For The Sleep Deprived First-Time Parents: 3 Things You Must Remember!

My husband looked at me with fear and sleep depravity plastered all over his face. “Baby, I’m so tired I feel like I’m going crazy.” He said this on the back end of working an 8-hour shift, after 3 back-to-back sleepless nights. All thanks to our very fussy and very colicky newborn son.

This was our first child and needless to say we were struggling! We had no family to lean on for a much-needed night off, and none of our friends had kids so they were useless when it came to being able to offer any advice. It was just us and our baby boy.

The first 2 weeks were just downright HARD. We had no concept of routine and no understanding of why this child would not stop crying! That was until one fateful conversation from an unexpected party.

My mother. Think Stella Got Her Groove Back meets a younger foxy Patty Labelle. In other words, she had no time or interest in being a “grandma”.

“Maybe the baby can call me GLAM-MA”, she once suggested, I just rolled my eyes and chuckled.

Now although her new traveling lifestyle did not allow her to be a present grandma, she did have loads of experience being a mother.

“You know, babies only really cry if they’re sleepy, hungry, or dirty,” she said.

It was a simple statement. It was honestly insulting how obvious it was. But now after 2 weeks of sleep depravity, our brains were barely functioning at 20% and we were willing to cling to anything that could bring some relief. Little did we know this was going to be a game-changer!

Now of course there are much more serious issues that could be affecting an inconsolable newborn, however, the Big 3 that we’re discussing today are the day-to-day essentials that will carry you through most of your sleep-deprived nights with a newborn.

1. Hungry Baby

DUH! How would you respond if you went hours without eating?

As obvious as this one is, it slips the minds of even the best of us sleep-deprived parents. I mean if you’re in the first couple of weeks of your newborn’s life you probably haven’t eaten in days yourself. But trust me you won’t get a sleeping baby until they’re nice and full.

And newborns like to eat! Although they only need to be fed small amounts because of their little tummies, they start off needing to be fed every 2–3 hours a day in the early stages of life. I know what you’re thinking,

When will I be able to sleep if I’m tending to an eating schedule like that?

Welcome to parenthood.

2. Dirty Baby

Would you be cool sitting in your own sh*t? Yeah, babies aren’t either.

This was the biggest one for our son. If he even had the slightest bit of pee in his diaper, he was NOT HAVING IT. And he would make sure to let us know!

Figuring this one out was the answer to all of our prayers and most of our sleepless nights. Eventually, we had it down to science. You can usually expect a dirty diaper soon after a full tummy. So once this is resolved it’s usually a home run for having a calm baby!

3. Sleepy Baby

Then finally there’s the sleepy baby. Any experienced parent can recognize it. It’s the inconsolable crying paired with a dry diaper that isn’t satiated by all the milk in the world. Out of all of the signs, this one can be the trickiest.

At this stage in a baby’s life, they often have trouble falling asleep on their own.

So, they cry.

It’s easy to assume with our adult brains that when a baby is tired, they should just fall asleep right? Wrong.

Even to this day when our child is sleepy, he makes absolutely NO SENSE. And funny enough, that is exactly how we’ve learned to notice a sleepy baby when we see one. This is when everything is going just fine and then suddenly your child is wailing at the top of their lungs! I mean kicking and screaming, slapping bottles out of your hand, the whole nine!

If you have a sleepy baby on your hands this is where a little TLC comes in handy, and you get to flex your mom/dad skills. Because sometimes babies just want to be held and after all the milk is drunk and diapers are cleaned, they just want to feel the warmth of your skin.

In truth, babies are simple. Once you realize they’re just little humans that can’t take care of themselves who are just trying to figure it out as they go, you begin to have a bit more patience for them. And when you understand that you and baby are both new to this, hopefully, you’ll begin to have a bit more patience with yourself.