Contrary to common belief, babies and sleeping do not go hand in hand. This is true, even though it may come as a surprise to many expecting parents. It is normal to think that all a baby does is eat, sleep, and soil diapers. Well, let me tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

It may seem as if the 18 hours of sleep that your newborn infant is getting is slipping through your fingers. There are two major elements to babies and sleeping. The first is the baby's rest, and then the second would be the mother's rest. It is advisable that expecting parents approach these two elements as one.

If you approach babies and sleeping as a paired activity, you look at the entire situation differently. My suggestion is that you should try to sleep when your baby rests. This can be very challenging when you consider a little baby's unpredictable sleeping pattern. However, if you can adjust properly, the rest that you'll get is worth the effort.

When I gave birth to my son I thought that I knew everything there was to know about babies and sleeping. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. Despite reading everything about the subject, I was still unprepared to face the difficulties of trying to sleep with a newborn baby. I thought that I was lucky that my son was born in the afternoon, because I thought that I would be able to get plenty of rest in the hospital during my overnight stay. However, things did not go the way I planned. The nurse brought my little boy to me every two hours for feedings.

Of course, I expected this because of all the reading I did about babies and sleeping before the big day. What I didn't expect was that I could not get to sleep. I wanted my son to be in the room with me all the time, and when the nurse took him back to the nursery, I was left crying.

I was crying a lot because I had post partum depression. This depression can really make babies and sleeping a very difficult challenge. I was so overwhelmed by the birth that I could not stop crying and could not get to sleep. I definitely did not feel like the happy new mother that I expected to be. Things improved when we got home, but I still had difficulty sleeping for a few days. I was not yet accustomed to the balance of babies and sleeping. Fortunately, after a week or so, I was able to rest while my baby was sleeping.