The benefits of having your baby "room in" with you — as opposed to spending the majority of the time in the hospital nursery — are paramount. I was 100 percent on board with it. Until the first night.
After several straight hours with a crying baby, a nurse came in to fix our botched swaddle job. "If I could just get some sleep, I'd be able to handle it," I hinted. She didn't take the bait. This song-and-dance routine went on until the wee hours of the morning, when I finally broke down and asked her to take our baby to the nursery for a few hours. I felt beyond guilty before I discovered a well-kept secret: tons of moms do it, and many consider it the only free childcare they'll ever get. If you need a break, don't be too proud to just ask for it.