Falling asleep while BF...what did you do to keep yourself awake?!

[Lilypad7]

First time poster, long time lurker...
DD is 5 weeks old, EBF, and I can't stop falling asleep while feeding during the night. I must just close my eyes for 30 seconds and I'm gone and It worries me I'll squish her while asleep!

What do you all do to keep yourself awake/ occupied at night?

Smartphone and e-reader.
Coffee and chocolate
Digging nails into palms if desperate.

Having said that, it's also good if you can get into a position where it wouldn't be too bad if you did fall asleep. So feeding lying down on a firm mattress with baby well away from bedcovers etc...

Congratulations on baby. It's a weird and wonderful time isn't it?

Read MN :)

Put yourself in the safe position so you don't squash her. Lying on side with bottom arm stretched out behind baby's head. Other arm resting on your side. Top knee touching bed so you can't roll over.

I read loads of books on my iPhone. Easy reads, not War and Peace :)

I didn't, I just fell asleep. Invariably I woke up in exactly the same position in which I fell asleep which was as Meringue describes.

Have 7 week old ds3 and I'm co-sleeping for this very reason.

I get him latched on, one arm above his head, knees bent up underneath him, no pillows or duvet.

I didn't that's the point of BFing.

You can lie the baby next to you and GO TO SLEEP.

Yes I am shouting, I think the utter paranoia about co-sleeping is doing real harm to mothers, babies, families and BFing rates.

Humans evolved to cuddle up in their caves together, breasts are clearly designed so you can feed and sleep.

Seriously you won't roll over and squash your DD anymore than you roll over and wake your DH/DP. If we weren't instinctively aware of other people, the wall, the edge of the bed, we wouldn't get any sleep ever.

And no the baby won't fall out of bed either. Seriously DD2 is pretty good at falling out of bed (her above instinct for bed edges isn't very good), but she co-slept odd bits of odd nights from birth to 6 or 7 years old if feeling ill or having a bad dream and never fell out once. This is despite the fact that to not over heat she always slept just under the very edge if the quilt in the crock of my arm right in the edge if the bed!

I EBF my 2 and had to co-sleep with both, or I'd have got zero sleep. ds in particular fed every 2 hours on the dot day and night.
king size bed, him in middle, duvet nowhere near, dh right on his edge, is blissful.

StarBall - yay! The research backs you up on this - breastfeeding mothers are designed to fall asleep while feeding (see sleep research at isisonline.org.uk/ where mothers have been filmed overnight and where theory meets practice).

Parents are terrified of co-sleeping, and they really have no need to be, as long as they are non-smokers and their bedding does not overheat the baby.

I agree with the others who didn't try and stay awake.

I felt nervous bedsharing with DD and so tried to stay awake during feeds do I could put her back in her carrycot, it led to being exhausted, accidentally falling asleep a few times and inevitably bedsharing (in a planned way) anyway.

This time with DS I planned to bedshare from the start. In fact, we haven't even got anywhere else for him to sleep really. I make sure we follow all the safe bedsharing guidelines. It means I get to snuggle up with my newborn every night and I barely have to wake up for feeds, I'm aware when he is feeding, but by the morning I couldn't tell you how many feeds he's had. It works out much better for all of us this way.

If you definitely don't want to cosleep (which is absolutely fine, it's not for everyone - for example if your baby is prem, or for heavy sleepers, smokers, people with very large builds or just those who love their duvets it's not a great plan!), then I found that doing something active like mn or emailing was better than just watching TV. Even that eventually didn't work and I ended up walking around bfing with DS feeding in the moby sling, and then ended up kneeling on a hairbrush...

And after that I joined the ranks of cosleepers who feed lying down and absolutely loved it! DS slept better, I managed to get more rest, and it was excellent. First we did set up to cosleep safely, and I cut a long sleeved turtle necks up the middle to make feeding in the cold a bit easier.

Whatever you do, just do be careful not to fall asleep on the sofa, that's the most dangerous by far. Good luck!

