Zombie Dad – Kissing Sleep Goodbye
Congratulations and kiss your sleep goodbye for a few years!
Having children is great but being sleep deprived is inevitable and there is really no way to prepare for it, especially if you’re an unlucky one.
I get envious of those parents who claim their babies were sleeping through the night just a few short months after birth. Geeze, thanks for rubbing it in.
But at some point kids grow up and you will get to sleep in again right?
Here is what you should expect until it’s over. \
Newborns
Forget it! Those first few moments will be the most exciting and exhausting time of your life. Your baby is in freak-out mode and doesn’t know what’s going on. What they do know is that they need to eat, sleep and poop so be ready to change sticky poop diapers and wake up every hour on the hour to help mom feed.
Infants
Forget about sleeping for the first 3 months. Infant’s tummies are still small and they need to eat almost every hour. On top of that you will be stumbling with eyes wide shut trying changing more poopy diapers on top of that at the end of the 3 months they should start sleeping a little longer between feedings and changings
6 months and on…
Hopefully at this stage, baby is sleeping through the night but that is not always the case.
Even when baby is sleeping through the night they usually wake up early so forget about sleeping in on the weekends. Some kids are content flopping around in the crib, playing with stuffed animals and babbling away, but I never got that kind of luck….
When they wake up, you wake up.
When does it finally End?
We finally started sleeping in when our first child turned 4 because he learned how to use the remote and he eventually stopped running into our room. As much as we love seeing that little bundle of joy in the morning jump into our bed, we really really enjoyed sleeping too.
So be prepared to not sleep in until about 3-4 years after your last child.
Sleeping in Tips
The only things you really can do are rotate schedules or find a baby sitter.
- Dad sleeps in on Sundays and Mom sleeps in on Saturdays and vice versa. Have wifey take the kids to the park so you don’t have to hear screaming kids in the background and make sure to return the favor.
- The second thing you can do is find someone to baby sit for a night or two.
Final Thoughts
Losing sleep sucks, but one day our kids will be all grown and doing their own thing so I guess it’s important to cherish all those good, bad and sleepless moments.
Nothing can prepare you for the journey, so buckle down because it’s going to be along and sleepless ride!
