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Author and father Stephen Giles gives
indispensible advice to dads on how to
survive the first six months…
Once you get beyond the birth
you can expect to launch
into a whole new incredible
whirlwind of shared emotion,
including joy, relief and
trepidation about what lies
ahead. But work returns all too
soon and then other pressures
creep back in ... who takes on
the childcare? What do you
do about sleepless nights and
division of labour? How do you
support each other and still
ensure a good wage is coming
in?
Let sleeping dads lie ... or not
One area in which you may
feel you can’t bend is the
subject of sleep. There’s
precious little of it anyway and
if you’re heading back to work
you might justifiably want to be
DIVIDE
focusing on getting your eight
hours. But while this attitude
is understandable, it’s just not
workable, especially if your
baby isn’t sleeping well. Your
partner simply won’t be able
to cope with such a serious
burden and no one can be
expected to stay awake night
after night.
The best option is to devise a
sensible plan to share the night
feeds that allows you to get a
workable amount of sleep but
which also allows your partner
to rest at the right time too.
Work it out
Heading back to work
brings its own challenges.
When a friend of mine went
back to work after the birth
of his first son he tried his
best to be professional in the
office. Sadly, no one told his
colleagues about this, and
they spent hours bombarding
him with requests for photos,
offers of second-hand trikes
and burp cloths, and general
reminiscences about their own
experiences of parenthood.
Whether or not office life
returns to normal for you, it
is time out of the house and
away from the routine of baby
care. You’ll need to ensure
your partner has some time off
to break her routine with the
baby – maybe the occasional
afternoon out, or a night on the
tiles with friends; something
that will reassure her that life
isn’t moving on without her.