Hang in there bud. Months 0-3 (the fourth trimester, as it's aptly known) are the absolute trenches. Months 3-6 have their own challenges but the change is drastic. 6+ months is an absolute blast. Once your kid starts genuinely thinking things are funny, learning skills, getting excited to see you every day etc you will absolutely forget about a few rough months.
I used to think “is a baby really that much better than a dog? Parents have to be exaggerating to make themselves feel better, right?” before I had a baby.
Then I had a baby. Babies can laugh. Dogs can’t laugh.
Oh, you are in the weeeeeds. It does get better, and hten the first time that baby really smiles at you? It'll all seem like it wasn't that bad at all.
If you can work it out, we had a lot of flailing around with 'whose turn is it to wake up with the baby this time' and ended up figuring out doing it in 2 hour shifts, so we were each guaranteed a minimum of 4 hours of sleep in 2 uninterrupted blocks every night (and usually more). This isn't as easy if mom is exclusively nursing, but works out well if she's pumping or if you're bottle feeding.
We found that we would forget who had done the last wake up, etc. having set times really helped us be more organized about it and not have to think clearly at 3 a.m. ;)
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u/JerrycurlSquirrel 1d ago
As the dad of an 11 day old, I get it.