Breast Feeding during the night!

[melonballer1234]

Hello I am a soon to be FTM. And i’m going to try breastfeeding. I’m just confused about feeding during the nights the midwife was talking about early feeding queues and crying being a late on one but how does this work if i’m asleep and miss these early signs. Just your mum instinct just kick in and you just know it’s time to wake up and feed the baby?! Sorry if this is a stupid question i have seriously bad insomnia at the moment and this is the stuff floating about in my head and stopping me sleep!

Early feeding cues, I guess that's what you mean. Are you sure she means during the night?
Nothing but a lot of yelling would wake me up in the night I can tell you.
If you're actually fast asleep you're going to miss any cues that's for sure unless you are a very light sleeper and can hear your baby being restless.
I wouldn't worry if I were you, none of us are perfect.

They will wake you when they want feeding. Trust me!

I had no maternal instinct whatsoever until my baby arrived and yet every time she even stirs slightly I’m awake instantly now, so I wouldn’t worry about sleeping through anything!
She was probably referring to how when they first start to wake in the night they make a different sort of noise rather than full blown crying and if you can feed them before they wake fully crying they tend to drift back off to sleep instantly. I normally find as long as I respond to mine in the first 2-3 minutes of hearing her it’s easy to get her back down through either feeding her or popping a dummy in now she’s a fair bit older.

1. They will wake you up
2. If they don’t wake you up, your boobs will wake you up (they’ll feel like straining water balloons if you don’t feed!)

Yes I do mean cues and not queues! I’m blaming not being able to sleep for that one!

Don't worry, they'll wake you. Trust me on that one. You'll be awake instantly the moment they stir.

I generally hear mine start to stir and moan a bit but it really is fine if they get to the crying stage, just might struggle to get them to latch as well if they are upset until they get going.

Some babies, especially little ones can go from asleep to screaming for milk in seconds. It’s just the way they are so you can’t always catch early cues if they are not there.

My almost 6MO gets herself into patterns where she quite often wakes around the same times each night so my body tends to get used to it. And then she'll decide she's not doing that anymore and go totally freestyle until a new pattern emerges

Also, I think you develop a mum radar - even in unpredictable phases I'll often wake up minutes before baby does, even when she's sleeping in the next room with DH.

If all else fails, baby will wake you up - either with fussing if you're a light sleeper, or wailing if you're not! All you can do is respond as quickly as possible - don't worry about it

Mine gets antsy in her sleep when she’s going to wake up for food. Lots of grunting noises, etc. Only gets to crying if I take to long getting up.

Most likely, you'll wake up when baby starts grunting. In the beginning, I would also set an alarm to wake me 3/4 hours after feeding, because DC2 was more into sleeping than feeding. You only need to do this for the first few weeks. Also, keep night feedings really, really boring. That means minimal light and no talking or playing. That way, LO learns that difference between night and day. It is quite common for newborns to have days and nights switched and to clusterfeed in the middle of the night. This is really important for your milk production to become established. Also, sometimes I would wake up because my boobs were so full. In that case, I did a dreamfeed where LO is asleep while nursing. Newborns have a very strong sucking reflex and , IME, actually feed better when they are half asleep. That way, LO would not wake me up later. Sorry for the long blurb, but these are just things I wish someone had told be before.