As in all other aspects of parenting, a father should have an equal role with his partner when it comes to caring for their baby at night. This usually means taking turns attending to the baby each night or each time she wakes up. That way, both parents can get some sleep, especially during the first few months when nighttime awakenings are the most common.

A father can help with nighttime feedings even if his baby is exclusively breastfed. He can feed a bottle of pumped breastmilk or even simply bring the baby to mom to breastfeed and then return the baby to the bassinet or crib.

If you decide that one parent will take on the sole role of caring for the baby at night, then the other can make up for it by doing more at other times. This is a good compromise if, for example, one parent has a very hard time getting back to sleep after waking up at night. Good ways to make up for not getting up in the middle of the night can include taking over the first and last feedings of the day, so that your partner can go to sleep a little earlier and sleep in the next morning.