Calling all nighttime feeders!! Let's all keep us company during those early hours of the morning when we're feeding instead of sleeping!

[Writerwannabe83]

This is a thread for everyone to chat to each other about their experiences of night time feeding, the good, the bad and the ugly!

There are already a few of us who have been chatting about this in another forum for a few months now but we want to migrate over here to meet more sleep deprived parents!!

Log on and post, no whatever silly hour it is, and vent away about how knackered and stressed you are!! There's a good chance someone else is up and feeding crying with exhaustion too!!

Introductions: I have a 7 week old son, first baby and exclusively breastfeed. He's normally a nightmare to settle to sleep, screaming for hours on end, but will go for 5 hour stretches of sleep!

Hi everyone, can I join in? Currently ebfing 3 month old DS2 and have a 2.6 yo DS1 too.
just gotten up for the day as I have to go to hand in final essays and do a presentation for my end of year assessment at college.

Thanks to DS2 and Dp both snoring I have had about 3 hours sleep and have had to get up before he does to express.
4oz should be enough to last 3 hours?

Oh I can hear DS1, he must have radar. I was hoping to enjoy a quiet cup of tea and MN before starting the day.

Thanks Twentieth and Pasta, glad to hear I'm not alone! I think her latch must be a little off, which is contributing to the cracks (sooo painful!). I have Lansinoh so must remember to keep applying it. I'll try air drying too, thank you. She is lying on my chest now (tried skin to skin feeding to see if she stayed awake, not a huge success) and her breath smells very metallic.

I agree re bright mornings. My older DC were Autumn/Winter babies so I was slightly concerned about the light however so far (obv early days) it is SO much nicer than having to get up in the cold and dark. I feel much more positive when it's light. Perhaps that's because I don't have any plans for today except cuddles with DD and my DH is here and can do the school/nursery runs. Ask me again once he's back at work!

The early rising is just awful isn't it? Fed DS at 5.15 and he went straight back down. I swear the second my head touched my pillow DD started with 'mummy' so it was into her to try and get her back to sleep / keep her quiet whilst DS and DH slept.

Once again my day has started at the crack of dawn and it has very little to do with my newborn.

Enjoy the paternity leave pepper. Such a treat to have no nursery runs

Pressed send too soon! Such a treat to have no nursery runs, DH helping out and nothing to do but cuddle a newborn.

pepper mine have had blood in their sick, it's upsetting to look at but harmless for them (extra iron). Dd had black bits in her nappy too as it came through.

Try some jelonet dressing as well as lansinoh. It's a moist dressing for burns. Boots sell it by the sheet and you can cut it into small squares. Or try multimam compresses. I also use nipple shields which help a lot.

Dd slept again from 4 so happy with that. She is still asleep but stirring so I am off to jump in the shower quickly!

Just checking in! First feed I've sat up out of bed for and DS has conked right back out asleep! Our cleaner will be here in 20 minutes so there's no point in me going back to sleep.

Co slept again last night. DS went down about 9:20, I joined at 10. Fed about 12:30 and 3:30 (and now) which is amazing. Now I know he CAN sleep properly at night we're going to start to put him gown in the cot for one sleep, then 2 etc...

Morning all. Up Now for morning feed after pretty good night. Finally settled with boob at 10.30ish and slept til 3am! Half hearted feed then and down again until now. I love feeding lying down :) i know she'd sleep again now if I wanted but I can hear ds being a handful for oh so I better go and relieve him.

Congratulations pepper :)

Morning all - lots of newbies!!

DS took an hour to self settle in the end....it started to get lighter outside and I heard the dawn birds start chirping and I felt very disheartened!

However he then slept for another 3.5 - and even then he only woke because I woke him! We've got somewhere we need to be this morning so couldn't have him sleeping in.

pepper - congratulations on your new baby! When I had cracked and bleeding nipples I would find blood in the nappy after he'd had a wee. My MW said it was nothing to worry about.

Morning all, congrats on the new babies! I was up at 3.30, 6 and then 8 when I got up too. The boy is still asleep so I've showered, washed up, put a load of washing on and am eating breakfast before waking him up. We are off to the library today so will have to wake him!!

12, 3, 5 and up at 6.30am - am hoping tonight is a more settled story!

