How to streamline night feeds?

[Gardeniaofdelights]

My baby is 2 weeks old and currently waking every 3-4 hours in the night for a feed. That is fine, but the process of actually feeding him and getting him back to sleep is taking an inordinate amount of time. He is so fussy to latch at night, and feeding seems to trigger a series of intermittent bowel movements, so by the time he has fed, been changed, been burped and resettled, an hour and a half can easily have passed.

Is this normal or do I seriously need to work on streamlining the process? I know it’s early days yet but this seems like it’s far too long!

[HooverWhenTheCoastIsClear]

Nope that's pretty standard.
My second was always pooping through the night, I felt like I never got anything done except boob, poop, more boob, swaddled, sleep....oh god awake again.

[ReeseWitherfork]

Sounds about right to me. I think you'll likely find it will change quite quickly. They're changing so rapidly in that time that it will be shorter before you know it.

[Gardeniaofdelights]

That is both reassuring and depressing thank you! At least I’m (hopefully) not doing anything wrong, just need to hold tight til it gets better.

[HooverWhenTheCoastIsClear]

@Gardeniaofdelights

That is both reassuring and depressing thank you! At least I’m (hopefully) not doing anything wrong, just need to hold tight til it gets better.

🤣🤣🤣 by about 6 weeks it'll be different again. Then each month a new and exciting development.
You'll get there op. 2 weeks is hard.

[Disappointedkoala]

Sounds completely normal, their bowels do settle after a few weeks. Wait till the irrational yelling at 2am stage starts....

[user1493413286]

Very normal but the filling his nappy won’t carry on for too long and it’ll all get quicker. It feels like it goes on a long time when it’s happening but looking back it’s not long

[Gardeniaofdelights]

Thank you everyone! I had visions of everyone else managing a neat half an hour then back to bed 🤣 at least it’s not just me!

[Pipandmum]

My routine was bath and feed then bed while still awake but drowsy (though often asleep at that age) then I'd wake him for a sleepy feed at 11, then whenever he woke up in the middle of the night for a quiet calm feed, no light on, minimal engagement (so soothing murmur rather than normal talking). Check nappy then back to sleep. Repeat repeat repeat. At two weeks your baby is still settling physically. Just try and keep those middle of the night feeds as efficient and calm as possible. Your baby will 'get' it in a few weeks.

[Pipandmum]

Funnily enough breastfeeding in the middle of the night was guaranteed to get my bowels moving, not his! Awkward!

[yikesanotherbooboo]

This is entirely normal and btw you can't do anything wrong at this point . It is a bit of an endurance test but if your baby is already only feeding every 3-4 hours you are clearly heading in the right direction.

[ReeseWitherfork]

@Pipandmum

My routine was bath and feed then bed while still awake but drowsy (though often asleep at that age) then I'd wake him for a sleepy feed at 11, then whenever he woke up in the middle of the night for a quiet calm feed, no light on, minimal engagement (so soothing murmur rather than normal talking). Check nappy then back to sleep. Repeat repeat repeat. At two weeks your baby is still settling physically. Just try and keep those middle of the night feeds as efficient and calm as possible. Your baby will 'get' it in a few weeks.

Although I agree with this generally, and definitely for an older baby, I think I want to caveat not to get bogged down with strict rules.

I used to get so panicky about doing things that might make a rod for my own back later down the line. Constantly thinking "I can't put the baby down asleep" caused me nothing but additional stress. As Pip acknowledged, at two weeks... they're going to be asleep! I found it easier and calmer just to roll with what my baby needed during each particular phase. It's too easy to worry about them developing bad habits in the future and losing sight of the present.

As an example, we'll go through phases where bed time is milk then bath then story then bed, and phases where milk comes last, and phases where we don't do a story because he's too tired at the end of the day.

I think this is my general advice to any new mum - roll with what your baby needs. If it works for you, then it works. If being awake for an hour and a half isn't causing you any real problems then don't worry.

[ReeseWitherfork]

Sorry just to add that I know Pip was just telling you her night time routine and nothing more.

I guess I just didn't want you to read it and think "right I have to do XY and Z or I'm not doing it right". That's not what she said, but I know I'd always be comparing my routine to others and fearing I was doing something wrong.

[Pearsapiece]

Flipping heck well done op, you're doing a fab job. Baby is regularly feeding and shitting, albeit in the middle of the night which isnt fun but such good signs.
I remember when ds was a Newborn looking at the ock and thinking "wtf that took ages" nearly every day. I remember it taking about 40mins to leave the house once, no idea why. And I remember a feed taking over an hour and a half at one point because he pood in the middle, it went all up his back so I bathed him, got him clothes in the wash, new clothes on etc and by that time it was time for his next feed. Baby's are great!

[shadesofcool]

Currently going through to exact same thing so I feel ya! We’ve got this and the nights can only get better last night our struggle was poop explosions during the 2am feed which then woke DS up when we changed his nappy and took forever to settle after.

[crazychemist]

I do the nappy change before the feed. It wakes baby up a bit so they feed more quickly. That does sometimes mean that I'm putting them back down knowing they have done a poo during the feed... modern nappies are very good and I apply sudocrem liberally, hasn't done any harm so far!

They stop pooing so much quite early on, so it become much less of an issue. Wish mine were doing 3-4 hours, my twins are every 2 hours like clockwork at the moment, day and night! My DD was every 1.5 hours at this age, which was pretty grim - if it only took half an hour, I'd still be putting her down knowing I had a maximum of an hour till the next feed!

This stage doesn't last forever. I wouldn't say its worth putting that much thought into streamlining it.

[Fatas]

It’s totally normal and not as depressing as you think. They do stop poohing in the night and they also do settle quite quickly after feeds. I’ve done it twice now and can’t quite remember when that is, I think about 3 monthsish. Honestly it goes soo fast.