Loooooooong bedtime feeds

[dycey]

DD is 19 weeks and ebf. She's my second dc and feeding is going v well. I think she's put on plenty of weight, sleeps a good chunk at night and isn't feeding relentlessly in the day (2 to 3 to sometimes 4 hourly).

Thing is her bedtime feed takes at least 1 hour, often 1.5 and it's getting quite hard to manage. If I take her off before she's conked out then she just wakes and roots for the breast.

I have a 3 year old who has a bedtime routine and it's pretty hard to bath and dress and put him to bed with a baby constantly stuck to my nipple...

Is this long feed important for my milk? Her sleep? Because of low evening supply???

My first has a dummy at this stage so I can't compare. He was also waking five or six times a night and she sleeps and wakes only once or twice.

Just need some support as Christmas comes up and we have social occasions and ny dh and pil will find it odd that a 4 month old baby needs feeding for so long!!! I expected her to have grown out of this.

Any facts to back me up? Or general encouragement?

My DD (nearly 12 months) still has a massive BF before bed and still wakes in the night

Could you tweak your evening routine at all so that your older DC goes to bed at a different time to your LO?

It's very, very normal for babies to cluster feed in the evening. Even babies who are bottle fed cluster feed at times. Nothing to do with your supply, her sleep or her hunger.

It's apparently a mechanism to protect babies from predators (nocturnal animals get up at dusk and are hungry from their sleep, day animals are settling down for the night and if they are hungry might just go for a baby left alone to satisfy themselves before sleeping so there is twice the numbers of predators to be wary of) and is left over from the days of the savannah.

Obviously you don't have any lions wandering about your front room but baby's instincts tell her to stay close to you and what better way then by bfing - you can't put her down then can you?

Ways to work around this are feeding in a sling (or she may just be happy carried in a sling), shifting things you can't do whilst feeding baby to different parts of the day (e.g. if cooking dinner or bathing your elder DC is difficult, try batch cooking and microwaving/oven cooking a frozen meal or bathing in the morning), or postponing bedtime until post cluster feed as MadameJ suggested.

I have no answers, but my 24 week old DD is exactly the same. She used to cluster feed all evening, but that's led into this one massive long feed after bathtime. Normally is over an hour, so I settle down with a good book. It's almost as if it takes that long sucking to calm down and switch off from the excitement of the day in order to go to sleep. I have to keep reminding myself that it won't last forever :)

I went to stay with the in-laws recently and was paranoid that they'd think it was odd, but my MIL turned out to be really supportive. She told me that all babies are all different and when they're young it's best just to go with what they want. If you think PIL will comment, can you blame general upheaval due to festive season?

DD who's 6 months does this. Never takes more than 6oz from her 4 bottles during the day but the last 2-2 1/2 hours before bed she can take anything up to 16/17oz . What's scarier is she'll often wake within 3 hours and take another 7 oz.

I have no idea where she puts it and it's pretty much the entire evening sat in a darkened room. She won't even be put down for 10 mins. We've started weaning though so hope that'll fill her up a little. No sign yet though.

Just to add that you are not alone, my 8week old DS is exactly the same and I too was wondering if it is my milk supply or his comfort.

We went out last night for the second time only ever leaving him and I left 3 expressed bottles totalling 11oz and he had the lot over 4 hours. I explained to PIL who were babysitting that he does cluster feed so wasnt sure quite how much he'd want but wouldnt be surprised if he had the full amount.

Now I need to start doing my cow impression again to get enough stocked up for Christmas day so if when I have a few too many he will be ok.

Thanks everyone, I will just ride with it then! It's easier to manage if she wants to go to bed earlier - like 7ish as that way I can have a bath before bed but that way poor DS who goes to bed at eight has to sit quiety with me for hours!

Same here, the last feed is usually an hour at least. So grateful for my iPhone! Hard with an older child though, sympathies. Don't worry about what your PIL think, if they are supportive it won't phase them and if they aren't - well if it isn't this then it will be something else!

Seems to be improving a tiny bit (as in speeding up to 45 mins or an hour) so all is going fine! And luckily PIL havent seemed to notice yet!