One of the disadvantages of motherhood is that you ‘never, ever, ever’ sleep. So remember that when you are contemplating taking the plunge when you are not as young & energetic as you used to be.
I doubt if there is any reliable historical or contemporary statistical evidence on this, but my memory tells me that a baby who was still, regularly & as a matter of course, preventing its parents from getting a half-decent night’s sleep after the age of about 2 months was a problem – a bad baby, one not properly trained or introduced to a routine.
The diagnosis was usually ‘Baby’s hungry’ & the remedy the introduction of a small amount of thickening (Farleys) to the milk in the bottle. This required that you made sure to use a teat with a larger hole & to check regularly during a feed that it had not got blocked by any tiny lump, this advice dished out by the health visitor, district nurse or weighing clinic.
But if that is cruelty to small defencelss beings then you just have to put up with the tyranny of on-demand feeding through the night, at least for the first six months while the mother is the only one who can provide the service
