BF in the middle of the night thread...how to stay awake!

[MummyPigandDaddyPig]

( distributes tea biscuits and nursing pillows allround....)

How do yo stay awake at night feeding??? Am struGgling to stay awake and have a sore thumb from playing solitaire on the iphone...alternates with reading muMsnet, daily mail and facebook....

What else is easy reading websites, games apps that dont require any brainpower that I cana entertain myself with? Any tips how to stay awake? Am seriously tired here!

Have cosleept with my dc's from approx 8-10 weeks, which makes night feeds easier, but I have weeks to go until then and wont dare to bedshare yet as older dc's still turn up in qour bed at night....

Ok, I have been awake since 2.30 despite Missmarbles settling reasonably well. She's now woken for another top up at 3.40 This will not ease the tiredness if I don't go back to sleep when she does...

Second feed of the night and we've had two 4 and 1/2 hour sleeps which never happens!!

Evening everyone

Hope the unpacking and settling in is going well minipop and baby minipop has had an easier day. Really sorry to hear about your cat, how sad

How are you doing marbles? How's the tiredness?

I've kept baby susieloo downstairs with me whilst I watch a film, he's fast asleep in his bouncy chair and seems to be having loads of dreams, I'd love to know what they dream about

Hope everyone has a good night

Well I've had two really good nights, 9.30pm - 7am both nights.

Baby Babylon been quite unsettled today though, not sure why

Just fed him and he's down in his crib, so hopefully that's him done for the night, but we'll see

Hope baby marbles is a bit more settled today/tonight!!

SusieLoo you must feel great after two lots of 4+ hours sleep

Sending sleepy baby dust out by the bucket load!!!!

Haha Susie! I'd love to know what they dream about too

Excellent sleeps! Well done baby Babylon

Missmarbles had jabs today and pretty much slept all day. I was worried it would negatively impact on the improving nights but she's just done 5 hours again, as last night so hopefully when I put her down she'll go til morning- that would be great Hopefully this will be a longstanding improving pattern. Just giving her long enough uptight that she won't be bothered by reflux when I lay her down again.

Evening everyone

We have had a horrible day with babyloo crying unless picked up and walked around or bounced on his chair and he has refused to sleep for more than 40 minutes and has been cluster feeding all day again.

I've decided that I'm giving up breast feeding as soon as I can get him to take a bottle, I know growth spurts and cluster feeding is normal but it's all day pretty much every day and has been for about three weeks with the odd day off and I can't keep it up without going slightly insane. I can do the night feeding I just can't keep feeding him every forty minutes from half six in the morning until at the earliest eight at night. He's such a big baby I just don't think I can keep up with him. He's in his crib now but keeps waking himself up straining and flailing his arms around, he's so full of milk it must be really uncomfortable for him.

Sorry for moaning-babies are hard!!

Helloooooo, och aye the noo!!

Wow, I've missed this thread! Caught up on news and slowly changing set of mummies

Poor you susieloo and minipopsmum sounds like you've both had some hard times- this mummy business is very difficult at times eh??!!

We had a fantastic time at the wedding and for a few days after, staying on for some pampering at a gorgeous hotel in Troon, and walks along the beach.

Periwinkle was generally v good and certainly loved seeing all her extended family at the wedding. Unfortunately for me though she was still feeding 2hrly at night (and sometimes even more frequently... :( ) but then they stopped being good feeds, just 1-2hrly comfort snack feeds - not good!!! So after a meltdown on return home, I decided i couldnt carry on like this, and to not feed her in the night if she woke after 2hrs, just reassure her and go back to sleep... So wed night she fed at 10.30pm, and 7am, with short (i wouldnt have kept my resolve had she been really hungry!!) cries at 12.30, 2.30, 4.30, 6 : amaaaaazing!!!! :o

And last night last feed was at midnight due to bedtime being a bit later, but she slept from midnight through til 7.30am with only a peep at 3.30 which barely woke me before she went back to sleep... Amaaaazing again!! My boobs were bursting though!!

This was all on a background of much better weight gain- now up to 8lb 7oz. And I checked with her consultant when I saw him this week who said it was ok as long as she wasn't screaming hungry!

I've caved a bit tonight though, as a bit worried about her not gaining as much weight, last fed at 10pm, decided if she woke at 2-3ish then I'd feed her, and then not again til 7 (especially as she only took 60mls at 10pm- yes- 'from a bottle' I hear you ask!!!!! (that is still the maximum she'll take from a bottle after all this perseverance, but it's getting a bit more each time and better than none at all!)

