Night feeding and changing in your room or nursery?

[growyourown77]

Quick question: when you have a little one in your bedroom initially, in the moses basket or crib, do you have separate nappy changing paraphernalia and/or a chair in your bedroom for changing them/feeding in the night, or do you take them through to the nursery, then bring them back into your room/moses basket when they are changed & asleep again.... for some reason we just can't picture what would happen...

(Our main changing area and chair will only fit in the nursery, we won't be able to fit it in our room as well)

Thanks in advance for advice/experiences.

We had chair and changing stuff in the baby's room but actually I did the feeds in my bed and plonked him back in his crib when done. We did any changes in his room with the light on though.

We had another changing mat on the floor of our room for night changes. Also fed in our room. It felt less disruptive.

We had the Moses basket next to our bed, now we have the cot there as dd got too big for the basket. When she wakes in the night I feed her sitting up in bed, then take her through to the nursery where we have a changing table to change her. Then I bring her back to bed and offer her the other breast, then hopefully she falls asleep and I put her back in the cot.

No idea if that's right, it's just what we do and it seems to work!

I never changed any of my babies overnight.

But in the morning I just did it on my bed, usually with baby's blanket under them as they are easier to pop in the wash if needed than stripping the bed.

I feed in bed and change on a towel on the bed. I also have a basket of nappy stuff downstairs where I change on the floor during the evening - so as not to disturb the older DC's sleeping upstairs.
I only use the nursery changing station during the day now.

Fed in our bed, only changed twice at night in the last 6 months so didn't need to plan for it.

If you're planing to bf then get the midwife in the hospital to show you how to feed lying down.

Fed in bed and changed on our bed if necessary - DS stopped pooing at night after a couple of weeks though so didn't need to change him. Then I just fed him lying down in bed, definitely didn't want to be getting out of bed in the middle of the night!

nooooooo don't change them at night unless they are really stinky!
It wakes them right up.

Second the others for feeding lying down, in your bed. IF you are planning to bf, it's worth looking into co-sleeping. Seriously, if I had co-slept with DD1, I would never have had that haggard look that comes from wandering around in the night trying to get her back to sleep!

Good luck!

We changed nappies every feed for the first few weeks so a few times a night. We always did that in the bathroom where changing table is. I think you need a light on anyway so it is disruptive however you do it.

We did feeds in bed after changes and then back in Moses and hopefully all off to sleep.

I love these type of questions as it is stuff I wondered too so I'm delighted to answe them!

Get yourself some electric candles (I have Phillips ones). They are fab for night feeding, changing, wandering around the house etc..

I keep the basics (nappies, wipes, fabric change mat) in a drawer in the bedroom to use at night on the floor.
The full paraphernalia (cotton wool, sudacreme, top & tail bowl, nappy bin etc) is in the nursery and I do all other changes in there on a proper changing table.
We happen to have an hideously uncomfortable armchair in the bedroom which I sometimes use for night feeds but, more often than not, I prop myself up in bed.
Strongly recommend a good quality night light for the bedroom and a waterproof mattress protector for your bed!

Don't change at night unless they have pooed or wet through. Change on a changing mat on the bed ideally with as little disruption as possible !

Feed in bed, change on bed if necessary (not for nighttime pooing, but he wees a LOT then has a poo first thing which goes everywhere because of full wet nappy).
Disclaimer- he doesn't have a nursery...

If they needed changing at night then I did it in what was going to be the nursery, but as we ended up co-sleeping (saved our sanity!) all the night feeds were done in my warm cosy bed I had a nightlight for the early days but once we got into the swing of things we didn't need it.

Only change poopy nappies at night. Did.those on a towel on the bed. Fed sat on the end of the bed.

I changed mine on my bed and I fed in bed too. Just kept a small fold up change mat, nappies, wipes, emergency clothing change etc in the bedside table drawer. Made life much easier. If you have to go traipsing to a different room and put lights on etc then not only is the baby getting more awake and harder to get back to sleep, but so are you. Stay in bed as much as humanly possible.

I never ever ever got physically out of bed. Fed in bed and only ever changed if pooed and did that on my bed with one of those throw away mat things.

Feed in bed and then change in my room. I have one of those big plastic storage boxes on wheels with all the baby bits in it - change of clothes, sheets, nappies etc., and roll in under the bed when not being used. A second one in siiting room under the couch for during the day saves traipsing up and down stairs - I used to move Moses basket down in the morning and baby slept downstairs during the day. Never bothered with a changing table and the like.

With dd (pfb) - took her into nursery for every night feed, changed nappy before every feed whether she needed it or not, noted down contents of nappy, length of feed and any other pertinent information, usually ended up changing her again after a feed as she tended to poo whilst feeding, fed her again to get her back to sleep, brought her back into our room and attempted to get her to stay asleep in moses basket...

with ds - took a couple of nappies, a packet of wipes and a towel to bed with me, hoiked ds out of moses basket to feed him sitting up in bed, only changed him if he'd pooed, popped him back in moses basket (all done by light of iphone or kindle). Never needed to even get out of bed!

Thanks ladies, that's given me loads of food for thought!

Good to know that they don't need changing in the night as often as I'd imagined. My friends new baby seems to be pooping a lot in the night - she says its like that with BF and not with FF (her first was FF and she didn't change him in the night).

Im going to try BF, but mix with FF as well (for DH to get involved and to have variety), but not wedded to BF as I don't want to give myself a hard time if it doesn't happen. (Too many friends with PND because of that). Don't fancy co-sleeping as I believe in independence and would worry about laying on baby as I'm such a fidget!

I can see that it'll be a bit of trial and error, but trying with a change kit and a nightlight in the bedroom will be a good start, but I may have to go to the nursery if it's waking DH up too much (he has an early start and long commute).

Many thanks again.

Oooh please tell me which nappies last the whole night as would love to cut out the night change? I'm using pampers baby dry but I have to change ds's nappy at least once or it leaks (due to fullness not poor fit)?

Good tip is to put a muslin on the crib about where their head is so if they spit up you just put a frsh muslin on rather than chamge the whole sheet.

I never coslept either - I know a lot of people like it but its just not for me or dh and thankfully dd was happy in her pwn bed too. A bit before I moved her into her own room I put the basket at the furthest point in the room too, so she had a little 'dry run' at sleeping away from us.

I find Asda Little Angels the best - I find going up a size helps for nights too.

Never got on well with Pampers.

No changes overnight, and i'd feed in my bed, and then put him back in his crib.

We use Pampers baby dry for 12 hours overnight, i'd say that they aren't a good fit if they are leaking. If you go up a size, you gain absorbancy as well as them being larger.

I'd try a larger size nappy as Pampers Baby Dry generally lasted the night with us, but leakages were generally due to a smaller nappy. I've just discovered Sainsbury's Eco and they are very good.

I'm obviously in the minority here but we always took the baby into the nursery. She was formula fed so we were able to share the night feeds and we found it less disruptive to the person who was not doing the feeds that night and we all got better sleep. We had a tiny low bulb in the nursery lamp so it was all generally done in dim light, and then just popped DD back in her basket, and as long as she had a hand on her tummy she fell back asleep very quickly.