How to juggle CPAP and a baby?

Well, the trick is in not dropping either, I suppose!

My wife is days away from her due date. Any day now, we'll make that exciting trek to the hospital and come home with our handsome little baby boy! I've been on CPAP since March, have been 100% compliant, and have had generally very successful therapy. Now with a baby on the way, I'm wondering if anyone's had to juggle a baby with their CPAP therapy.

I've finally paid back that sleep debt and I'm waking up on my own, feeling great. I'm totally not trying to be a lazy dad. I just want to know what the best way to juggle our 'shifts' with the baby are because, well, I've never really had to deal with something interrupting my sleep constantly since I've been diagnosed with a sleep disorder. More than anything, I guess I'm just nervous that I'll be going back to square one after spending the last year getting to a comfortable groove.

CPAP + Kids. Hook me up: how the heck am I going to do this!?

How are you going to do it? Easily, as it is saving your life, and making sure that your child has a parent around for a long time. Also, you will be better rested to deal with a baby, and have more energy so as to take care of him/her. Think of it as an investment in your life and well-being, and don't dwell on the inconveniences. Yeah, it isn't always fun to be connected to a hose, blasting air down your airway. However, imagine yourself being well enough to go to your kid's college graduation, without some horrible disease, or not seeing it at all.

Congratulations!

I know you have something in mind with your question -- there's something telling you that you will need to juggle CPAP and a baby -- but I'm here to tell you it ain't necessarily so.

What do I mean? Well, as you've heard over and over, living with a small baby involves interrupted sleep. But what makes you think that you will need to somehow juggle the baby and CPAP? Yes, you will need to juggle the baby and SLEEP - but the answer you are looking for is, "when it is your turn to sleep, use your CPAP. When it is your turn to be with the baby, snuggle, walk, soothe and enjoy."

I hope this makes sense. You know, people always talk about the difficulty of interrupted sleep with a newborn. And I always think, pshaw. OSA is really so much more fantastically worse than being interrupted by a baby. Seriously. Babies sleep a lot, but in stages. If you can sleep when they do, all is golden. Plus you need WAY less sleep than they do. But being woken up 100 times an hour when there's no baby around? Now that's tough.

I hope this doesn't sound dismissive or snarky. It isn't intended to!

There is something about a new born that seems to stimulate hormones in both parents and new parents seem to deal with broken sleep better then other people.

I would get a quick disconnect for the hose so you don't have to fidget with the mask constantly. Baby won't care as long as the see your eyes. They will imprint on a mask as easily as a regular face.

Be gentle with each other.

I'm so sorry... I can't resist....

1) Put the Baby Down.
2) Make sure your humidifier chamber is empty.

Okay, I have nothing of value to add here. I'm just sending you a cyber-hug and best wishes!!!
Barbara

ChrisC wrote:Well, the trick is in not dropping either, I suppose! Any day now, we'll make that exciting trek to the hospital and come home with our handsome little baby boy! Now with a baby on the way, I'm wondering if anyone's had to juggle a baby with their CPAP therapy. I'm totally not trying to be a lazy dad. I've never really had to deal with something interrupting my sleep constantly CPAP + Kids. Hook me up: how the heck am I going to do this!?

I see and hear lots of newborns everyday............I see tired parents adjusting to the new bundle of joy on the way home....you may find yourself more tired in the hospital setting than when you get home......bank a little extra sleep before the trip to the hospital should there be extended hours of labor!!!!! Yeppers, your sleep WILL be interrupted....but remember, the baby should be sleeping through the night by 6 months of age and some do so before.........BUT, your baby's doctor will tell you the baby MUST be fed every 3-4 hours the first few weeks and to get up and wake up the baby should it attempt to sleep through the night the first couple of months......simple solution, when you sleep use CPAP, when you nap use CPAP, when baby sleeps, SLEEP w/ CPAP. However, DO NOT sleep with the baby due to risk of infant suffocation and increase SIDS risk. ...and no baby juggling...and watch the video about purple crying periods.
elg5cats

ChrisC wrote:... My wife is days away from her due date. Any day now, we'll make that exciting trek to the hospital ... CPAP + Kids. Hook me up: how the heck am I going to do this!? ...

Congratulations. Amazingly, you will find you are better able to deal with kids with CPAP than without. I was WAY too exhausted to enjoy our second. It was not until he was a few months old that I got my CPAP machine. (Hmmm... That was almost 20 years ago! Wow! Have I been xPAP that long? !!... I need to update my equipment info to reflect that!) Ah well. I can assure you from personal experience with CPAP is much better.

Congrats on the new baby in advance.
The other night I was watching a movie that I recorded on the DVR .... The Thin Man. Then I also watched the movie Another Thin Man...Any way. They were on a case and staying at somebody's home they of course had Asta the dog and the new baby. They were sleeping in twin beds Nick asked Nora where the baby was and she opened a drawer in a dresser and low and behold the baby was in the drawer.

Problem solved put the new rug rat in the drawer.

Congratulations on your upcoming blessing!

I didn't have cpap when I was having my babies so I don't have anything specific to that. But, I do have a few ideas that in general could be pertinent.

My husband and I had a system. Most of the time in the night babies wake to be fed. Since I was breastfeeding, my husband would change the baby's diaper and then bring me the baby and then go back to sleep. If after eating, our baby was still wide awake and needing attention, my husband took over and I went back to sleep.

With our last two children we did more of a "family bed" approach so I pretty much was the only one to wake up. (Someone mentioned earlier that sleeping with your baby could lead to SIDS. That's not exactly accurate. But, they have found that when the parents are obese or drunk babies can be in danger in their parent's bed.) In our case, we created a sort of crib adjoining our bed (they actually have special cribs for this purpose). If I awoke and the baby was still in our bed (sometimes I'd fall asleep while feeding) I could just scoot her over to her crib. It saved our lives because our last baby was extremely challenging (turns out she has autism) and we never would've slept because she had way too much going on. I'm not really advocating the family bed here. But, I just wanted you to know there are many ideas out there with different dr's advocating them. We did all kinds of things with our 4 girls. The first two slept in their own room from day 1. That was good too, it just took more energy. With the hose and all though, I think that would be a risk for a baby in your bed. So, keep that in mind.

Make sure you always use your cpap. You're going to need the best sleep possible. And have a great time with your baby! It's so exciting.