The first eight weeks - how has it been for us

A first-time-dad's account of the first eight weeks of our baby Jack's first eight weeks.

It's hard to distill it all to make sense, suffice to say that while you may not think that you'll ever get a good night's sleep again during the first six weeks of your baby's life... it does as everyone will tell you get better.

I remember the first four weeks, being absolutely exhausting not just because of the lack of sleep, but also as having a new baby for the first time is a stressful experience.

Having talked to friends and family, it's also true that every baby is different. We have probably had it quite easy with Jack, but there have been times when we have been at the end of our tether too, so if you get there, then you are in the same place as many, many other first-time parents.

A quick resume for us would be:

0-14 days - Jack slept a lot, but not at the same time as us.... so we were up a lot at night, probably feeding every two to three hours. This is hard work and your baby seems very fragile.

14-28 days - We were starting to get Jack used to when night and day was, but he didnt want to sleep unless he was cuddled... he was like this up to six weeks old really. However he was feeding better and drinking more... Jack was being breastfed at and Charlie was expressing her milk as well, so I could help out with some feeds. He would still need at least one to two feeds a night. In express milk terms he would have about 30ml in a feed - not a lot.

28 days to six weeks - this was over Christmas for us and Jack definitely started to understand the difference between night and day. He was sleeping better at night, although he was still going to sleep most times when he was held. This is the stage when for us every time he sensed he was near his moses basket and being put down he would scream.... this meant a lot of rocking and singing to get him into a deep sleep so we could get put him down. A lot of the books tell you not to let him fall asleep in your arms and if you can avoid it, then it's worth it, but in our experience this wasn't going to happen.

For us, Jack was being fed primarily by formula and he was staring to drink more - about 60-70ml of milk a feed, but he was still quite small, about 10lbs.

Towards the end of this period we started to feel that he was sleeping better at night - sometimes he would go for a five hour stretch in one go... brilliant. However, he was starting to show signs of collic..... normally in the evening at about 8pm till 11pm. During this time, he would howl and he was hard to find ways to stop him.

So we were getting a better night's sleep, but dreading the evenings, when dinner would normally mean passing Jack from one another around the table as he cried.

Six to eight weeks old - Jack was sleeping better at night, and was generally happy during the day. He started to smile at us... at about four to five weeks. Collic like symptoms still evident at evening time, but we decided it was time to put him down after his bath and feed in the evening at about 7pm.... to start he hated it. We would spend one to two hours singing and rocking him, before he would tire himself out with crying ......and fall asleep.

THEN we found the secret of the hair dryer........ if we put Jack down and put Charlie's hair dryer on he would settle and sleep. It was amazing. He had the odd blip, but generally it worked really well.

He was now starting to eat over 30 oz of milk a day.. and feeding about six to seven times a day. Normally he would have a dream feed - one when he was still just about asleep at about 11pm. In this feed we would try not to wake him at all, so he would only have his nappy changed if he needed it and probably wouldn't need burping... why because when they take a bottle when nearly asleep they don't take in hardly any air.... He would then wake again between 3am and 4am. This was pretty good.....

And so we are roughly where we are now... he's still on a true "Gina Ford" style routine, but a three-hour feed rota as the "baby whisper" recommends and it seems to be working pretty well and we now more relaxed as we get a good break in the evening to have our meal and watch a bit of telly.. what a treat!

He is still sleeping in his basket in out room and the next step is to move him to his own room in the next week.