Night time feeds, can I ask......

[Sassy306]

This will probably sound like a stupid question but what do you do when the baby wakes for a night time feed. My DP will be sleeping beside me and he will be up for work at 6.30am so don't want to disturb his sleep too much so I'm just curious how you all do it....

Do you get up and go to another room? Do you switch the light on or have a night light? Im hoping to breastfeed and I have a next to me crib so hopefully won't have to get up and prepare bottles.

Ive heard people say they just whip out their boob and feed the baby and got back to sleep but surely this can't be safe and won't the nappy need changing anyway?

I have an 11 year old but it seems like a lifetime ago, she was bottle fed and her DF was not in the picture.

Only need to change the nappy if theyve pooped or its heavy. Just a wet nappy can stay on.

I used to sit up, on the edge of the bed, feed and play on my phone so a little light. Alternatively do you have room for an armchair in your bedroom? No way was I traipsing around the house with the baby in the middle of the night.

If dh is a light sleeper he can wear earplugs/eyemask.

I had DS in a cosleeper cot. When he woke I’d turn on my nightlight (very dim but enough to see what I was doing), scoot DS across onto the bed and change his nappy (kept change stuff by my bed), fed him, winded him then put him back in the cot and turned the light off. DH rarely woke unless I needed him and I didn’t get out of bed. Once we’d moved to formula it got a bit more complicated. I used to bring the perfect prep up plus bottles and powder measured out and leave it on a tray in our room. DS woke, didn’t change by this stage unless pooed, made bottle, got back into bed and fed in bed then back into cot and asleep. There’s no way I’d have got out of bed unless necessary and certainly not traipsed to another room - this way I was still half asleep and got back to sleep quickly.

DH sleeps on the sofa. It's not ideal but I quite like my little nighttime bedroom nest

I kept my bedside light on all night for about 2 months I was really anxious about SIDS and liked to be able to see DD at all times. As PP have said you only need to change a nappy if it's feeling full or they have done a poo. We had dd in a snuzpod at first, then started cosleeping so night feeds were always just a case of popping a boob out and leaning over, or sitting up a bit in bed and putting baby back in the cot when deeply asleep. When we moved DD into her own room at 13 months (unsuccessfully) it was utter hell having to traipse back and forth all night, no way would I be doing that with a newborn, you'd never sleep!

For the first few weeks my partner slept in the living room on early shift nights as he is up at 5:30 those mornings. Now that our son wakes only 1/2 times in the night and is settled by about 8pm he's back in the bedroom.

When our son wakes I grab a bottle from the perfect prep in the kitchen (we're in a flat so no distance there) then feed him sitting up in bed. I change him once in the night at about 4/5am as he won't sleep with a heavy nappy.

I get up and go to another room where I have a really comfy nursing chair or, for my first, to the made up sofa bed. But I’m FF so I have to go downstairs to get a bottle anyway.

I slept in dd's room so could have the light on when I needed it (she was a chronic nighttime pooper). But yeah, the sooner you nail lying down, half-asleep feeding, you win👍🏻

BF lying down in bed. Latch on, Close eyes, try to go back to sleep! Obviously planned to cosleep so we made sure we followed the guidelines.

If we needed to change a nappy in the early days, I would latch DC on and DH would change their nappy quickly whilst they were feeding. I never got out of bed, DH only had to do it for a couple of weeks.

Up until the end of the four month sleep regression, I would get up and nurse in the baby's room (even though his cot was in with us). Once leap 4 was over and my son was still waking up every 20/45min/1hr through the night, I needed to change something in order not to lose the plot.

So the baby now sleeps in our bed (we have a super king so it's roomy) and my wife doesn't get disturbed. I bf lying down mostly or sit up against pillows.

I got these little stick-on lights from Ikea, one is stuck on the stairs outside our room so it's light enough to see but not bright enough to disturb sleep.

Oh and I only do a nappy change if a) poop or b) baby fully wakes in the night. Otherwise I wait til morning.