So hopefully in a few days time I'll start to feel the benefits of a bit more sleep and start feeling a bit more human again!

Sorry about the long post, fingers crossed the sleepy dust works for all the other babies too, night night for now!!!

Oh SusieLoo, I feel for you, really I do

You've done so well to persevere for this long, and if you really feel you need to go to bottles then no one will blame you for that.

Just one thing to mention though, twice I have given DS formula from a bottle, and though he took it well, it was a bit like the equivalent to us having a big mac

Really nice at the time, but half an hour after eating it you're hungry again

This is exactly what happened with DS, full 7oz bottle of formula, straight down, HUGE burp and off to sleep - and 30 minutes later up and hungry again, so back on the boob for a top up

So are you planning on doing mixed feeding then?

SaritaBean sounds like you've had some real improvements in sleep there!!

DS is now 'regularly' sleeping from 9pm ish to 7am but 3 mornings running I've plucked him from his crib around 5am and dream fed him as was suffering huge boobsplosions

So now DS is sleeping but my boobs are keeping me awake!!!!

Thank you babylon, we have had a much better day today and babyloo has been very sleepy and given me a rest so all is well again for a couple of days, plan was to mix feed if i could, I really, really want a big mac now!!!

So pleased you're having a good time in Scotland Sarita and great that periwinkle is having better sleeps.

We have had a very sleepy day today, dp took me and babyloo to my local pub and I had a pint of shandy which was amazing!! He then napped on and off until I put him to bed at half eight thinking he had slept so much he would be awake really early and he slept until twelve when I had to wake him up properly from his grizling because of exploding boobs!!

Hoping he will go back down now for a good three hours

Hope everyone has a good night

How can I get Missmarbles to settle after the second night feed?? Fed at 2ish settled no problem; fed again at 5 and the noises after that She is really twisty/refluxy, but only from 5 onwards. She's then up again hourly til she gets up between 7 and 8.

Babyloo is the same marbles first feed he goes straight back to sleep, second feed he tends to stay awake for an hour or so and if it's half four ish he won't sleep past seven then when he goes back down at half five ish.

Have either of you tried putting baby in bed next to you and feeding lying down?

I do/did this with baby Babylon and he settles straight off again - so instead of actually waking him up properly, I dream feed him.

I always put him back in his crib and usually the lifting motion is enough to produce a burp so he's not full of wind, but it seems to work fine.

I didn't do this when he was really tiny, but from 8-10 weeks old I did. I then found that even if he did want a massive feed or just "snacks" I could happily doze next to him, without dropping into a deep sleep, but enough so that I felt rested too

I don't know if this might work for you at all but it certainly helped me - and I think is one of the reasons I am still BFing

With my DDs by this stage, they were both on bottles and formula - which I have no problems with, but looking back now, I cannot be bothered faffing about with bottles and sterilisers etc again! It's bad enough with sterilising the breast pump and any bottles he uses then!

Anyhow, hope some of this may help and remember it's completely your choice how you feed your babies. You've already given them the best starts possible and what you do is up to you and no one else, so please don't feel pressured by anyone

I do lift her in with me in the early hours. She's not really awake when she's twisting. Interestingly, a friend at church (whose kids are my age) said her daughter had bad reflux, and always was unsettled around 4, and spewed at the same time. She isn't being as sick so hopefully it is beginning to resolve. Anyway, she's asleep now in her crib (in our room), so we are downstairs watching the tv like grown ups, with the monitor. Hoping we get til 3 tonight maybe...
Hope everyone else has a peaceful, restful night. No doubt I will be checking in at some point in the next few hours

I think the important thing to remember is the old Mumsnet saying, this too shall pass!

I don't know whether I dare admit this or not, but now I'm getting more sleep, I think I actually miss the nightfeeds and the precious quality time in the middle of the night for just baby Babylon and me

My brother and SIL had a baby boy 3 weeks ago and he is bf too. They're first time parents and doing so well, I'm very proud of them! They've asked me to look after their son for a night in October and I'm secretly looking forward to being woken up through the night

Or maybe I'm just mad!!!

babylon you are officially mad if you're missing nights, you're more than welcome round here to entertain Minipop in the early hours :)

how's everyone doing? Xx

Thank you babylon, i do really appreciate the support, I haven't fed him lying down since he was born so it's definitely worth trying. Does depend on whether I could shift dp over in the bed long enough.

