A good friend told me that conversations taking place between a mummy and daddy between the hours of 11pm and 5am don’t count. Which is just as well as yesterday morning my husband told me he hates babies, in particular, our baby. I think he has forgotten that newborns are pretty clueless about bedtimes. Little Sis has no respect for the fact we have busy days, up at 7am with her Big Brother. She happily sleep for 4 hours at a time surrounded by cBeebies and a toddler shouting for attention. But, come the midnight hour when the family is safely tucked up in bed, she wakes up and demands her share of our attention.
I suppose we’ve been riding the babymoon and lack of sleep has been forgotten in the fug of life with a newborn. My husband has been back at work this week though and the sleepless nights have caught up with him, leading him to say he hates babies and doesn’t know how to deal with them.
Little Sis seems to dislike sleeping in her moses basket in our room but she’ll happily fall asleep in my arms or next to me on the bed. Whereas my husband will feed her, wind her and put her back to bed, I’m happy to cuddle her to sleep. I know co-sleeping isn’t without it’s risks but part of me wants to enjoy these newborn cuddles as I know they won’t last. My husband is more practical and wants to let her settle herself and establish good sleeping patterns, even if she screams in her moses basket for hours and keeps everyone awake.
Not wanting to argue in the small hours of the morning we have come to a compromise. I’ve ordered a bednest which I hope Little Sis will like to sleep in. We’ve dug out our baby books (even the dreaded Gina Ford!) which were gathering dust on the shelf, found the swaddling blanket and gro bag and booked a session of cranial osteopathy. Part of me thinks that at almost 3 weeks we shouldn’t be worried about Little Sis’ lack of routine and go with the flow. I just don’t want my husband to be unhappy or wish the newborn phase over too quickly.