Cluster/ comfort feeds

[minicc]

18wk old has always enjoyed leisurely feeds from 5ish-6:30/7 (with a bath thrown in the middle) since she was tiny. Sometimes she sleeps through, sometimes not. I don't mind this as such if it's what she needs, however I'm starting to feel as though I'm going to get rickets from laying in a dark, quiet room for sometimes 2 hours. Especially when I'm often up feeding in the night! Am also concerned about feeding her to sleep every evening (she can and does self settle for nap in the day and only really wakes at night for a feed).Have tried offering more milk In the Day and she refuses a bottle.What does everyone else do? (she won't take a bottle and I'm reluctant to wake her later on in the evening to feed)

Both of mine cluster fed, but I didn't do it in the bedroom. I would bath them at 7 pm and change them and stay upstairs then.

Don't worry either about feeding her to sleep, if it works, do it and it probably won't work for ever anyway. As she gets older she will probably start self settling herself more. If you are concerned about her sleep have a read of this or get this book.

Everything you've described though sounds perfectly normal and as she gets bigger things will change.

My DD cluster fed in the evenings too. In the early weeks I sat with her in the living room watching TV or a DVD as, like you, it could take hours! A the weeks went on and we tried to establish some sort of routine at bedtime, we tried to keep my DD in her room after her bath. In the end we bought a comfy feeding chair from Ikea so that I would be comfy. Like you, we had a bath in the middle of the long feed. Our routine was roughly:

5pm breastfeed
5.45pm massage
6pm bath
6.30 - whenever breastfeed!

Agree that you shouldnt worry about her feeding to sleep at the moment. I worried about this too and now wish I hadnt bothered - my DD is now 2 and self settles no bother at nighttime. If its working for you at the moment I wouldnt worry about changing things.

Waking during the night at 18 weeks is pretty usual. We tried an expressed top up at bedtime and a dream feed but neither had much impact so we just went back to me breastfeeding my DD to sleep and letting her sleep until she woke hungry. Sometimes she slept 8pm-5am, other times she woke at 2.30am and 5am.

I felt so much better after investing in our comfy chair. It is still in my DD's bedroom and we still use it at bedtime for her storytime/supper, as well as the occasional breastfeed (she quite likes feeding standing up at the moment haha!).

Meant to say, when feeding my DD in her bedroom, I would either sit on mumsnet on my phone or have a dim light on to read my book.

There's no need to feed her in a dark room. Why not bring her down stairs and feed her while watching TV. she natrualy start going to sleep earlier then you can think about putting her upstairs to sleep.

They tend to grow out of the feeding to sleep thing in there own time no need to worry about it. Also there is no way I'd exprect a 18week old to sleep through (although some do) It's totaly normal for her to still need a night feed.

Yeah agree that you dont need to feed in the dark - for the sake of your sanity, if your finding evenings hard (and I did, especially the night that my DD fed for 5 hours solid!!!) then relax on the couch watching a bit of tv, or eating your tea with one hand :)

Thanks for your replies- I tend to feed lying down as it hurts my back to hold her for such long feeds if I sit up. I have tried to watch telly in bed but she's so nosey that she just watches the light show with me! When do they tend to stop the long feeds before bed, I imagine it would be when solids are established?

DS stopped cluster feeds around 12 weeks. Also then got a month of blissful nights with only 1 waking. All went to pot at 4 months! They change as soon as you think you've got a 'routine'!

Podcasts on my iPod have kept me sane this time round as Ds2 doesn't feed well with any noise/distraction - he can even sense when I'm on MN grrr...
He's 13 weeks and is stopping feeding himself to sleep now which is a surprise as DS1 did this for much longer, and am a little sad as I miss the relaxation.