Breast feeding at night

[monkee641]

Hi everyone,

My baby girl is 2 weeks old and been breast feeding well from birth. That is until night time. I usually feed her last thing at night whilst we’re in bed. But she’ll feed and fall sleep, we’ll put her down and she’ll wake up almost straight away and want to continue feeding and fall asleep again, go down, wake up and the cycle continues again and again…..

Last night the cycle went on from around 2300-0300, until my husband took over and took her downstairs to give her some milk I expressed, to give me a break. She’ll eventually drop off in my husbands arms. This is happening pretty much every night and is getting me down. I’m wondering if anyone has any similar experiences and can offer any advice. I know I can’t feed her all night, but I really don’t know what to do now. She won’t settle, and the only way of getting her settled is to feed her.

Any advice is very much appreciated. Many thanks, Sarah

[alohalu]

I probably won’t be of much help, But my daughter, now turning 2. Breastfeed pretty much every hour day and night for the first six months. And the first couple of months she would also fall asleep mid feeding, which would end up with her waking hungry again like you say.

Over time the two things that help us were bedsharing, so she will have the breast whenever she wanted. And giving her a bottle before putting her down for the night. For some reason she never fell asleep on the bottle. Apart from that, babies get so much better at feeding that soon she would need a couple of minutes on the breast to be satisfied.

As I said, not too much help, but I least you should know that you’re not alone. And things get better pretty quickly. Hang in there!

[Shopper85]

Mine was a super sleepy baby at the breast a few suckles and she was instantly soothed but never felt she got a proper Feed at the breast so I combi fed with formula and expressed milk and fed via a bottle too. She'd only then wake once or twice a night for a Feed. I got probably 3 hours sleep in between feeds. So I read for Sleepy baby's, undress them, tickle their feet and hands to keep them awake for feeds. I know breast milk at night produces baby's a sleepy hormone which soothes them so you May need to find some techniques to try Wake her a little bit just for feeds

[Twiglet2]

we woke our little guy up if he hadn’t gotten much milk at night feeds (tickle their feet stroke their face make some light noises) to make sure he got his feed. I also put him down sleepy but awake at night so that he didnt become dependant on the feeding to go to sleep and therefore wasn’t looking for it when he woke up to soothe only if he was actually hungry (we didn’t use a dummy either but I guess it similar to a dummy they are just soothing rather than hungry sometimes). I also never fed him in our bed only on the chair so he wasn’t looking for our bed to settle in (and also so I didn’t nod off lol) I know it’s not for everyone that way (we did cuddle him, talk to him and rub his belly and play white noise etc if he did become unsettled we didn’t ignore him lol) but he slept through from 10 weeks old and still is at 2… might be nothing to do with this though and we just got lucky 🤷🏻‍♀️ xx

[Movie3]

Can't offer any quick fixes but just hang in there. The first months of breastfeeding is the hardest, it does settle down. It sounds like normal night feeding. Night feeds didn't stop with either of mine, just became further apart (so easier to manage). Baby could be going through a growth stage, cluster feeding. Baby will be stimulating your milk supply, to up the amount of milk your producing. It feels in those early stages as your just continuing feeding. Newborns normally feed every three hours, but in the early stages, especially if there growing, it can just blend from one feed to the next. It's good your husband took your little one to give you a break, sometimes this helps as they don't smell of milk, so sometimes can settle bit easier. We tried introducing a bottle with our first, but just caused nipple confusion and made situation worse (as breast wasnt supplying as fast as the bottle). But all babies are unique. Consider what baby is wearing for bed, the weather is tricky at the moment can start out warm and dip in temperature in early morning. Both mine use to want to cuddle more when they got chilly. But too hot created a restless baby and added risk. Sometimes hard to get right balance. Sleeping bags helped with mine. Using a thermometer made it easier to know what to dress them in. I had the cot on my side of the bed and fed them sat up in bed. A dimmed light (nothing to bright, so that still feels dark). I never did co sleeping, just because tiredness is so extreme in those early stages. It does seem normal and it will get better. Make sure your eating enough, youll be burning a lot of calories breastfeeding. Have water near you to so you don't become dehydrated. Take care.

