Descending on my Parents with a newborn baby

So Anika and I were in Sydney with my parents. Husband in Esk, 1000km's away from us. My Mum had been with us in Brisbane and had also been thrown in the deep end when Anika was born. My Dad and our family dog had not. The first few days in Sydney, I wondered if I had made a mistake in coming. When I was at home I could control my space. Everything when I was at home was done to either assist Anika getting to sleep, or to keep her asleep. I could keep the house quiet and peaceful. I could let the washing up pile up for fear of doing it waking Anika up. If I showered, my husband could be at the other end of the house with Anika whilst she slept. At my parent's house, I was acutely aware of any noise that would disturb Anika. How could I tell my parents not to go about their daily business because Anika and I had invaded their space? I used to spend so much time with our dog in Sydney, patting her, taking her for walks with my Dad every day, but now she was nothing but a potential baby waker. What was becoming of me? Narkiness and indignation that people go about their day normally, when I was so focussed on this little being sleeping, crept up in me and set in for the next 8 weeks.

It took a few days to a week for us all to adjust. And I'm not sure it was a good thing. My family learnt to tiptoe around us and Anika and I continued to deteriorate with the world adapting to us, instead of us adapting to the world. This was not a good situation. My methods of getting Anika to sleep got even more elaborate. Now I had access to the waterfall in my parents pool. The sound of the waterfall worked a treat. I used to go down the back to the pool, walk up and down the stairs with Anika in the sling, patting her bottom, singing a lullaby, the waterfall working in the background. This would only work in the morning mind you, as by the middle of the day or the afternoon, it would be sweltering hot. This called for an adaptation of the waterfall for the afternoon. What to do......?

I managed to download a waterfall sound from youTube and played that on my laptop in my parents family room. I also got a rainforest CD with bird sounds which I played together with the waterfall. This simulated the outdoors enough to trick Anika into going to sleep. Sometimes. Once again my Mum was a star and managed to help me get Anika into a 'sleep donut' overnight. The Sleep Donut is a little mattress that you can place in your bed and keeps the baby safe from you rolling on it over night. This was a major event! It meant overnight someone didn't have to hold her the entire time. She would only sleep in it from late at night (from 10pm onwards) until dawn. When you minus the 3 hour feeds from that time, it actually wasn't that long all up. Maybe a few hours all together. Not to mention I couldn't actually sleep with her in bed with me. But it was a definite improvement nonetheless.

Initially my parents had Anika in bed between them (!) to help me sleep some. It didn't leave any space for them to move though. By the end of my time in Sydney, my parents were sleeping separate most nights and one of them would have Anika. Not only was my life a disaster. Anika and I had started to make my parents life a disaster too. How long could this go on for? Seriously- how long?!