The first thing is to get help. Really plan ahead and see who can help you with the household – maybe with cooking, getting groceries. Remember that the partner just had a baby too so not everything should be done by the partner. It is recommended to get help for postpartum time.
The second is sleep when the baby sleeps. Really important! Lie down when baby is lying down or the baby is falling asleep. Just rest up. You don’t know when baby is going to wake up again, you don’t know how the night is going to be so lie down when you baby is falling asleep.
The third thing is have the baby in the bedroom. Sleep in the same room so you can hear her when she is starting to move around. This is because what happens hormonally and by nature is when the baby starts moving a little bit, the mother automatically will move into a lighter sleep. When she has been in a deep sleep, she will move into a lighter sleep so when the baby then wakes up, the mom will wake up easily. When a mother is in a different room than a newborn baby and suddenly she only wakes up because the monitor went off, she’ll be coming from a deep sleep and she’ll have trouble getting up. Makes things much easier when the baby sleeps with you which it should anyway because baby should be sleeping in the same bedroom for the first year. It can help tremendously to wake up from a lighter sleep state.
