Hooray! Finally having more time to sleep is just one of the perks of having a child who consistently sleeps through the night. But in case you've forgotten all the fun you used to get up to before you had a baby – because you've been busy falling face first onto your pillow every spare moment you've had – we're here to remind you.
When you have a baby you never know how much sleep you're going to get so it's often wise to take yourself to bed straight after bub's gone down. This way you can get at least a few hours in before they need a feed or the wake-up party begins. But when they're sleeping through, you can actually stay up late reading or bingeing on Netflix shows without fearing they're going to wake up the minute you hop into bed. Children do wake early though, so ideally hit the sack before midnight or you're still going to be tired the next day.
While this still isn't recommended on a nightly basis, now that your little one is sleeping through you can actually pour yourself a glass or two of vino and not stress about doing the "pump and dump" for the breastfeeders among us, or having to drag your slightly groggy self out of bed to settle your crying toddler. It may be tempting to down the whole bottle on a Friday or Saturday night at dinner but don't – hangovers and kids still don't mix, even if they are sleeping through the night.
Kids love sleepovers with their grans!
It's not really fair to leave your baby with your mum (or another family member) overnight if they're also expected to get up with them several times in the wee hours. If you're breastfeeding too then sleepovers aren't really an option either. But once they're sleeping through it's a different story – hello weekend getaway! Bless grandparents, what would we do without them?
Finding time to exercise when you're a mum is super hard, particularly if you have a young baby or toddler. And by the end of the day you're so exhausted that squeezing in a workout is the farthest thing from your mind. That all changes when you stop having to get up throughout the night, not only are you less tired and have more energy but it means you can actually plan your day out a bit more. You can head to the gym at 5am and leave the bub in your partner's capable hands until their 6:30am wake-up call.
When you're back in control of your sleep it also opens up opportunities to fit in more activities for yourself in the evening. Maybe it's doing some work from home, taking a TAFE course, seeing girlfriends for drinks, having more date nights or even just cooking meals for the week. Whatever you want to do, thanks to your beautiful baby that doesn't wake up anymore, you'll now have a LOT more time up your sleeve.
Hooray for sleep! Are you looking forward to your baby sleeping through?