How do/did you work night feeds with your DH?

[MuslinSuit]

DH has had a wonderful 5 weeks of paternity leave and it's hit me with a big kerthump now that he's back at work!

Babe is formula fed, and feeds every 3 hours-ish on demand day and night. We did feed him in shifts so that we would both get about 6 hours without getting up, obviously now DH is back at work that doesn't work...

We need to try different things until we find some kind of a routine, but does anyone have tips for what worked for you? DH is being all 'I'm so busy and important, I can't possibly be sleep-deprived' - cos obviously caring for a tiny human isn't as important as whatever it is he actually does as working!

I accept that I need to do the majority of feeds, but what would be reasonable?

TIA

I BF and do all the feedings. We were going to express but it was such a faff and much easier for me to just get a boob out! I think it's more important that DH has a good nights sleep even though he says every night before we go to sleep, "wake me if you want me to resettle him" and he means it. I feel too guilty about taking him up on it though!

He will sometimes take DS into the lounge with him when he gets up at 6 though which gives me an extra hour.

Muslinsuit I am in very similar position to you, had difficult emcs, and am ff ds. Dh went back to work after weeks and at the time was still breast feeding. Found doing all the feeds utterly exhausting and dh works long days, leaving at 8 getting back at 7. When I switched to formula, dh started doing the first proper night feed, say around 2-3, then I would do second around 6pm. This generally means I can get a few hours every night.

We also sometimes have sofa nights if one of us is particularly knackered where one takes over for night and other goes on couch. I think one night feed isn't too much to ask. You need to be at least rested enough to get through the day too. I find it hard to sleep in the day, ds are very unpredictable and I find it hard to switch off.

Also, get a tommee tippee electric bottle warmer for bedroom, heats up so quick and so much easier. X

I have 9 week old twins, and my husband took 6 weeks off so I had a similar shock a couple of weeks ago! He leaves for work at 7am and gets back at 730-8pm ish so he's not really that involved with child care during the week. But he does the 11pm feed (ff) and I go to bed at 930/10 ish. It gives him a chance to see his children as the are usally asleep by the time he gets home. They usually wake around 3 or 4am for a ebm feed which I do, so I have a good 5 to 6 hours sleep before then, and then another couple of hours sleep before they wake again at 7ish for a bf.

At weekends the roles are reversed on one of the nights, ie I do 11pm and he does the 3am feed.

It has worked well for us so far (although I am on the ipad when I am supposed to be asleep). Especially since last night they both slept from 11pm till 5am, yey!