alert during the waking hours. After all, if you’re going to see to your baby and other responsibilities that come with life, work, and parenthood, you’ll need to recharge properly!
(Flashbox photo source: sxc.hu)
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