My DS is in a cot next to me. I feed him sat up in bed with my nursing cushion. I have a really dim night light and mumsnet on my phone until DS goes back to sleep. When DS was little I was too scared for him to sleep in my bed but now he's 1 if it's beyond 4am (we get up between 5 and 6) I pop him in our bed, feed him laying down and go back to sleep and he'll sleep be next to me. As a PP said, unless they've pooed or nappy is really full don't change them during the night. I wish someone had told me that before I had DS.

I used to sit up in bed and feed, no light on, change nappy if needed. Husband slept like a log, never woke, never needed to be woken. Baby(s) slept in carry-cot on cabin trunk pushed up to my side of the bed.

I couldn't feed lying down for the first couple of months, I'd feed her sitting up in bed and then slide her back into the sidecar cot. It's not pitch black in our room so no need for the light.

DH was on nappy duty so if she pooed I'd wake him and her take her and change her. One wake up a night didn't kill him, I was doing 4/5 but didn't have to get out of bed He sleeps like the dead so isn't woken by her crying for a feed.

(She still wakes up 3 times a night at 16 months so we're still cosleeping and I can practically feed in my sleep, but you don't need to worry about that just yet)

I don't see the point of waking someone just to change a nappy when you yourself are already awake.

My bloke is also on the settee. Time will tell how long for. When baby wakes it can sometimes be over an hour and I change the nappy each time. I don't get to sleep until 3am as he is often constantly feeding/or a horror until 3 am!

Eddie

I got back to sleep faster if I didn't physically get up, he goes back to sleep in 2 seconds regardless.

Plus the way the cot was in the way meant I had to clamber down the bed or over him, which was physically impossible the first few weeks and would have probably woken him anyway after that.

5mo DS is next to me. DP always fast asleep next to me but he could sleep through anything. As said only change nappy if very heavy or dirty. We have a star projection lamp and a small night light and it's fine for me I can see what I'm doing and it still keeps everything nice and relaxed. Just feed sitting up on the bed and DS always settles back down well after feed.

We currently sleep in separate rooms and do shifts untill next week with OH goes back to work! LO is only 2.5 weeks old tho have a feeling will be a long time till share a bed again!!!

DD was in a Moses basket next to our bed so I used to pick it up and take it next door to her nursery for a feed/change. Talking to friends I was the only one to do night changes for a wet nappy but she had a strong dislike for wet nappies! I'd get her asleep in the basket, then bring it back to the main bedroom. Of course, when the 4-month sleep regression hit this all became a bit too ridiculous so the "solution" was to boot DH out into the spare room!

I used to get up and breastfeed her on the sofa; I couldn’t comfortably feed in bed after my c section and I used to watch my iPad with subtitles on which would help me keep awake. I used to either have a nightlight in the room or use the torch from my phone to change her nappy.

I put the tv on quietly for a bit more light but just sit up in bed, feed him and then pop him back in his cot. If he needs a change I do it on a towel on the bed and he usually stays asleep through it.

Eh? Why on earth would it not be safe?!

I just whipped out boob, fed and back to bed, all with DH sleeping next to me. No need to change nappy unless poo or a leakage.

I never turned the light on either.

We sleep with a nightlight on in the room when baby is little. My dh is up helping with all night feeds (he did with our dd until she was 9 months, while working full-time and starting a business in his off hours, really they can cope with night waking too, just like I did when I went back to work). He usually did the changing and some settling after a feed and I did the feeding when I was bf. When we switched to bottles, he warmed up the bottle and I did the changing and feeding while he went back to sleep. When we were bf, I'd often try to feed on my side if I could. We bedshare anyway, and that's perfectly safe as long as it's planned and the sleeping space is safe. Unless I needed to change her, I almost never even got up out of bed and even when she was bottle feeding, I mostly still fed her lying down during the night once she was older (first few months I would pick her up though so she was reclining).

We put one of our ikea poang chairs in the bedroom for the first six months. We also had one of those touch lamps with different brightness levels. I'd put it on the lowest setting just so I could see what I was doing. I only changed nappy if there was a leak.

My DH would normally sleep through night feeds but I guess it depends on the individual and how light a sleeper they are!