Night feeds

[mermaid]

What do you breastfeeding mums think about cutting out night feeds? Do you think that babies feed through habit or because they are hungry?

 

[budge]

if you CAN cut it out do so. But i think you'll find you can't

 

[cloud9]

well I can only speak for Dylan but he wakes up hungry. So not really an option for me

 

[trixipaws]

cutting out nite feeds?!

melissa has just started wanting MORE nite feeds, like 3, 4, 5 times a nite i only wish i could cut SOME of them!

 

[siobhan]

I may get slated for this but here goes!

Some background first me thinks...
I breast fed my first till he was a year old, My husband went to Iraq when he was 12 weeks old. My first son was 20months when he went.

Oscar was 6 months old and waking 3 times a night, always at exactly the same time, I had got into the habbit of feeding him if he woke up, it was easier for me to feed him and doze while I did it with my hubby been away. I was 100%sure this was a habbit as it was always EXACTLY the same time, down to the minute evry night he would be up. Some times I just had to put my boob on his cheek and he would snuggle in and go to sleep again. It came to the point were I was exhausted trying to deal with a toddler and breast feeding. I even considered giving up totally. However, a friend suggested conrol crying. (you know whwere you go in for 1 min and leave for one min, go in for 2 min leave for 2 min). I tried this and got no where at all as everytime he saw me he expected milk and cuddles. It broke my heart to see him like this. I percivered for 2 weeks like this. I looked like a bloody zombie.

In the end I had to be so cruel. I left him to it. When he woke up he cried for 5 mins max and then went back to sleep! I was in total shock, the first night I did this he woke up 3 times, at his normal habbit waking times. Each time he did cry but only for 5 mins max and got a lot less distressed then when I tried doing control crying. Infact I would say he more moaned and whimpered for 5 mins than cay! The second night he woke once on one of his regular times but settled himself back down within a couple of mins. The third night I didn't hear a peep and was tempted to poke him in the morning to make sure he wasn't in a coma.

He is now a healthy 1 year and 2 months and sleeps through every night and is an absolute treasure.

So anyway - if you are sure it isn't hunger and only a habbit try knock it on the head. I got into a right rut with it and it nearly stopped me feeding alltogether.

 

[nefisher]

I thought that Poppy fed too much during the night but I'm glad to see that I'm not alone. I'm not sure it is habit as it changes from night to night at the mo. I try to settle her when she becomes restless but feed her as soon as she starts crying. The walls in our house are so thin that you can hear our neighbour cough so I think I'll try Siobhan's suggestion when we move house which will hopefully be next month. I'll just have to put up walking around like a zombie for the time being!!!

 

[Lola's Mummy]

Lola only wakes up once , But I think it is because she's hungry.

She goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up for a feed at 5am then she will normally go back to sleep for another 4 hours.

 

[Xena]

Alex....well I got fed up with him wanting to feed every half a bloody hour throughout the night. Getting in an out of bed so often was a pain in the arse, not to mention how shattered I was.

Sooo....now he sleeps in bed with us and I keep 1 boob uncovered next to him so that he can just eat when he feels like it and I don't have to get up lol (we sleep on a towel so I don't drip on the sheets haha). I switch him round to the other side about half way through the night so that he can get milk from the other boob.

 

[andreag]

Charlotte was the same, waking at the same time each night even if we had woken her for a feed before we went to bed, and I thought it was habit, so shipped OH off the the spare room, and ignored her when she woke for 1am feed. She mumbled for about 5 mins (I usually feed her as soon as she made a noise) and then went back to sleep. Same for the 4am feed. After a couple of nights she was sleeping through until 5-6am. I definately think they do get into a habit of waking at specific times (esp if they have a regualr bedtime) but Charlotte continued to put on weight at the same level despite dropping these feeds, so I would give it a go.

 

[mermaid]

Sooo....now he sleeps in bed with us and I keep 1 boob uncovered next to him so that he can just eat when he feels like it and I don't have to get up lol .

Well I even mastered feeding from both boobs without having to turn over lol! That's how tired I have been.

It's good to hear what different mums do! Since my LO has been teething with the front top teeth, I have been awake with him feeding a lot early in the morning, but I'm sure he will get back to the two feeds a night once he feels better.

I do think LO is hungry at nights generally as he is in bed at 6:30ish, so I don't expect him to be full on breast milk for that many hours.

 

[Fiona]

Grace was going to bed at 6.30 pm then waking at 10, 2 and 5 for a feed.... HV said that she thought it was habit and not that she was hungary and that Grace should be sleeping all night.........

so I started just giving her a few little pats on the back while she was in her cot adn then leaving the room. ... instead of feeding her straight away... after a couple of nights the 3 feeds went into 2, then about one week later the 2 feeds into 1 and for the last 2 weeks she has slept all night - from 6.30 pm tp about 7 ish...

I do make sure she has a good feed before bed and she now has a really good feed when she wakes up in the morning.
I had never thought before that it was habit but I guess it was easy for both of us just to bf as soon as she woke up