Night Feeders Part 5. Calling all women who find themselves feeding when they'd rather be sleeping!!

[Writerwannabe83]

This is a thread for anyone who wants support when things seem tough - especially for the women whose babies don't like sleep!!

We'll do the usual introductions:

I'm a first time mom to my 6 month old, EBF son. It's been a rocky few months, lots of ups and downs but we've finally reached a point where he's asleep by 7.30pm and only waking once during the night.

He very rarely naps in the day - and when he does it's only when he's in the car or his pushchair. It's very frustrating!!

And the last little thing about us is that we have just started the weaning journey - it's fun but messy!!

Hello all, very tired Claire and Arron here!!

When we woke up this morning I was so tempted to abandon the trip to the farm because I was so tired but I forced myself out of bed!!

There were 5 of us that went (we met through our baby sensory group) and we had such a brilliant time!!! Arron loved seeing all the animals and was stroking the rabbits, it was just lovely. Then we all went out for dinner and he tried a few more chips and egg custard and it was a really nice day.

We were exhausted by the end of it and both fell asleep for over an hour when we got home!!

Arron has had about 4 naps today due to being in the car and being pushed around in his push chair but Sod's law, now bedtime is here he is hyper and squealing.

We've just got out the bath and when I attempted bedtime feed he was being really silly, constantly pulling off and twisting his head (ouch) so I've just put him in his cot.

I have decided I have got to stop the co-sleeping habit and get him sleeping in his cot again. So I'm starting that process tonight so we will see how it goes

Having one of the worse EVER bedtimes here, makes me appreciate how lucky I a that he goes down with no fuss 99% of the time as this is hella frustrating. He's been almost half an hour just flapping around the travel cot on his hands and knees doing press ups and knocking the monitor camera over. I think he must be doing his own head in being on the verge of crawling and it's stopping him settling. It's just like when he had just started rolling and would just compulsively roll over and over in the cot.

...I've just managed to settle him by rubbing his back and whispering sleepy time etc to him. Phew!

We've had a lovely time here in Amsterdam but I am dying to get home and get him back in his own cot so I can get some sleep! I feel like I'm back at 4 months, only sleeping in 2 hour blocks ugh!

That sounds tough missmugoo - I've been staying at my parents house for a few nights over the last few weeks and Arron just wouldn't settle in the Travel cot and I had to have him in with me. When we went to Wales a few months ago it was exactly the same.

I hope you have an ok-ish night and when the morning comes just remember you're one day closer to going home

redling your doctor is probably right about the physio referral - I've been seeing a physio as my spd didn't disappear after birth as promised but they keep talking about hormones not settling down until 6 months post birth especially if you breastfeed and it affecting joints and ligaments. ds is 16 weeks and they have just recommended some gentle exercises and stretches but up til now the advice was just paracetamol and take it easy

sammy hope things with your dh are better. It's hard isn't it? As they get older babies become more efficient at feeding so 10 minute top ups maybe all your ds needs in the night or he may just be thirsty. If he needs feeding in the night he'll wake up so I would just go with the flow and let him decide what he needs. Does he come off on his own?

Ryder's been asleep since 7.30 and I've only just sat down myself after washing up and trying to tidy and then feed myself

The annoying thing is he's been waking at 3:30ish and only going back down til just gone 6 and then being full of beans. So late bed and early rising, along with rubbish naps just mean he's been really grumpy this trip.

To be fair, the travel cot is quite hard. I may bring him in with us when he wakes and see if I can get him to settle for a bit longer in the morning.

I can't wait to get home tomorrow and have a relaxing weekend at home getting him back to normal. I've ordered a big Sainsburys shop to arrive in the evening so I have full cupboard all weekend and don't need to get dressed or leave the house haha!

That sounds like a great plan!!!

