How do I cope with sleep deprivation in the first few weeks with my new baby?

7th May 2019 0 Comments

For many of us having a baby may be the first time we encounter sleep deprivation. No amount of reading about it or hearing other parents talk about it can prepare you for it! Tiredness can make you feel irritable and tearful and studies have shown a link between sleep deprivation and postnatal depression.

Are you too wired to sleep when your baby sleeps?

Try to take a nap or have a rest when your baby is sleeping. Don’t worry if you if you feel you haven’t slept. If you are lying down with our eyes closed you may well be asleep without realising it. Numerous sleep studies have shown, subjects awakened from the first stage of sleep often denied having slept at all. A nap of very light first stage sleep will probably make you feel less tired. Even 3 minutes of deeper sleep can have recuperative effects.

Keep your baby nearby for night feeds.

If you are breastfeeding, you are likely to get more sleep if you keep baby nearby; a bedside cot is a safe way of doing this.

Only change your baby’s nappies at night if you think its really needed.

You don’t need to wake your baby up to change her nappy at night. But when she wakes for a feed, take the opportunity to change her. If you are using disposable nappies it is unlikely your baby will even be aware of being wet.

Setting your baby’s body clock.

Make sure you and your baby go out each day; a good dose of afternoon light has been shown to help to establish young babies’ body clocks and will help you to sleep better too.

Ask your family and friends.

Accept all offers of help from family and friends. Arrange a night-shift with your partner so you take it in turns to settle your baby back to sleep at night. And if you have an older child arrange for them to be picked up from nursery or school some days. Now is the time to get help where you can.

Keeping your energy levels up and reducing tension.

Remember to eat! It is important to keep up our energy levels. Having small amounts of protein with every meal and as snacks will keep your blood sugars more constant.

Try to avoid sugary foods and caffeine as they might give you a boost at that the time, but your blood sugar levels will drop much quicker.

If you are feeling the tension of real fatigue and the day’s demands getting on top of you, structured relaxation such as meditation or yoga will help with longer lasting relief.

Getting support.

Try and find a local support group for new parents, where you can meet regularly to share tips and find sympathetic ears. If you feel you are not coping contact your GP or health visitor for help.

The good news is newborns have special sleep patterns and special needs and before you know it things will start to get better: even by 12 weeks your baby will be able to sleep for longer stretches over night and naps will become more predictable.

We can help you.

If you would like to discuss how to get your young baby into good routines and learn more about children’s sleep we offer specific support for babies under sixteen weeks. You can speak to one of our sleep therapists today for a free sleep assessment.

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Call us on 020 8444 0040

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When feeling overwhelmed by tiredness and in need of real sleep help, Millpond’s ‘Teach Your Child to Sleep’ is a much welcomed, well researched resource. This is an easy read with a practical nurturing approach that walks you and your child through to a good night sleep.
Rozanne Hay, UK Representative and Director for Continuing Education IACSC International Association Of Child Sleep consultants
The Millpond approach is non-prescriptive and [their] book offers lots of choices for parents to match their own goals and parenting styles. I would heartily recommend it for anyone already experiencing problems with sleep or to set up good sleep habits proactively.
Melissa Hood, founder of The Parent Practice
This baby and child sleep guide is the perfect combination of accessible science, Mandy’s years of experience and a mother’s warmth. I love the way things fall into place with Mandy’s clear and thorough explanations!
Diana Hill, co founder of Essential Parent
Millpond’s brilliant blend of commonsense, encouragement and understanding – plus a highly logical strategy that is easy to implement – changed hell into heaven literally overnight. My entire family is thus indebted to Mandy and her team.
Freya North, Author
I am a GP and would recommend Millpond to any sleep deprived parents; you cannot put a price on sleep. Thank you so much. I only wish I hadn’t waited 19 months.
Vanessa, GP
We are so happy that we put our trust in you to help us with what has been a huge problem for our family for almost 2 years. We are finding time to relax and time for each other and I did not realise how much we missed this time.
Ben
As a family, we were sleep deprived. The tailored plan for our son made it personal. I am really pleased with what we’ve achieved during the programme and I am thankful to Juliet and Millpond.
Evrim.
We were at rock bottom. Our son has a neurological condition, so I was nervous and and wanted a sleep clinic who had experience of this and would adapt to the needs of our son. Our lives literally changed overnight!
Shurron
Within weeks our son was waking only once a night. The investment we made into Millpond was one of the best we’ve ever made. It gave my son a solid night sleep and consistency. It gave me and my husband our sanity back.
Shurron
I am delighted. I was aiming to go from 6+ wakes at night and feeding to sleep 100% of the time to 1-2 wake ups and some ability to self-settle. After doing the plan for less than 6 weeks my daughter started sleeping through the night.
Katie
My daughter is now having quite a bit more than the average sleep for her age and it’s lovely to see her waking up naturally. I’m also waking up naturally and feeling much more refreshed for having a regular sleep routine myself!
Louise
We are so happy we could jump for joy, we wish we had spoken to you ages ago. Using Millpond has built our confidence and made us feel on top of it at last. You really gave us some life back!
Sarah
I live in Switzerland so it is really quite remarkable that Millpond was able to help me over the phone and by email. When you have slept you can deal with anything!!
Melanie
We still can’t believe that such small changes have made such a difference to us and Alice. She has even slept through while on holiday in a travel cot.
Louise
We are just so sorry we did not get in touch sooner as we went through 18 months of no sleep.
Ann Marie
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! We never thought life could be improved so greatly. You showed us the light. Luka is much happier and loving his sleep now.!
Diane
Alex is sleeping beautifully again and is now quite happy to lay in his cot singing until 7.30/745 am ( Godsend!) and sleeps very happily through the night again. Thank you so much!
Sandy
Very happy to say that Joshua, who you helped us with, is now sleeping a regular 11 hours a night uninterrupted. In fact, getting him up some mornings is a real challenge!
John
Mandy has been an absolute saviour at a time which was starting to feel quite bleak in terms of our little one’s sleep. The personalised advice and guidance has been invaluable.
Mary
“My husband and I reached out to the Millpond Sleep Clinic when our son was 10 months old. We had spent months in vain trying a variety of sleep training tips that we had picked up online, in a desperate attempt to get our son to sleep for more than 2 hour stretches! Nothing seemed to work. I remember crying whilst breastfeeding for the 5th time one evening, desperately begging my little one to sleep. We felt like we had been failing for a long time, as my circle of mum friends had all got their babies sleeping through so much earlier. I needed to get more sleep, with the return to work looming ever closer.

When we called Millpond, we were quickly introduced to Juliet who immediately took the pressure off us by providing a detailed “plan of action” based on what she had heard about our son’s sleep routine. After just a few nights, we already started to see big sleep improvements, and we worked confidently towards reducing our son’s night wakings and the duration of his night feeds. After a couple of weeks we had gone from 4-5 night wakings to just 1… and a few weeks later, our son started to sleep through! The biggest relief ever.

Throughout the whole process Juliet had been knowledgeable, kind, reassuring and made herself available to answer our questions over email between our sessions. Her experience as a mother herself, and highly trained sleep professional shone through. We can’t thank you enough for helping us through a rough time – and seeing us through to better days (and importantly, nights!!)
Cheryl