Everyone says, “sleep when baby sleeps.”  But how on earth am I supposed to do that?  My parents and in-laws were with us for the first year but now we are on our own.    My wife is an artist and I am an occupational therapist.   We set our hours so that one of is with him at all times.  My wife at least can sleep while feeding him but I don’t have any chores that I can do lying down.   When our son sleeps is the only time I have to get anything done at home!  If I slept I would wake up to piles of laundry, nothing to eat, stacks of unopened mail, and no time to take a shower, let alone read a book or go to the gym. 

Baba of a 1 year old in Ann Arbor

As this was one piece of advice I followed early and often, let me tell you how I did it.  In order to sleep when baby sleeps, you need to work when the baby is awake.  I have talked about this at La Leche League meetings and many people say that they wish they had heard this advice earlier, so I am going to try to spell it out. Read the rest of this entry »