I didn’t keep her on my side of the bed because we noticed I slept much more deeply than my wife did. However, my wife was still waking up well rested despite being relatively alert with the infant, breast feeding ad libitum. I’ve heard that this is a problem with women who have to go back to work though as the bottle feeding and such preps the child for day care. Our daughter got the majority of her calories from breast milk the first year and we were fortunate to have the luxury of being a single income family. Obviously this would be much more complicated with a two income earner situation.

Without maternity leave for sure. Good point re sleep depth. I'm definitely the one with deeper sleep.