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....

Oooh good luck susieloo. Minipop has been himself during the day, a little more asleep than usual but not as sick as he usually is.

Checked temp (fine), nappies wet, alert when awake & feeding ok, not duef

(Opps)

and not due for poo today

Oh help. 9 day old been feeding all day!!! At breasts for over a hour then back again within half an hour. Still feeding. My nipples are sore. Is this cluster feeding?

Evening everyone, hope your nights are going well.

This is the first feed of the night started about 1.30, baby lush went to sleep at 7.00. She has had a sleepy day today, apart from when we tried to go out, got her in the car seat out of the drive and she started crying, in the end we turned around and went back home. Am probably paying for it now as what's usually a 10 min feed is turning out to be one wide awake baby who is trying to talk to me in her own little language!!!

Hi stargirl cluster feed/growth spurt, just make sure your baby is latched on ok so it doesn't hurt so much, and go with what your baby wants!!! I know easy said than done, I know on these days am tearing my hair out and in tears saying I can't cope (and still do), but people say it gets easier, so I am hoping there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Think I could be here a while, but she's so cute

Yup. I've just cried. I'm so tired. How long does the cluster feeding last? 24 hours? Longer?

oh stargirl

Don't cry - it gets better and easier every day xx

You may find the cluster feeding lasts for 24 hours - this is all part of building your supply. It will happen again around 6 weeks - but persevere - it's worth it if you can x

I think I might cancel tomorrow's visitors. Too much to cope with.

Hi all, feed no 2. I wonder how many more tonight.

It does not feel that long ago I was cluster feeding to, it really does get better, it may feel dreadful now but you will look back and feel good for getting through.

I would recommend, snacks, hit baths with a bit of tea tree oil in, catch up tv and going with it. Oh yeh not forgetting lansinoh. Positive thoughts for you xxx

Hot bath even. Cancel visitors unless they are going to make you dinner and freeze it or do your washing and cleaning xx, as well meaning and nice it is to see people they will get a cuddle soon enough xxx

Lansinoh deployed. I think I need to rest more. This is all so much easier to cope with during the day! Thank you for your support.

I really feel for you star, cluster feeding days are really tough to get through, i found that after all the demented feeding i had a very sleepy baby so I'm really hoping you have the sane, I agree re canceling visitors and I think it can help if you mentally accept that the baby is going to feed round the clock, but it will end!! You've done brilliantly well, good luck

2nd feed at four as predicted!! It took me ages to go back to sleep after babyloo finally went down and then network rail decided to start doing work on the lines (railway line opposite our house with the line about 100m away) the noise is unreal and they stopped about an hour ago.

Right-attempting transfer and hoping that I don't get two big eyes looking at me like it's time to get up

I didn't realise the cluster feeding would start so soon. I thought it would be when she was a little older. God I hope she sleeps soon. It's been just over 24 hours since it kicked off.

Good luck star, I used to dread the nights, but I have no experience of cluster feeding as MiniPop is bottle fed, sounds rough-as though. I hope you managed to get some rest & can cancel your visitors.

Have you read up post a while ago? I think there's talk of feeding lying down & Co sleeping, which might help? I am sure someone with a bit more experience can give you more info.

How's babybabylon doing?

Minipop awake at 4am, but fed & did a massive fart and has gone back to sleep

Hi Stargirl sounds like cluster feeding.

Got to 2 - hurrah! Settled well. We have people coming for lunch after church and I wanted to get the meat in the slow cooker, so set the alarm for 3.45 oh the irony.... Anyway, it was just the vibration on my silent phone but may have disturbed Missmarbles a bit. I switched off the alarm only to fall asleep again but be woken by her at 4ish. Shame she didn't go longer than 2 hours but to be fair, it's a good job because if she hadn't we'd be starving at lunchtime but instead the meat's in I only decided on that recipe because I knew I would be up at some point over the night to brown the meat

She fell asleep at 6 till 11. Hurrah!!! Fed again and now sleeping in my arms. Midwife has been. Bloody hell, this is hard.

It will get better stargirl, I promise you You are doing really well

Tea how was your holiday?

Pretty good, thanks, Minipopsmum! BabyTea has been doing better on the sleeping front, so the first part of the night he would give me between 3 to 6 hours (the 6hr night was awesome!). It was nice to be able to hand him over to his grandfather, uncles and their girlfriends for a bit of a break now and again too. He was impeccably behaved on the flight out and back .

However teething has started with avengence. Luckily he doesn't seem to be being affected at night, but we've had some real meltdown moments in the day - he's been in so much pain that I've ended up in floods of tears because it is so awful to see. Now trying to spot the signs earlier so we can give him some teething gel before the pain gets too extreme. What's odd is it is not the front teeth coming through, but the molars on the top gum

I can't believe he will be 21 weeks this week! My tiny snuggle bunny is growing so fast. I am cuddling him as much as possible to make the most of it

How's the gorgeous little minipop?

Evening all.

Stargirl I Hope you have had a good day and baby star has given you a bit of a break.
Hope you had a good dinner missingmymarbles
We have not had a bad day, baby lush has fed, played, slept, including a good couple of hours this afternoon, so I got my head down for an hour! Tried to get to the shops but she started crying so we came home. We did get to the mother in laws for tea even tho baby lush didn't want to go to anyone but me we had a pleasant few hours!! She's just gone off to sleep, so we will see how tonight goes, hope we don't have a 2 hour awake session early hours!!
Hope you all have a good night x

We finally had a first poo after waiting 7 days She's been much calmer since then. I've moved to the living room for tonight. Hopefully tonight will be easier.

Thank you everyone for the messages of support. It really helped.

Yay! For Poo Star MiniPop is due one of those, and I think he'll feel much better afterwards. Glad the support helped

Marbles How did it go?

Tea Glad you had a good hols, poor BabyTea :( bless him, must be awful. 21 weeks where does the time go? MiniPop is 16 weeks tomorrow, madness.

MiniPop is having good days and bad days, he's done the same thing as last night though - not fed very much during the day (just over 600mls in total, compared to usual 800+mls), put him down for nap at 7pm and he's still asleep, but due a feed.

Last night I had to wake him at midnight after 5 hours sleep. Not sure if I should wake him up or not now? If I don't he'll miss his last feed of the night. Not sure what to do for best.

And we're still on all different kinds of medication for his reflux, but we're not sure if they're working or not!

Hi quick update from me!!

Baby B doing ok ish

Had a couple of disturbed nights again and I think he has a bit of a cold - but still it's nothing to complain about

Hello to all newcomers to the thread

Hello and hugs for all the sleep deprived amongst us

and [coffee] for everyone!!

Will namecheck when I'm a bit less knackered

I ended up making pasta for lunch and we had the pot roast for tea by which time the meat had been in thirteen hours and just fell apart!! We had a nice afternoon though. Missmarbles has only just gone to sleep and she's still in my arms - normally she's down at 8.30. Hopefully this later settle means longer sleep. I an sooo tired tonight. I might have to kick DH if he snores though. He snores anyway when he doesn't have cold so he's a nightmare at the minute. Missmarbles was nearly asleep when he snorted; I was not amused. Hopefully he won't do it again or she won't be disturbed if he does.....

Sorry for not responding to posts, just so tired but waiting for her ladyship to be sound off

Evening! After a few fairly ok nights, DD just doesn't want to settle! She is a week old now (Monday) and will feed, I pop her in her basket and she will sleep for a few mind then wake up wanting more boob. Is this normal?