Not that you need one more thing to do, but my wife and I (proud parents of 4, with our youngest also 2 months old), have found this book to be very helpful in learning how to guide a newborn into a good sleeping schedule.
If you just do one thing from that book, choose to regulate the sleep/eat/awake cycle of your child.
And now some generic pointers you may have already heard:
- Every child is different, but parenting approaches not so much. Pick an approach that emphasizes the goals you want to achieve (regulate sleep, minimize crying, parental free time, etc.) and adapt it to your child in the particulars (approach says feed every 3 hours, but Sally is hungry after 2.5).
- Getting enough sleep is hard, but important, for both of you. If family can watch the baby so one or both of you get naps, absolutely take advantage of that.
- Be patient with your spouse, assume her intentions are good and give her the benefit of the doubt.
- In a time when your wife is resentful of you, ask her directly if there's anything you can do to alleviate some burden from her.
- It does get easier, especially when the kid drops a middle-of-the-night feeding.
Lastly, I just want to say that you aren't alone, our 7 week old is still up every 3 hours through the night, and lately our oldest has been waking up at 4:30 (which does not coincide with a time that we're up with the youngest). This has been the hardest lack of sleep to adjust to out of our 4 kids, and my wife is exhausted. Still, we're as close as a couple as we've ever been, and you only get that from doing whatever it takes to survive the hard times with someone else.
http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Baby-Wise-Giving-Nighttime/dp...
If you just do one thing from that book, choose to regulate the sleep/eat/awake cycle of your child.
And now some generic pointers you may have already heard:
- Every child is different, but parenting approaches not so much. Pick an approach that emphasizes the goals you want to achieve (regulate sleep, minimize crying, parental free time, etc.) and adapt it to your child in the particulars (approach says feed every 3 hours, but Sally is hungry after 2.5).
- Getting enough sleep is hard, but important, for both of you. If family can watch the baby so one or both of you get naps, absolutely take advantage of that.
- Be patient with your spouse, assume her intentions are good and give her the benefit of the doubt.
- In a time when your wife is resentful of you, ask her directly if there's anything you can do to alleviate some burden from her.
- Parenting is a constant reminder that you don't know what you're doing, so don't feel bad about that. Bill Watterson put it rather well in C&H: http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-a0c61445794a690aa3a00f4...
- It does get easier, especially when the kid drops a middle-of-the-night feeding.
Lastly, I just want to say that you aren't alone, our 7 week old is still up every 3 hours through the night, and lately our oldest has been waking up at 4:30 (which does not coincide with a time that we're up with the youngest). This has been the hardest lack of sleep to adjust to out of our 4 kids, and my wife is exhausted. Still, we're as close as a couple as we've ever been, and you only get that from doing whatever it takes to survive the hard times with someone else.