Arron had been in his cot now for almost two hours and seems to be sound asleep (touch wood) and it will be interesting to see if he sleeps better in there than when he sleeps with me. He used to be quite happy sleeping on his side of the bed when we shared so he always had lots of sleep but lately he isn't happy unless he's really curled into me and pressed tightly against me. I think he gets too warm which may be waking him up frequently and also every time he moves he would feel very constrained by me so I think that wakes him too.

He normally wakes about 1am (5/6 hours after first falling asleep) and I fully expect him to do it tonight but the interesting bit will be to see how well he sleeps after that waking in his cot as opposed to being in with me.

Nat had a massive screamy fit while farting and pooing for an hour, I don't know if it's because of the Rotovirus as it can cause diarrhoea but he's quite poop phobic so he was not happy. He's gone to sleep since 8.30 and I'm waiting to go up as I don't want to wake him accidentally before 11pm as an 11pm feed is doable. A 10pm feed is not as then I might get 12,2,4 and 6. He's slept a lot today so I am not expecting a sleep until 2.

Tomorrow DH comes home from business trip, and my Dad and Brother come to stay so it's going to be a bit of a hug fest for Nat! I'm not going to lay hands on him until Monday! my mam has essentially had him in her sole care since Tuesday anyway. When Grandparents live 300 miles away they are a bit clingy when they are here! DH, my brother and I are having a night out with cocktails on Saturday, I'm incredibly excited!

auntMaggie I think since my episiotomy etc healed so fast I'm feeling like I should be over all aspects of the birth, but although I feel like he's been here forever and pregnancy was a lifetime away, 8 weeks isn't long! I've never had back problems until I got pregnant so the timescale of back pain healing is something I have to get used to! My poor tailbone though. I can't stay off it and I need to be giving Nat more mat time and I want to just sit on the floor at every baby group without having to get someone to hand him to me and take him off me before I get up as I can't do it holding him.

writer I know it's not the same as Arron has been in the cot before, but I've been blown away how much better Nat has been in his cot as opposed to the crib. He's got space so he doesn't hit his hands, also the mattress is thicker and comfier. He is fine flat on his back now. He self settled after his 2am feed again with help from Ewan the sheep. I'm so glad I put him in the cot instead of trying to persevere with the crib because I was sad about him growing out of things too soon. I have to try the seat of the buggy now, as the carrycot looks like a prison to him, he fills it!

Nat does still seem to need to cosleep for the last couple of hours, if he feeds at 4-5 he won't go down so it's chest sleep on me or DH, or on the bed next to me.

Up and feeding after 5 hours. How on earth did he used to sleep 10-11 hours!!?

Writer your day sounds lovely! FX the cot plan works and he settles.

Mrsmugoo Mine had a bad bedtime too. Must be something in the air!

Redling hope he settles!

Suze is being v unsettles and windy after an evening of cluster feeding. Slept till 25 min ago, changed poo nappy, wolfed down a feed. Gently winded but now grunting and sounding gassy in her sleepy head bed. Don't know whether to leave (she usually produces a burp if she's been winded) or pick up as small risk of meltdown...

...so we've had burp noises, squawks of annoyance and now calmer noises that are like someone with a stuffy nose/throat snoring.
I hope she's not got a cold. At least the squawks didn't lead to anything.

Morning all, he woke up at 01.30am (as predicted) and he's now having a feed. Whilst we've been co-sleeping his next blocks of sleep after this feed were usually 1-2 hours so hopefully they'll be longer in the cot.

I hope so anyway as I have a major headache and need a good chunk of sleep.

squizita Nat started producing the most ridiculous amounts of noise in his sleep about that age (HA! 'That age' like it wasn't 4 weeks ago...) and I thought he had a cold, but baby nasal passages are tiny so they grunt and snuffle. He twitched and kicked and grunted and snuffled and yelped. No issues apart from a bit of wind, and let's face it , as much as you try, you can't squeeze it all out if them as much as his grandma seems to try ALL THE TIME

I put him in his cot whilst still awake and he's been playing in it and singing to himself for 15 minutes but at least he isn't crying. When he does start crying (I'm 99% certain that he will) I will probably feed him back to sleep but at least he will have known that cot comes after feed. I'm going to take thing one step at a time.

