We got home from the hospital yesterday and I barely slept. Every 20 minutes I was checking if he was breathing. My wife is exhausted and I kept waking her up asking if things were normal. Is this normal dad anxiety or am I losing it?
First night home was the worst sleep deprivation of my life and he was fine the entire time. Your brain is just in overdrive right now. Does your wife have someone coming to help during the day?
Welcome to fatherhood where your nervous system is now connected to a tiny human 24/7. The terror goes away but the hypervigilance sticks around. Get some coffee ready and know that this level of worry means you're going to be a great dad.
Man, I'm two months in and still doing the breathing checks at night. It gets better, I promise. Try to catch sleep when the baby sleeps during the day so you're not running on fumes.
That first night paranoia is real, brother. Your baby is fine, but you gotta take care of yourself too or you'll be no good to your wife. Set a schedule where you each get a solid block of sleep.
I keep my phone on the nightstand with the baby monitor up so I can see him without getting up every time. Takes some of the anxiety away when you can just glance over instead of physically checking constantly.
That terror is totally normal man. We did the same checking every 20 minutes thing. By night 3 I realized he wasn't actually fragile as he seemed. The panic does fade, I promise.
Barely sleeping is the universal new dad experience. What helped me was accepting that I wasn't gonna sleep anyway and just sitting with him, watching him breathe. Sounds weird but it actually calmed me down.
I was literally checking if my son was breathing every few minutes his first week home. It's totally normal and honestly it gets a little better each night. The checking will become less frequent, promise. Just survive the first week.
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Dude that checking every 20 minutes is completely normal. You're not crazy. That first night is surreal. My advice is trust that he's okay and try to get some sleep when he sleeps. You'll wear yourself out otherwise.