[Gardener11]

hi there, this is very normal behaviour for 2 weeks old which doesn’t help you manage the sleeplessness any easier. Just get all the help you can so can cope with the night feeds, it sounds like cluster feeding and eventually it will ease. Expressing and getting someone else to give her a bottle in the day or at night will help you a lot as you have done so.

I really struggled with sleeping in the same room as my baby because I’m such a light sleeper and he is such a noisy sleeper so if possible when she actually goes down then if someone else (partner) can sleep in the same room as them then you can just crash out completely elsewhere.

I didn’t bedshare as early as that and have only ever done it with just me in the bed as a last resort when I’m too tired to sit up and feed. The lullaby trust has good advice on how to make it safe.

Just get help however you can- people prepping meals for you and bringing you food. If you can stay in bed all day! Seriously, let people come and wait on you and bring you baby when she needs a feed. I think mentally we expect to be much further in our recovery post birth at 2 weeks but for me it was an awful lot longer and I was advised to try and have a solid 24/48hrs on bed rest. It did help.

In terms of getting baby to sleep, we use white noise that we play all night long and for naps and for feeds when I want baby to sleep. Feeding to sleep is not an issue btw.

Try and put baby down horizontally rather than from vertical to horizontal so you don’t trigger the falling reflex.

It’s very tough- just keep going. You will see the light before you know it!

[Seb9]

We found with our baby, putting her down would always wake her up. So I started feeding her to sleep early evening, pass her to Dad downstairs and going straight to bed. He would stay downstairs holding her until she woke up which would often give me just enough sleep to survive on in those first few weeks. It does get easier and they start having longer sleeps, but these first few weeks are intense. I remember with my first telling my husband I thought I'd had a stroke as I couldn't get my words out straight. Luckily he was very calm and suggested that I have a sleep as he thought maybe I was just tired. Fortunately he was right. Good luck with it and congratulations on your baby xx

[Minilov]

My baby was doing just the same, sleeping in between feeds and waking when put down. So I decided to bottle feed her before retiring for the night after that, I put her to breast till she fell asleep. Once I put her down, she never wake up till about 3/4hours and she wakes twice at night. Bottle feeding before breast milk helped me especially at night; maybe you should try it dear.

[CLCP]

Making sure your baby is getting full feeds rather than snacking is key in my experience. I used to take my babies sleep suit off (he was never cold!) to make sure he stayed awake long enough to get a good length feed in during the day which helped set him up for the night. No harm in a bedtime bottle from Daddy either, you need to rest too!

[monkee641]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I think like one lady pointed out, I feel like I should be much further on at this point. I guess I stupidly thought it would be easier than this, that baby would naturally adjust, but of course she won’t, she’s going through some massive changes and has only been in the world 2 weeks. She’s doing so well already and does have some sleep at night, so that has to be a bonus. I put myself down a lot and felt that it was something I was doing wrong, which has made me really emotional.

I express now twice a day. I’ve been getting a fair bit of engorgement, and get such relief from expressing too. This gives my hubby chance to feed our little one during the day when I go for naps and also to give her some breast milk at night when I simply can’t feed her myself any more. We’ve started experimenting with some formula at night too, which does make her sleepier. It’s absolutely not what I wanted, but I felt like I didn’t have much option but to go this way, just for some respite. Hopefully baby is still getting everything she needs x

[M_fox]

it gets easier, my little one was the same.. feeding every 1 to 2 hrs and I had to express inbetween.. you are shattered most of the time, and still sore. But it will get better, your energy levels will be low at the moment and lack of sleep doesn’t help but your body will adjust. Little one will eventually move to feeding every 3 hrs and you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel in 2hrs sleep ! Hope this helps. X