Feeding lying down, DD won't feed any other way

[KikiShack]

DD is almost six months, EBF and thriving, healthy etc.
She won't feed much / at all unless lying down. I love lying down feeding but I think now we're about to move her and possibly sleep train her I need to be able to give her a proper 10 minute or longer feed in a chair. Currently she'll have a minute or two if she's hungry but will always wait (often all day) until we lie in bed to have a proper feed.
We got into bad habits as I developed oversupply and could only.manage to feed her lying down then we both got lazy and into the habit of it.
She also got into reverse cycling because I was going out every day therefore she wouldn't eat much during the day at all, so caught up at night. I've just had a fortnight of not going out much and succeeded in getting her back into daytime feeds, which has been great for her nighttime sleep, but it brought home to me that she won't feed properly unless lying down.
Anyone got any suggestions how to ease her back into chair feeds so I can start going out again? She's massive so I need positions my poor arms and back can maintain?

[badidea]

Quick question - why does feeding her lying down stop you going out, but feeding her in a chair would let you go out?

I've always fed mine lying down (sitting up when they were younger and we were out and about and had no choice - e.g. a park bench!) and don't really see it as a disadvantage - mind you, we only have a 2 bed house so no plans on moving DS2 to share with DS1 anytime soon, therefore it's easy for this to continue - can see it might be tricky putting her in her own room if there is no room there for you to lie down to feed her.

With DS1 I'd feed him lying down and then put him in the cot (DH would carry him through from our room to his)

I'd imagine if you stop offering lying down feeds altogether for a few days she'll start taking more at the chair feeds (she'll be hungry, she'll have no choice but to adapt) no ideas on positions though, I've always found chair feeding uncomfortable which is probably why i've always done it horizontally (that, and I'm lazy :-)

[KikiShack]

My theory is that if I'm in a pub, cafe, museum etc there is nowhere sensible to feed lying down, so she feeds in a chair for aminute or two every couple of hours but then gets the bulk of her food at night, thus waking every couple of hours. This was happening for about a month until I made an effort recently to switch it, so I think if I stop offering her lying down feeds in the day she'll just revert to being a nighttime feeder again.
I don't think it would,be safe to try and feed her in a chair during the night, I would be too sleepy and might drop her. Plus in her own room we're not planning to have anywhere for me to lie down, though if it comes to it we could, but I'd really rather not.
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect DD to accept food on my lap instead of horizontal!! She seems to think otherwise.

[CuteLittleToes]

Sorry, no experience, but just a couple of thoughts:

If she only feeds for 2 mins with you sitting in a chair then surely you can stay that long awake during the night?

Even if she starts accepting longer "sitting up" feeds during the night, she should start doing that during the day too, so you should be able reverse the cycle again.

I would just try and stick with sitting up feeds, she should get hang of it, good luck!

[KikiShack]

Haha good point cute. I'm trying to type on my phone while feeding and not making myself clear.
DD is a very greedy little guzzler but hates feeding in cradle hold etc, or rather she gets too excited looking at stuff around her, so will only have a 2 min feed if we're out and about. Then in the evening she catches up. So if I tried feeding her in a chair at night she'd presumably be starving and feed for much longer.
I can see you're both saying the only sensible thing, which is I need to just bite the bullet and refuse to do lying down feeds, but my resolve will disappear at 3am and I'll justllie down out of tiredness. I'm not sure what I was expecting to hear, some magic solution maybe. At least she's 6 months so solids can slowly begin to take over

[badidea]

Kiki - I share your pain with the nosy baby (I more or less stopped feeding DS2 in public from about 3-6 months!) for some reason I was thinking of you going out at night, was forgetting the nightmare of trying to feed a nosey baby during the day.

have you tried hiding her with a muslin or something when you're out so she can't see? This never really worked for me as DS1 and 2 would still be distracted by the noise, but maybe it would work for some babies?

The nosiness does pass though (sort of...) but I found I could never speak and feed him at the same time as that would distract him too.

I know what you mean about resolve during the night (when you just need to sleep and will do what it takes to get it).

I'm sorry we've not been much help, but you're right, at least now she's on solids, it might get easier out and about (fingers crossed!)

[Sunflower1985]

Reading this made me realise my 8mo ds does the same thing.
One thing that helps when out and about is to put him in his baby carrier and feed him in that. Only works with saggy malleable boobs.

[KikiShack]

Good idea sunflower, I had not thought of that. I need to visit a sling library because DD is 24lbs now so needs some serious scaffolding to carry. And the boobs are malleable enough sometimes, I still get engorged though as my supply refuses to settle down.
That was really really helpful, thanks!

[makeminea6x]

I wonder if feeding her on a cushion on your lap might feel more comfortable for her? I use a big v pillow and find it works quite well... I have also seen a funny bag thing for sale that you can use in the same way when you're out.
It's a pain when they get distractable - always makes me laugh when I read about feeding babies 'discretely' and I think 'you've never tried to feed a 4 month plus baby waggling their head about have you!'.

[KikiShack]

Update: I've been feeding DD before bed the last couple of nights on the sofa. I did the whole bedtime routine then fed on a sofa (in her room) to the normal bedtime feeding music, and she just accepted it. I was very surprised indeed and quite chuffed. She's not so convinced in the daytime, but I'll keep working on her.
I even managed to do the dreamfeed in the same position! Though I need to practice putting her back to bed as I did it clumsily and woke her up