Help! Breast and routine.....

[mmmmarmite]

Hi...hope I make sense in this post as am bit confused. Due in 4 weeks and really want to breastfeed, tho am determined not to be bullied or made to feel bad if it doesnt work out!! I'm really keen to get a good routine established and my recent 'breastfeeding workshop' kept going on about it being all up to baby. I'm wondering how to breastfeed and get a good routine working, I'm quite open to the idea of 'combined' feeding. Two friends who have had lo's recently have solely bottle-fed and had angels who have slept thru the night at 5 weeks which is obviously very appealing.....So my question is can you work the breast feeding thing with a good sleeper, help a confused 1st timer!!!! Many thanks.

Think libby purves once said that it was somewhere between the first tooth and the first crawl that most babies seem to crave and naturally fall into a routine.

So if is the thought of overtired toddlers running round the house at 10 o'clock at night that is making you stressed about a routines in the first few weeks, please don't worry.

I didn't deliberately do any sort of routine, I think when we got home we'd had enough of routines and just wanted to relax! However, I found that given some time she naturally found her own routine.

For the first six weeks babies will want to feed all the time, that's good for you and baby, so go with it. As you get nearer the end of that time you will find you're learning about your baby more and understand what they want and when. The more you understand about them the more that you will find yourselves naturally slipping into a routine.

You will get to eat in peace and go out sometimes, but don't expect it right away. Enjoy your baby for awhile, it all changes so fast and you will miss the early weeks. Tink is 2 now and will happily spend a couple of nights away and not even think of her milk. It makes me a little sad and I miss the days when I could hold her all day and just watch her feed. And co-sleeping is great for getting through the night!

Thanks for all your responses...Moondog I certainly dont have a negative impression of breastfeeding, if anything I'm the opposite, I desperately want to bond and provide via bfeeding. I just simply want to have a 'pattern' whereby my life isnt tied to the sofa feeding. I realise that for a while it will be up to my babs and I'm totally cool with that, I have found it very reassuring that most folk here seem to have found that their lo's get into their own 'routine' as and when they are ready....so thankyou. I suppose it my first and I'm just a little apprehensive about all the new stuff....

Mmmmarmite - sorry I haven't read all other responses.

I b/f on demand and d/d slept through from 9 weeks. Personally I think it is easier in the middle of the night as you don't have to leave your bed and heat up a bottle.

Red lightbulb in bedside lamp so as to not wake up baby fully, change mat and 'stuff' to hand to change nappy with least fuss and you should get the night feed and change down to about 40 minutes.

Then....... sleep in.

Good luck.

To be honest in the first six weeks you're not going to want to be doing much and will appreciate being tied to the sofa! After that as you feel better baby will be finding a routine anyway and life will start to adapt and fit into place.

I like predictability and I like a bit of control in my life. Unfortunately, babies are unpredictable and not really under your control! It is so true that that little creature calls the shots for the first few weeks and you are just their bleary-eyed minion.

Trying to figure out what/when/why they are feeding and sleeping will make you crazy. Once I stopped writing everything down and "gave in", things seemed to settle down. At 19 weeks, he's still exclusively BF and I feed on demand. He wakes once in the night for a feed. I can handle all that b/c it hasn't stopped me from doing the things I want or need to do, and I'm not sleep deprived.

Enjoy your baby, don't stress about doing things the "right" way, and give yourself a break. You need to do what you have to do to get through those first weeks, and you may surprise yourself at what you do. I know I never predicted I'd co-sleep. Whatever works for you and baby.

If you want a routine you should get a bus timetable, not a baby ffs.

I intended to go for a routine, but was too tired or lazy to - I went with DD3's demands in first few weeks and was thinking "pass the bottle now"! at times, but stuck with it - over a couple of months pockets of routine developed. She's now 7 months and I can pretty much anticipate her day - read your baby and follow the clues, you will have a routine before you know it.

I second the person who said not to whip out the boob at the first whimper - think I did that too much. And do get LO to go down awake in early days if poss - I didn't and DD3 needs to go to sleep on the boob (though I knew I was making a rod for my own back - she's my last so I wanted all the cuddles and am not complaining!)

Thanks Housemum, my exact intentions. Chill out rachaelsara, everyone allowed an opinion.