Yes! Ds awake at 8 after sleeping for 4 hrs. He fed,then i decided to put him back in his bed while rocking it. It worked. He slept for another 3 hrs but i said no cleaning or laundry. I slept too. Oh it was bliss. I woke up a new woman now it is time for brunch.

Congrats to all the little ones appearing

Those of you struggling with the lighter mornings/evenings I can't praise the Gro Blind enough. I used it last night as the sun was coming right into our bedroom when I tried to put DD to bed at 7 - it made a massive difference and also this morning when I fed her at 5am.

Me and DS have had a really busy today, we've been out the house from 10am-5pm and so the inevitable 'overtired baby' has surfaced. After him crying for about an hour he seems to have settled down and is drifting off to sleep in my arms, bless him. I'm hoping that when he does drop off he will have a really long sleep.

Let's hope so writer. Mine's a bit over tired too, had a right strop earlier! Has had an hour or so's sleep, woken to bring upstairs, clean nappy etc for proper bedtime. Feeding now, hope he drops off soon!!

Evenin' all!

Thanks fruit for the extra tips, I'll look into those. Yes, definitely extra iron! MW didn't seem concerned either.

DD has woken up a bit today and is more with-it and combined with the fact that my milk has been coming in this afternoon she has shown us a completely different side to her! Her latch is improved (yay) but she wants to be attached ALL THE TIME. Hmmmm! Not necessarily feeding but sleeping too. Now, I would guess that this is good for establishing supply in some respects however DC1 was exactly the same and it did lead to some patterns which I'm keen not to repeat

Other than that we're pretty much as expected with a 3 day old bundle of gorgeousness and thank you for the welcomes!

hi can I join. ebf with a 7 day old. lay here feeding since about 10pm still going strong at ? gone 12 im guessing. both boobs drained and im exhausted and hope she finishes soon. feeds every two hours in the day for twenty mins to an hour but feeds constant at night? ive no idea what im doing really and my nipples are sore.

Congratulations on your new baby pepper. Hopefully you'll get settled into a nice routine soon.

jelly have you tried Lansinoh for your cracked nipples? Also try taking some paracetamol until you get used to feeding.

Hope everyone else is fast asleep. I'm up a bit earlier than usual as someone decided to sit outside with their engine running for the past 20 mins, bloody inconsiderate idiot

Hey, can I join in?
Ds2 is 3 days old and I'm bfing. He isn't the best at latching so it always requires a few attempts and I can only manage the rugby ball position so far. Nipples are freaking killing me at the start of each feed. He's very cute for such a little torturer

So tired.

Hi folks, feeding time again!

Jelly - stay strong! Being permanently on the boob is so worth it in long run. As your milk begins to regulate then you end up with a full baby that doesn't need to gum away at you for hours. My DS would take 40/30 mins at a boob at least and now at 3 months he eats super fast for 10 mins and is done!

Socks - I feel your pain - grrrr to that noisy engine!

Grrr Socks, how annoying.

Ironically after my last post DD has been fast asleep in her MB and I've now woken her to feed her as I have rocks for breasts want to establish my milk supply, especially in left which is not the favoured one in terms if supply or comfort which leaves me somewhat lopsided , always a good look.

So I think this might be a bit of a dream feed for her.

How is everyone else? Full moon tonight I think.

Hi pepper

Second feed here. DS just squealed as couldn't get bra open fast enough, honestly you'd think he was half starved, silly sausage!

Welcome to the new feeders! My boy is 10 weeks today. We're just up for a feed. I remember the early days of night time cluster feeds. Mine still cluster feeds in the evening, but is starting to go for longer now at night, we are getting there!

I second lansinoh, worked for me, even on a cracked nipple. The latch on is excruciating tho when they are sore. It's getting so much easier now tho.

Morning all fellow feeders

DS slept from 10pm-04.00am

It's brilliant but oh my days my left breast was rock hard and absolute agony and My breast pad, bra and night shirt were all soaked with breast milk. I had to go to the bathroom and hand express some off as the breast was far too solid for DS to attach to. I don't normally offer both breasts but I have done this time as my right one is starting to feel a bit full too.

I'm just hoping he doesn't take two hours to go back to sleep like he did yesterday....

Hi writer, 10 - 4 - wooo hoooo! Congrats! I'm off to put my one down. Fingers crossed he'll sleep!!