[clusmore]

I recently did exactly this, so here's my experience. Your circumstances might be different so I will frame this as my experience rather than specific advice for you. For some context, we had no family close by for help, but we both had 16 weeks of full-pay parental leave. We both took the first month off, then I worked until my wife ran out of leave, then I took the rest of my leave when she returned to work.

I went to sleep at about 9pm to give myself the best possible chance of getting 8 hours of (interrupted) sleep, and was usually woken about 3-4 times per night when the baby woke for a feed. We had a carrier (BabyBjorn or similar) and I would have the baby sleep on my chest while at my standing desk, at least once per day to give my wife a break. Outside of work hours, I did as much of the housework as possible - cooking, laundry, shopping, etc. Just remember that no matter how exhausting it is for you, it's much more exhausting for your wife, especially if she's breastfeeding.

And finally, similar to other comments, just try to soak up every moment of it as much as you can, because it will be over before you know it. If you are the sort of person who typically goes above and beyond at work, dial it back a bit, do what you need to get by, and focus on your family.