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Getting Enough Sleep and Rest After Pregnancy

Fatigue and exhaustion may become more of a problem after baby's birth. As many parents—both fathers and mothers—can tell you, it's no easy task to adjust to night after night of interrupted sleep. Now you have to do it all yourself—no nurses or hospital staff to help out! A baby usually wakes up every 2 to 4 hours to feed, which can be disruptive to her parents.

Don't be afraid to ask for help. Most people enjoy being called upon to help with a new baby. Your partner will want to help, but he may not know what to do. He may appreciate suggestions from you, such as getting up to feed the baby (this works best if you are not nursing) or bringing her to you for nursing in the middle of the night.

A cardinal rule with a newborn is "get sleep whenever and wherever you can." Until the baby is about 2 months old, you probably won't be able to put a long-term sleep plan into action. Some suggestions that might help include those below.

Involve Your Partner
Involve your partner in the decision about who's going to do what at night. If you're breastfeeding, your partner can change the baby's diaper then bring her to you. After your milk becomes established, he could feed the baby a bottle of expressed milk. If you are bottlefeeding, he can feed the baby on alternate nights.

Be Sure Baby Is Awake
Don't jump out of bed at your baby's first cry during the night. She may not really be awake or need tending. Give the baby a few minutes, and if she's still making noise, then go to her. You may be lucky and find she goes back to sleep without you having to get up.

Turn in Earlier
You might not be able to rest during the day when the baby sleeps, but going to bed earlier may be more easily accomplished. Don't stay up to watch the news or the late show. Go to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 P.M., if possible. This may mean you have to let some things go, but that's OK if it allows you to get much-needed rest.

Get Daytime Help When Possible
The more support a couple has with daily tasks and chores, the easier it will be to deal with sleepless nights. Ask friends and family to help. They probably won't be offended and may be glad you asked them to pitch in.

Let things go when possible. The house doesn't have to be perfect, all the baby clothes and diapers don't have to be folded and put away, the kitchen doesn't always have to be spotless. Take it easy, and go easy on yourself.

Diaper Changes
Make it as simple as possible to take care of your baby during the middle of the night. Be sure baby's clothes are easy to work around. If a diaper isn't too wet, you may be able to let it go until the next feeding.

Exercise Every Day
Daily exercise can be helpful for you. Light exercise may help relieve some of the tension you feel and help you sleep. A stroll around the block can be very beneficial. When possible, take your partner and baby with you; make it a family affair.

If You Have More Than One Baby
Recovery after the birth of twins, triplets or more may be a little more difficult for several reasons. Your pregnancy may have been harder on your body than a singleton pregnancy. The risk of problems or complications is higher with a multiple pregnancy. You may have gained more weight or experienced more edema. You may have had a Cesarean delivery.

A multiple pregnancy usually delivers early, so you may not have had time to prepare to bring your babies home. Gestation for a singleton pregnancy is about 280 days. For twins, gestation is about 260 days, and for triplets, it is about 247 days.

Another problem with early delivery is prematurity of the babies. If your babies are premature and have to stay in the hospital, this can create emotional stress for you. An added stress is that you have two or more of everything—diapers to change, babies to feed, clothes to wash, little bodies to bathe.

It's important to ask for help from your partner, family and friends. Don't be shy about this. Many people are happy to help and are just waiting for you to ask. As you recover and the babies grow a little older and get on some kind of schedule, life will go more smoothly.

Be sure you get enough rest. Your body needs time to recover—probably even more time than if you only had one baby. Be kind to yourself. You'll be glad you did.