night time feeds - please share yours

[RachieS1986]

hi could you all share your night feed routines as im struggling to settle ds2 (4 weeks) back to sleep after his feed. He'll usually go to sleep pretty soon after but once I put him back in bed hes wide awake. Last night he woke before 3 and it was 6 before I was getting back to bed. After his feed last night he did a dirty nappy. The only way he eventually settled was to make another 2oz of milk. This isnt thw first time hes been looking more food after a dirty nappy. Iv been taking him downstairs to feed at night so as not to disturb dh and ds1 across the hall. Is this wakening him too much?

Honestly, at 4 weeks many babies don't have enough sense of night or day yet, so I wouldn't worry too much at this stage a it's perfectly normal at his age for him to wake for feeds and not to understand that it's night-time and that it's time for him to be asleep. It's also pretty normal for him to wake as soon as he's out of your arms. If he's waking as soon as you put him in his basket you could try playing him some white noise / womb music? Some babies also love being swaddled (although my DD was not one of them)!

I stopped moving into the living room for night feeds around the 4 week mark because I found it hard to resettle after. I BF so easier to just get a boob out but once we stopped doing nappies overnight and feeding in the bedroom with minimal light it was much easier to get back to bed after.
Your husband will have to learn to live with it for a few months!!

I definitely didn't have a routine at 4 weeks but DS fed pretty much 3 hourly. I fed in the bedroom in an armchair so just got him out of themoses basket, fed in the dark & popped him back to bed. I can't remember if he was hard to resettle - I don't think so? I'm not sure! and it was only 2 months ago! It's just a fog of sleep deprivation!!

Mine is 6 weeks and we've just introduced a small routine. But at 4 weeks he was cosleeping next to me boob in mouth or near most of the time (so no sleep for me...). Impossible to settle in his bed, if he was disturbed by anything, he had to suckle so boob out. I never nappy changed in the middle of the night though. All normal :) swaddling, white noise, singing, walking him in his sling, paci, etc. We've tried everything in combination and what works one day might not work the day after so better have a range of technics :)

Now it's different so I hope it gives you a bit of hope. I feed him at 11pm and he goes in his cosleeper cot. He will have his quiet awake time (eyes open but calm, watching his little dangling toy) then when he's done (he's starting to move again), boob (lying down in bed, the light goes out). By the time he's asleep on the boob it's midnight. I slide him back in his cot, use a paci and or white noise if he's not in deep sleep and I go to sleep myself. He wakes again at 3am ish (boob lying down no light no noise ) and 6-7am (DH take over for nappy and awake time), by the time DH goes to work at 8:30am he's asleep and he puts him back in his cot so that I have a lie in until 11am.

Good luck

My dd is 7 weeks. If i remember rightly at 4 weeks she was doing 2 - 3 hour sleeps with an hour of selling inbetween.

I use a dim nightlight, whitenoise and put towels rolled up in her basket to make it more cosy. One large towel in a U shape around her feet with the top of the u coming to her armpits.

I think its really important to keep everything dim and quiet during night feeds, i take her into her nursery, dim light on and i dont talk to her or make eye cocontact. I will sssshhhh her if shes upset though.

Also now i dont automatically change her nappy like i used to.

4 weeks is so very young still, I'm sure youll see an improvement soon x

Thanks everyone. Maybe routine wasn't the right word to use just wondered what everyone else did, mayb find a few new or better ideas. The last two nights iv been feeding him upstairs in the room when he wakens instead of going downstairs with the light on so I dnt trip over the stairgate. He has gone straight back to sleep the last 2 nights and has slept longer. Unfortunately I tried not changing him the first night and nappy leaked but it also leaked twice last night even though it was changed so think a bigger size is needed at night. The reason I dnt want to disturb dh is that hes a lorry driver and is driving a lorry 13 to 15 hours a day and dnt like the thought of him doing that on little sleep. Hes more than helpful with everything else to make up.

I think I was a bit spoilt with ds1 who fed at night like clockwork 11pm 2am 5am and 8am and slept through the night from 5 weeks to 6 months.

I had ds in a side car cot and when he woke I immediately gave him boob (before he cried or made any noise) he would just go back to sleep and I'd unlatch him and go back to sleep myself. I had nappies and wipes by the bed and I changed his nappy on the bed when he did a poo at night.

The only time I have ever gotten up and taken him out of the bedroom was when he had a cold and couldn't stop coughing unless he was upright.

At 4 weeks ... my dd fed every 2-3 hr round the clock. More in growth spurts!
At about 12 weeks her nights went:
Cluster feed 7-8
Feed 1am
Feed 4am
Feed 8am.

But guess what, as she nears weaning she's added an 11pm feed too! Greedy so and so.

My DC1 is now 5weeks- at about 21day mark I was waking her for her 3am feed and I was finding that she was difficult to wake but then once fed/burped/changed, it was taking three hours to get her back to sleep. MW suggested feeding her at 12am and then not waking her for next feed, let her wake by herself (if she hadn't woken by 5am then I should wake her at that point) this seemed to work for us and as she was putting weight on well MW was very happy for us to do this. She now feeds at 12am, 4.45am, 8.30am.