We had lots of cluster feeding again and then bed at half eight and he's slept through until half two which is amazing!!! He was like a baby possessed when he woke up though and started feeding like I never feed him!!

I have had a couple of nights like that marbles where you get to have a couple of hours to yourself, it's great!! I can't wait until I can have more of them, I do know what you mean though babylon about there being something special about night feeds,

Babyloo back in his crib looking at his projector thing on the ceiling which does seem to do a great job of keeping him quiet for half an hour and hopefully helping him to drift off.

No idea what time he will wake up now though, hes totally changed his routine!

Hi minipop

Hello everyone!

Wow- periwinkle has done good! :o last feed was at 2215! Boobs bursting though!!! think she'll only feed off one now and will have to hand express off other to be comfy...

Been finding things all v difficult again last few weeks and keep having mini-meltdowns. Poor DH is being so supportive but as he doesn't have boobs that produce milk there isn't much he can do if she needs a feed and refuses the bottle :(

she is now randomly taking some though from the bottle and it's very hard to judge if I should be topping her up with breast (which she seems to know I will do, so once she decides she's had enough bottle, she wont have any more but will have a breast top up....) and then if she does take nearly enough in the bottle and refuses any more breast, I don't know if I should be expressing, incase she doesn't take the same bottle tomorrow. Ideally if I could get her onto bottles full-stop now, that is what I would do- so i dont really want to be keeping up my supply...

I still have loads of frozen EBM and am mixing it with formula, so I think I've had enough of being the only one who can feed her!!!! I can't believe she's 6.5months old now (4 corrected)... Time is flying!

Hope we get through til 7am now, night night everyone!

Hi everyone, hope you don't mind me joining, just found this thread.

My little one is 15 weeks old and just hit a growth spurt so we are up most of the night :(

Hopefully she will start to fill out now as still under 10lbs.

Do any of you get your partner to give a bottle every now and again to get a night off? I have not yet but very tempted, but i worry i will have such sore boobs that i couldn't sleep anyway.

Wow! We're busy tonight all up around 3!
Missmarbles has done 9-3 tonight amazingly! She's back in the crib after a good feed, only off one side though, so achy on the other side, and I am lying listening to her twist a bit but it's not too bad at the moment. Hopefully she'll settle deeply again soon.
I've come down with a stinking cold, and DH away tomorrow til friday
Hopefully see you all not before 7 - night night!

Morning not quite seven but I'm not complaining about half eight until six with one feed and he settled really well, I love my new projector thing it's great for stopping him thrashing around too much.

Hello 2 I would love to get dp to give a bottle in the night but so far babyloo has been refusing bottles, I go through phases of wanting to give up bf because he has been having a growth spurt and cluster feeding since about four weeks and he is nine weeks tomorrow and I would guess around 16 pounds now.

I've had a few meltdowns recently too sarita mainly of the 'please just get him off me for half an hour' type when we are in cluster feeding hell. I've no idea re bottles and boob top ups, if I can get him to take a bottle I would hopefully start weaning him off my boob but no idea how!!

Having a cold sucks marbles it's all so tiring as it is without feeling rubbish.

My attempt to settle back in his crib is failing I think-we are up!!

Have a good day everyone

Wow Suzie, he sounds like a scrummy chunky baby.

My little one wouldn't take a bottle at first, we got her to have it by 'tricking' her in a way.

I would make the bottle around the same temp as my body and start to bf her, after a few minutes I would unlatch her and whilst keeping her in the exact same position give her the bottle.

She won't take a bottle on her back and has to lie in typical bf position but she will now take the bottle straight away rather than having to bf feed, defeats the object otherwise.

I only introduced one like this as have to attend meetings for my older son quite often and need to be able to leave baby.

Well I'm hopefully doing the last feed of the night right now! Bit later than usual, but DH is away and I'm here on my own with 3 DCs and need to try and get the timings right for the morning! Never done it on my own with three before

Could be fun!!!

I hope you're all getting some lovely sleepy times and your babies are being kind to you!!!

First feed of the night for us. Poor baby had her vaccinations today so not expecting a good night. She's been asleep since 8 pm so thought i would make the most of it and get some sleep as well.

On another note how adorable do they look feeding when sleepy x

First feed of the night after a very, very sleepy day, no repeat of last nights six hour stretch unfortunately, babyloo finally went down about half eight.

We have vaccinations on Wednesday, I had to cancel his appt last week and I'm really dreading it.

He seems to have gone straight back down so I'm guessing we will be up around four ish.

Can't keep eyes open to read posts properly night night