I am the father of two daughters. The older one is three, and the younger one became a one-week-old today at 12:14 am. My wife is a full-time student, and I work from home, so the whole situation should be relatively easy, right?

Not exactly. My newborn daughter sleeps at odd and completely random times, and does not believe in being put down for any reason. She might not notice for a minute or two if she's fast asleep, but as soon as she figures it out, the rebellion begins. So, we more or less need to be awake when she's awake, or at least one of us does.

My pre-schooler wakes up at about 7am, depending on when she fell asleep the night before. She can't really be left to her own devices either, so even if the newborn is asleep at this time, one of us has to be up anyway.

The result is this- I go to bed at 10:30 pm and get up at 5 am. My wife goes to bed at 5 am and wakes up around noon. When I'm awake and she isn't, I hold the baby with one arm while making coffee, feeding our daughter, eating my own breakfast or working with my other arm. When my wife is awake and I am not, she holds the baby with one hand and does her homework with the other.

Both of us are becoming experts at performing complex tasks with only one hand. Take this blog post, for instance- I'm writing it with one hand right now!