Your baby might not be sleeping through the night — or anything close to it — yet, but chances are good he takes plenty of naps. You can take advantage of his sleepy time by getting a little shuteye yourself.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, there are three types of naps: planned napping, when you take a nap before you actually get sleepy because you know you'll be missing out on sleep later; emergency napping, which happens when you are suddenly very tired and feel like you need to go to sleep; and habitual napping, which is when you take a nap at the same time each day. As a new mom, you might be employing all three of these types of naps — sometimes, more than one in the same day.

Make Napping Easy

Some people have a hard time falling asleep in the middle of the day, even if they are sleep deprived. Make sure the environment you've set up is conducive to sleep. The room shouldn't be too hot, too cold, or too bright. Draw the curtains or close the blinds. And make sure you won't be interrupted by unwanted noises. For example, turn the ringer off on your phone.

If you have mastered the lying-down position while breastfeeding, you're ahead of the game — the hormones released while nursing your baby can relax you and make you sleepy, and the two of you can drift off together. Even if your baby doesn't take a long nap after he nurses, you might be able to get in a good 20 minutes or so while he's eating, which will at least leave you more refreshed and alert for the short term.

Take What You Can Get

You may notice that you're groggy and disoriented after taking a long nap. Naps that last longer than 20 or 30 minutes aren't usually recommended as part of a regular sleep routine, since they can leave you feeling worse on waking and also interfere with falling asleep at the proper time at night.

But while you have an infant, you can't count on falling asleep at the same time every night, and you may need all the extra slumber you can get. If you approach sleep with a grab-it-while-you-can attitude in these early days, you will be in a much better frame of mind for developing sleep routines later, when your baby is ready for it.

Even if you can't fall asleep, just lying down with your baby and resting as much as possible is vital during the first weeks postpartum. You need to rest to recover as quickly and fully as possible, and putting your feet up and closing your eyes whenever your baby is napping is a nice way to work breaks into your day and help you fight the temptation to be too busy.