stretching out bfs

[helensmelen]

hi,

I heard someone talking about stretching out time between feeds at night and I'm wondering if this is possible and how to do it. my son is 10 wks and exclusively bf'd. currently he goes about 1-3 hrs between feeds at night, but I quite often wake him to feed when he starts thrashing about rather than waiting for him to start crying (tho it varies, sometimes is straight to crying after 2hrs). is it possible to stretch out and if so is it worth doing? and how do u it in practice? I am exhausted and back is in ruins so any advice gratefully received.

x

I agree - just go with it, exhausting as it is. Your LO is feeding frequently most likely for a good reason.

Would you be up for trying co-sleeping and feeding lying on your side? My 18 wo recently upped her night feeds and just being able to lift my top and pop her on while we're both half asleep has meant more rest for me. and I rather like the nighttime snuggles with a warm baby too

thanks, I think I was just letting all the 'advice' make me think I was doing something wrong. according to 'what to expect the first year' he might be sleeping up to 6hrs at this stage- I would worry if he did!

we do sometimes feed in the bed but my bed isn't big and he rolls now so I am uncomfortable and worried, plus the position is just as painful. the problem is my back has been getting worse and worse since labour but am gonna see physio which may improve things. I guess I just have to see it through!

Are you sure that he is thrashing around because he is hungry? Have you tried soothing/ patting him before he wakes properly to see if he will resettle? My 12 week old usually goes approx 4 hours between feeds at night now so if she wakes/ stirs less than 3 hours since her last feed I try to resettle her before offering a feed. 90% of the time she is not actually hungry but has just woken because of wind/ has startled herself and she will go back to sleep with a little encouragement. Not that 1-3 hourly feeding is wrong, but it might be worth experimenting a little to see if you can get some more sleep.

I agree with everything above but my DS did start stretching out feeds at night (to about 3-4 hours) a bit (but not consistently) at this stage and it generally meant I got to sleep between 1am and 5am which for me made a huge difference. He didn't stretch beyond 2 hourly feeds in the day until 4/5 months though. If I think back to what I did, I didn't consciously decide to try and stretch his feeds at all, but when I fed him at midnight he generally took a long feed (45-50 mins) which probably helped.

To those who want to feed in bed but not lying down, I got a big wedge pillow from Amazon, it is a really good angle to lean on while feeding. Might be worth a try. I used that for a while but now co sleep and feed lying down - it wasn't my plan to do that but it works for DD.