Awake all night

[retailgirl]

I could really do with some advice! I'm breastfeeding my 3 wk old dd who until recently was just waking every couple of hours during the night to feed before returning to sleep. Now she's awake and sporadically feeding from 1am until 9am then sleeping until past 1pm if I don't wake her then sleeping and sporadically feeding all day. During the night she will go down for about half an hour then squirm around and wake up crying until I put her back on the breast where she'll fall asleep again and the cycle starts again. I tried a dummy last night but that worked for a bit but she didn't seem very happy with it and I'd rather avoid it if I can (although I'll try anything at the mo!) She's really such a good baby but i'm finding the all nighters really hard and it's getting me down. My midwife told me not to wind her but I do if she seems uncomfortable as she get a really distended tummy sometimes and the doctor thinks she may have reflux (she's thrown up several whole feeds several times). The doc has prescribed infant gaviscon but I'm not sure about giving it to her if the reflux isn't that bad. Sorry if this all sounds very obvious but I'm just too tired to see the whole picture.

reflux, IME really disrupts sleep

try to keep her upright as long as possible after feeds and am a bit about MW advising not to wind a baby - they usually need winding and a distended tummy doesn't sound good - certainly may be full of air

don't stress if she feeds to sleep etc but i do think you need to sort out her tummy/wind

Thanks for replying. I was very surprised when midwife said not to wind her - she said "It's a western thing - no other culture does it for breastfeeding". I'll try keeping her upright. You don't have any views on the Gaviscon do you?

I used gaviscon with my dd up until recently, she is now 15 months old, and if she is acting strange/crying lots at night i'll still give her some. iirc its really just a thickener to stop the milk coming back up, and i had no hesitation in using it because i know just how bad heartburn can feel after suffering with it throughout my pregnancy with her.

HTH

oh, and gaviscn also helped get the wind up much quicker. IMO babies need wondng to slep comfortably.

just keep night times quiet ad dark and give little attention or "fun" times, and try and wake her in the day a bit more providing stimulation. Babies need to learn when night and day is and what they mean. It'll fall into place soon.

oh gosh, so sorry about spelling

Thanks so much for the help. I'm trying to wake her in the day more but it's tricky when you're so tired. I guess the upside of my dh's recent redundancy (a week before the birth - great timing!) is from tomorrow he'll be home in the day to help keep the sleepyhead awake. I'll try the gaviscon - could I ask you both whether you found it helpful before or after a feed?

Sorry I didn't mean you 'both' - I'm now typing and talking gibberish