Sleep When they Sleep

Once you are over the shock of having a newborn in your life, and the semblance of a routine begins to form in your days, some of the ‘good advice’ you are given starts to seem a little dull, case in point being ‘sleep when they sleep’.

You very quickly realise that if you sleep when your baby sleeps you have little or no grown up time at all. You may very well look and feel as fresh as a daisy (let’s not forget that a newborn sleeps up to 20 hours a day) but what’s the point in that if you don’t get to see or do anything?

Once your beloved little one actually drops off, it is likely that, by three months in, you are thinking of all the things that you should be doing – cleaning the house, reading that book you’ve wanted to start, call your friends or even catch up on social media.

The best method to actually making the most of nap time is to plan in advance. Pinpoint what you would most like to do with your adult time and set it up – get the book out that you want to read and leave it by the kettle so you can have a (hot!) cup of tea when you open it or text your friend and let her know you will be calling her later.

Try to avoid doing too many household jobs, as nap time will soon be over and it is far better to feel restored and welcome the waking baby with open arms than to be side-eyeing the housework that you only half got to during what turned out to be a twenty minute nap.

So maybe you don’t sleep when they sleep, but relaxing when they sleep is very important and will certainly make the world of difference to how you feel when they wake up. And you have to do it all over again.