I used to put the telly on when dd was little but now at nearly 9 months it distracts her so I come on here :)

I hate cosleeping, I find the lying down feeding position really uncomfortable and hard to sleep in, and wake up all the time feeling really sore. I also found that it made my DS a worse sleeper as he'd wake more often to feed, so we knocked it on the head.
My 8 month old DD has been waking every two hours in the night for weeks now, and that's still not enough to convince me to cosleep again!

Another one here who lay baby down next to me and fell asleep together whilst BF.

Following the safe co-sleeping guidelines obvs.

It saved my sanity and meant I was quite well rested in the morning!

Oh god if I hadn't slept I would've gone bananas. I understand the fear of squashing, but really, it is unlikely. I used to prop myself in a particular way with her head sort of nestling in my armpit (nice), and then fall asleep with my head lying on my outstretched arm.

I really don't like to think of mothers worrying themselves to death about co-sleeping, though of course I understand if it's not your preference. You need your sleep!

I play Words with Friends (scrabble) on my smart phone to stay awake. And browse through Pinterest. The bed ends up wet with milk if I try to feed baby on my side and fall asleep.

I play words with friends as well and also the classic version where you play the computer. It keeps my mind active and I havent fallen asleep once since I began playing it. If you or anyone else fancies it and wants a game pm me and we can exchange user names.

I hadn't considered co sleeping as everything I had heard about it was negative and I thought people didn't do it as it was unsafe.
The one thing I do wonder about is if you fall asleep with them feeding off you, you don't wind them?
DD is always windy after BF'ing

The research suggests there is a tiny increase in a tiny risk from careful, sober, non smokers co-sleeping on a firm mattress.

In this household there is a far greater risk of one of us crashing our cars through lack of sleep.

I never got the hang of winding FF DD1 and DD2 often dozed off when feeding.

I just went to sleep with them still latched on (lying on my side). If you're in bed, with the baby not under the duvet, you or your DP not under the influence of anything, remove the pillows on your side, you should be able to practically sleep through night feeds in time.

Unfortunately the SID stats lump together co-sleeping in bed and accidentally falling asleep on a sofa, which is way more dangerous as the baby can end up wedged down between you and the sofa in all sorts of ways. To my mind, a managed risk involving taking all possible precautions has got to be preferable to a situation that is not planned for (ie accidentally dropping off on a sofa or armchair).

Yes, my dd was windy, but I found co sleeping less stressful as she would just drop off to sleep with me and didn't seem troubled by wind. Maybe as I was relaxed so was she? I have no idea, but it seemed to work.

I used to sit DD up to wind her (sometimes I didn't even have to sit up myself). As your baby gets older she'll need less winding. My DD is 7 months old and will roll herself onto her tummy to wind, but this isn't often.
The beauty of co-sleeping is that you become able to feed in the night without waking up 100%. Most mornings I can't remember how many feeds there were!

I look at mn on ipad and eat a green and blacks small chocolate every wake up. Partly as reward and partly helps me stay awake.

And yes I often just give up on the back and forth and sleep with dd in the crook of my arm, it's lovely. But I do get disapproving comments from almost everyone who knows

She's 8 months nearly and I don't know how we will be able to co sleep when she is more mobile. Might have to rethink it then but for now it works

StarBallBunny research has come out this year saying that co sleeping safely is actually safer then babies in cots alone link to press release but I can try and find the study proper if you like.
The reason that cosleeping is seen as a risk is most studies as duchess said include sofa sleeping.

Sorry OP the only way I found to do it was to co sleep.

The only way I could do it was co-sleeping! We researched it and did t really carefully. Like starballbunny said, I'm at much higher risk of crashing the car, or dropping the hot kettle wrc if I don't get enough sleep.

DS now 8.5 months and we have coslept since birth- through him refusing his crib, and through need for us to sleep.

catellington - DS fairly mobile (rolling, bottom shuffling, commando crawling) but its never been a problem on bed. He has never tried to roll over in bed. We do have be guards now he can move while sitting up, so if I plonk him o the bed he can't get off Iyswim, but they fold down for the day so no problem.