Co-sleeping - waking more for feeds

[Kiwi Mama]

We used a snuggle nest for the first 9 weeks of DDs life but have now changed to just plain old co-sleeping. I love it because of the closeness, the ease of breastfeeding etc. But since we both fall asleep during a breastfeed DD wakes up twice as much now as she only feeds from one side at a time. so we're getting 4-5 wakes a night. We're ECing too which is a bit of a pain, I kind of wish she'd just go in her nappies and go back to sleep but if she needs to poo she'll wiggle round till I potty her.

DD is 10 weeks old. Any suggestions for cutting down the number of night wakings?

Once she happened to only feed twice, but I can't quite work out what I did to make that happen...

[NovelMama]

My experience was that, for the first 2 months, DD just slept more at night, period. Then she started waking more, and now that's the norm. (She's 14 months.) They do a lot of their growing at night, I've heard, so it makes sense that they'd wake a lot to eat because they're burning all those calories. :) When she wakes to potty, can you sit up and nurse her on both sides before she falls back asleep? That might buy you a longer stretch. But no, there's no way that I know of to make them wake less. If they need food, they need food, kwim? :)

[Victorious]

I drove myself batty with my first dd trying to figure out "what I did" on the nights that she slept really well so I could repeat it. The truth was-she slept well when she did and didn't when she didn't :shrug3 . I try to not even think about it with dd2.

[milkmommy]

My D pooped while nursing EVERY time for the first 6 months of her life :shifty :giggle I've always been amazed by Ecers who can do it soo young. :)

Deanna

[Iarwain]

Just a note that frequent night feedings are biologically normal and help to protect against SIDS. There is some thought on infant sleep that the longer, deeper sleep cycles are not actually normal and healthy for tiny infants.

Not that that helps you feel more well-rested but maybe it will help you feel more "normal"...

I do hear you. Rosebud was a nighttime ECer also and she would squirm and fuss after nursing until she got to potty. The main thing that helped me was to learn to both nurse and potty her without waking fully. In spite of that I really don't regret nighttime ECing. Even though I would have preferred her to go back to sleep and use her diaper at night, the few months that I had to potty her at night were more than compensated for by the fact that she never learned to sleep in her pee and has been dry at night since a very early age. I think I stopped using diapers at night by around 9 mos or so. My 5 and 7 yos still have occasional nighttime accidents but she does not.

If you think she's really getting hungry because of only getting one side you might see if you can stay awake long enough to switch her to the other side before you let yourself drift back off. That might or might not help her sleep a little longer.

[Kiwi Mama]

Just a note that frequent night feedings are biologically normal and help to protect against SIDS. There is some thought on infant sleep that the longer, deeper sleep cycles are not actually normal and healthy for tiny infants.

Not that that helps you feel more well-rested but maybe it will help you feel more "normal"...

I do hear you. Rosebud was a nighttime ECer also and she would squirm and fuss after nursing until she got to potty. The main thing that helped me was to learn to both nurse and potty her without waking fully. In spite of that I really don't regret nighttime ECing. Even though I would have preferred her to go back to sleep and use her diaper at night, the few months that I had to potty her at night were more than compensated for by the fact that she never learned to sleep in her pee and has been dry at night since a very early age. I think I stopped using diapers at night by around 9 mos or so. My 5 and 7 yos still have occasional nighttime accidents but she does not.


I'm glad to hear that about frequent feedings! Maybe that's part of the reason why countries that regularly co-sleep have a lower rate of SIDS?

Great to hear the night-time EC encouragement! It's good to know that it won't last. Things are already improving with less poops at night. What did you use instead of diapers at 9 mos?

I'll try giving her both sides tonight...

Did you say you learnt to nurse and potty her without YOU waking or without HER waking?

[Iarwain]

What did you use instead of diapers at 9 mos?

I'll try giving her both sides tonight...

Did you say you learnt to nurse and potty her without YOU waking or without HER waking?


When she didn't wear a dipe at night I just let her go bare. I put an oversized t-shirt on her and left her bottom bare for ease of pottying. For a while I put a big toddler sized prefold or a towel under her just in case but it really wasn't necessary.

After a while we managed to potty with both of us half asleep. I laid on my side and set the potty in front of me then propped her on it with her leaning back against me. She'd sometimes lean back on me totally limp like she was asleep while she peed. Then I just set the potty back on the nightstand and laid her back down. I would put something in the potty to absorb so it wouldn't spill when I was half asleep. If she pooped I did have to wake up more to clean her up but thankfully she stopped pooping at night fairly early.

[iburnbrownies]

:jawdrop and :rockon to the nightime ECers - seriously this is me looking on in amazement,

baby K is about the same age (7.5 weeks) and I try to nurse from both sides when we go down (if I don't fall asleep) but other than that, yes, she does one side, we both fall asleep, wake up a bit later, do the other side, both fall asleep, etc. So I guess well it does sort of double the number of times they are waking (although I have my doubts for K as to if it would make a real difference) at least I am not awake for very long -just long enough to help K find my nipple.

[Iarwain]

:jawdrop and :rockon to the nightime ECers - seriously this is me looking on in amazement,


:giggle Well for me anyway it wasn't really my idea. *I* wanted to use diapers at night but she had other plans. She would fuss and squirm after nursing and get herself (and me) wide awake until I took her potty. Once she peed she zonked right back out. Finally I figured out that I'd actually get more sleep if I just went with it so I did. After the fact I think it was totally worth it.