Schedule

My baby is three months old and doesn’t sleep well. How did you cope with this?

Our Mommy MD Guide’s reply: The fatigue with a new baby is like nothing I had ever experienced. I went into parenting thinking, I’ve been an intern. I can do this! But it’s different when you’re not getting good sleep every single night

After the first few sleepless weeks, my husband and I worked out a schedule. I’d breastfeed the baby each night around 8 pm, and then go to sleep. My husband would stay up to give the baby a bottle at 11 pm, and then he’d go to sleep. Then I’d wake up the next morning with the baby. That way, we’d each get a nice stretch of sleep.

—Heather Orman-Lubell, MD, a mom of 10- and six-year-old sons, and a pediatrician in private practice at Yardley Pediatrics of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children