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Pregnancy and early baby time is also really high-variance. My wife didn't mind the first one that much, until at around month 7 she suddenly couldn't lie down anymore without a massive heartburn. It got a bit better once she found an elevated positioning that was just the right mix of less heartburn while still being somewhat comfortable. The last three months were still kind of awful, and the birth was the crowning achievement, 24 hours of pain and screaming without any sleep, and at the end she was so tired that the nurses almost started a cesarian. Then the first few days the nurses tortured us by waking us up every 2 hours sharp (independent of the babies actual sleeping pattern, of course) to make absolutely sure the baby drinks enough, despite even the doctor visiting us saying that it's fine if the baby drinks irregularly early on, as long as they start drinking more, get enough overall and she looked healthy anyway. Chadette nurses don't give a fuck about virgin doctor advice, though, and carried on. After the third day we were let go, and finally got some okayish sleep for the first time.
Some others friends even apparently mostly enjoy pregnancy, while others were suffering from day one, with pain and throwing up. Birth is universally awful, though. But after the first it's at least usually relatively quickly over.
Sleep is also really variable; Our first was mostly sleeping through the night except for a single milk (which we didn't mind at all) from around 1 until 3, and then completely slept through. Among other friends, we know babies that sleep through the night with like 4 months (really jealous), and toddlers that still wake up every two hours with 3. Our second also certainly sleeps worse than the first. The pregnancy and even the birth were much better, though.
Then there are kids like me. Early birth, low weight. Barely drank anything. According to my parents, I loudly screamed through large parts of the night, and regularly during the day, up until one. My parents don't say it, but I suspect that might be one reason I'm an only child. And we still don't know why, I have no lasting condition and there was no family history. Just random.
Of course, this makes it no less scary for first time parents; You really don't know which way the dice will roll.
I see what you did there
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On hospitals not letting exhausted new mothers sleep when baby is sleeping: I set myself up at the door to the room and refused entry for anything not critical, and it turned out there was nothing critical. Doctors making rounds, nurses taking vitals, all that can be deferred.
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I had something quite similar. I got about 5 hours of sleep over the course of 96 hours in the hospital because the hospital had precisely zero respect for any need on my part to sleep. So yes I definitely skipped over the -1 to +3 days of the baby's life but they are a peak of badness relative to the entire rest of the experience. Not really the baby's fault though that's definitely an "adults caused this suffering needlessly" situation.
(This was the first birth. Subsequent births were at other hospitals and I got more sleep)
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