Once your baby arrives, it won't just be the amount of sleep you get that will change! You and your partner's relationship is going to undergo a fair amount of change in the next few months.
Make sure this is a change for the positive by following these tips from Lisa Wynn, The Dads' Coach:
1. Discuss and plan now how you want your relationship to grow as a result of becoming parents. Think a year or two down the line and decide how you would like your relationship to have got even better and make plans for how you will ensure that happens.
2. Build in time to talk to each other. It is so easy to get swept away in baby talk and exhaustion that time to really talk to each other about other things gets eaten away. Watch the routine that you all get into and pick a time to talk when baby is usually asleep or at least quiet and content and when you are both fresh enough to want to chat!
3. Agree now how to disagree in the future. We all have very different ideas about parenthood – what we want to do/not do as parents and how we want to be/not be too! Whilst great communication will help to avoid disagreements, they are bound to happen, especially when you are both tired and touchy. Agree now what you will both do when things get heated.
4. Be really, really honest with her. Sharing your fears and concerns with her will make her feel loved and trusted and will only enhance your relationship. So many new dads tell us that they are scared to say what's on their minds in case they offend or worry mum – it's a cliché but its true that women love to see your vulnerable side. Here is the ideal opportunity to give it a go!
5. Most new parents say that spontaneity is the first thing to go from their relationship when baby arrives – and often it is something that dads say they really miss. Make up for this by thinking ahead about when would be good to spend some time together doing something nice. Maybe you want to spend a date night together every week or fortnight (even if it is a date with a DVD and a Chinese takeaway!) If you take responsibility for remembering this and thinking ahead of time about what you will do, your partner will feel appreciated and loved and it will really support the relationship.