How to get through feeding all night

[HannahBee92]

My DD is two weeks old and unfortunately feeds pretty constantly through the night and then sleeps better in the day. Well, she sleeps well as long as she is being held, not in her crib. She is EBF and so far me and my partner have just got through the night in anyway we can, usually he sits downstairs with her for a couple hours when she settles so I can sleep, and we just keep passing her back and forth till the early morning. I then set up camp downstairs and let him sleep in till lunchtime.

I'm desperate to improve the amount of sleep I get as it's making me really miserable and adding greatly to the baby blues. I'm feeling so fed up I am considering changing to formula so we can share feeds.

Does anyone else have a routine based around this scenario? Would I be better just staying up all night while she feeds most and letting him sleep, then swapping over in the early morning when she's more likely to sleep? Will this disrupt her understanding of day and night or is she too young for that?

Sorry for so many questions, but I've read so much advice saying to just get through these hard weeks, which I totally understand, but no real advice on how to actually get enough sleep to survive lol.

Oh keep strong! My friend was in the same boat. Her baby would not unlatch for 48h stretches and would only sleep in her arms. It got much better pretty quickly (well, around 3 months I think).

I don't think there is any advice really. Just keep doing what you're doing. Sleep when you get a chance and try to eat well. Keep yourself as content as possible - that's your main mission. You're doing everything right. Concentrate on your wellbeing. I don't think it will be easier if you switch to ff. I was so happy I breastfed when my baby was unwell. Made all these little misfortunes so much easier to handle.

Scrap any notion of a routine with a newborn! Do whatever you can to cope.

We used to do:
7pmish I'd feed baby and go to bed for a sleep while husband kept him
When baby woke, fed him while husband slept. Then kept baby until next wake. Generally 11-3ish.
3ish feed baby and hand to husband
I'd then sleep til next feed.

The early weeks are tough. But it does get better and soon the all nighters are a distant memory.

One thing we tried not to do was bw awake at the same time. At least one of us was getting sleep!

Hang in there OP! The early weeks are tough so I feel for you. I agree with PP, forget about routine or creating habits, do what you need to do to get any sleep that you can at the newborn stage. As time goes on your baby will start to sleep for longer stretches and it will get easier, but if you feel like you can’t continue then formula feeding is absolutely fine as well. Just do whatever you need to do. In a few weeks time when your milk supply is fully established you could also express some milk so that your DH can feed baby from a bottle to give you nights off to rest, that’s always an option and it’s what we did once our DS was about six weeks old. By then though it had gotten easier with longer stretches of sleep. Keep going, you’re doing great.