Dad Advice Thread
Out of context: Reply #53
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- exador14
best advice I could ever give new parents of a newborn would be 'shifts'.
too often, it's the middle of the night, and you hear the crying and you know it's time to either feed, change or something...
same thing always happens..you're dead fucking tired, and it's *poke, -your turn-... ahhh...no did it last time, it's your turn..etc....
we tried that for a week or 3 and realized it was NOT working for us at all.thus, Shift work. it fucking worked.
from the moment I got home from work (say, 5:30 or so) til I went to sleep (say 1-2am) i was on-duty. feeding, changing, rocking, playing whatever...it was all on me. so far so good.
at 1-2 or whatever, I'd put our baby in her crib asleep, and crawl into bed. from that point on, my wife was on duty. so I could get a decent nights sleep and get to work in the morning.this all worked for a variety of reasons. one, I'm a night-owl anyhow...so it was not hardship to stay up til 1am or 1:30 or whatever... 2, it was great that our baby from practically day 1, was 100% used to both of us... none of this 'only wanting one parent, and crying whenever we passed her back and forth etc'
3) and probably most important.... it gave my wife the time she needed to get sleep herself, to go out, to run errands, go to the gym...just GTFO ya dig?... if she's home with the baby all day, she's gonna need to get the hell outa the house for a bit and unwind herself...
plus, she was and is a natural early riser...so goes to sleep pretty early as well.... so she was able to get a ton of sleep herself... say, from 9:30-10 til 2am or whatever...uninterupted...(usual... must longer, as when i put the baby down at 2-ish, she'd sleep for atleast a few hours before waking up...
anyhow, it sure as fuck beats 'who's fucking turn is it' games at 3 or 4 am....
shift work. it fucking works folks :)
- This is the realisation I've come to, but we've got a small flat and despite being a night owl, I'm a poor sleeper, easily roused, and need to be up daytime :\Nairn
- and on top of this, it's good to remember that the 'round the clock care only lasts for a couple of months, and it does get better!monospaced
- Eventually the kids go to bed around 8:30 and sleep until the ass-crack of dawn, and you can have (almost) all the sleep you need again.monospaced
- I was the late shift :)tank02
- Yeah shift work definitely works.microkorg
- through the night i was every shift - knackering. plus doing a full days work #mugtrooperbill