{"id":3103,"date":"2011-04-10T20:22:13","date_gmt":"2011-04-10T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents-blog\/?p=3103"},"modified":"2022-06-08T21:24:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T19:24:35","slug":"on-the-first-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/baby-to-teens\/baby-health\/on-the-first-night\/","title":{"rendered":"On the first night with new baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll never forget that first night when we brought our bundle of joy home from the hospital.\u00a0 It was, without a doubt, the worst night\u2019s sleep I\u2019ve ever had.\u00a0 And it\u2019s something that all first-time parents will go through, guaranteed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not bad enough you\u2019re up every two-to-three hours to feed, change and burp your baby, there will also be the inevitable interruptions when you\u2019re trying to sneak in an hour or so of shut-eye between your attempts to set up the routine.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the reality: you\u2019re going to sleep with one eye open, watching the movement on the LED lights on your bedside baby monitor, hoping to goodness that the apnoea monitor doesn\u2019t go off.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll check the volume about ten times before you go to bed, and while you\u2019re lying there dozing off, every single little peep and sigh that your baby makes will have you out of the bed, down the hallway and at the crib side checking to see if the baby\u2019s alright.<\/p>\n

90% of the time, the baby is fine and all you\u2019re reacting to are the natural sounds that the baby makes when it\u2019s sleeping (they\u2019re noisier sleepers than you think).<\/p>\n

Trust me, if something\u2019s wrong, the baby will scream \u2013 especially in those first two or three weeks when your baby only really has two settings: Awake-and-feeding, or asleep.<\/p>\n

Funny story \u2013 because my son was born 7 weeks prem, he was pretty small and sometimes his weight and movement wasn\u2019t enough to keep registering \u201clife\u201d on the apnoea monitor, so the alarm went off more than once (even though he was perfectly fine) and that was just game-over for my wife and I for the first few weeks before he actually started to bulk up a bit.<\/p>\n

I can guarantee that even after reading this article, as a first-time parent you WILL feel hung-over the next morning, your eyes will look like a map of the Witwatersrand and all you\u2019ll be capable of for the rest of the day will be as an extra in Season 2 of Walking Dead.<\/p>\n

But rest assured, it\u2019ll get better with time.\u00a0 It took me and my wife a good few weeks to get over the fears that come with new parenthood.\u00a0 As you learn the sounds that your baby makes in his or her sleep, you\u2019ll calm down a little, but those two-to-three hour feeds will be the killer until your baby\u2019s sleeping through.<\/p>\n

One thing to resign yourself to: from the moment you bring your baby home,\u00a0sleep will become a mythical creature.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: You\u2019ll get over the nervous parent phase.\u00a0 For some it takes a bit longer, but if I can say one thing, you\u2019re not alone.\u00a0 Every parent will go through it and the sooner you learn to identify when your baby needs you vs. when your baby is just being a baby\u2026the better.<\/p>\n

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