Can I ask to the women who feed and put baby back in cot whilst awake, do you leave a light on until they fall asleep?? Whenever I turn the light off when Arron is awake he has a complete melt down. It's like he's really scared. I'm thinking I should use a night light (as opposed to our bedside lamp) but don't really know what sort to go for.

Squizita I'm only a week or 2 ahead of you and DS also got to a stage of making ALOT of noises. And they haven't gone, this is why I hear people sleep better when babies gave gone in thier cots.
Redling the same thing happens to us, about the 4/5am mark DS won't go back down and sleeps on us!

So I tried to wind him properly after his feed he just woke up in the process and no burps either!
So he's back on the boob, I tried to put him down but he woke, so I tried the dummy and he got all fussy and gagged quite ALOT so again back on the boob.
I can see why parents stick to what works as change takes persistence!

Writer I've bought a bed side lamp in perpetration for this it's a touch lamp with 3 dimmer settings, I also have a light on my monitor which glows blue so I'll be using that. I don't think I'll use pitch black, imagine if they wake in the night (I'd be scared let alone a baby)

I do wonder if sometimes when Arron just suddenly starts crying is because he's stirred, it's pitch black and he's scared. I suppose having sine form of light all night may address the problem. I can always pop my eye mask on

He played around in his cot for 35-40 minutes before the crying started so I fed him back to sleep and have just put him back in his cot. It would have been much easier (and quicker) to just bring him into bed with me but I'm determined to break the habit. It does mean I've been awake for over 1.5 hours with him but as a poster said above, change takes perseverance.

Hopefully he will sleep for 3-4 hours but we shall see

I don't put the light on from when we come into the bedroom, I do everything by the light of the hallway light and the glow from baby monitor and Gro Egg. Never switch it on.

Wake ups at 12ish on cot transfer , then 1.40 and now , so we dropped a 3am feed . He's flopped asleep on the shoulder again, waiting for transfer back. writer the only couple of times Nat has self settled he went into his cot drowsy/light sleep and also he's had some white noise from an app or Ewan the sheep . He can look around as it's not pitch black the room.

Hmmm hello all, I seem to constantly drop off the map, I find it hard to post and sort him out at the same time.

We are on his 2nd wake off the night, the first one was at 2.40!

Morning all - finally he sleeps! Only one feed at 5am and he's still sleeping now hooray!

I find Edward does best at self settling when he has complete darkness - if he can see anything he spends ages messing around with the edge of the cot or his grobag or whatever he can fiddle with.

Hi everyone

Like cookie love, I've struggled to post for a while. I have been up so much with ds who is now nearly 9 weeks and the extreme tiredness at night made me nearly drop the phone/ipad on ds that I was terrified of using the internet. He's definitely getting more sleep and only woke at 3am, 530am and 7am after being put to bed at 10pm!! He had his jabs this week so is a little unsettled I think.

Hope everyone is finding things easier - I'm definitely getting more used to the lack of sleep!

Thank crunchie it's Friday. I still look forward to Fridays as much as when I was working as DH is home all weekend so I get a little break! Even though I am bfeeding at night,once that is done, DH moves to my side of the bed and settles Finley in his basket so I can go straight back to sleep. Happy days!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend planned.

Ryders new time to get up for the day is 6.30! But I don't actually take him out of the cot and to the lounge to feed til 7am and Hunter normally wakes not long after! Can't moan at that really (dh's alarm goes off at 6.50am anyhow!) esp since he naps 2-3 hours (2 naps) in his cot in the day and goes to bed just after 7. Got to look at the positives and the now rather than what he used to do!

DS's sleep and naps are all over the place and I'm exhausted! We are supposed to be going to Sydney for a few days when DP gets here but I'm seriously considering cancelling as I'm not sure how he'd deal with yet another time zone change.