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.

FF so it's a bit different, but I used to come downstairs (we had a log burner so often kept the lounge warm even after it had gone out).

I used to change nappies, mostly to wake them up a bit as otherwise they would fall asleep after the first half of the bottle. I wanted as much as I could down them to reduce the chance of another night feed!!

BF, I take her into the nursery where I have a comfy chair. Night lights in both rooms. I don't change her overnight any more, but in the early days I did at every feed to wake her up a bit so she'd take a decent feed.

Thank you everyone. Some great tips.

Im just scared of falling asleep and suffocating her with my boob if I don't actually get up and sit up and wake myself up properly but im sure I will get the hang of what works best for us :)

Just remember that you are safer to cosleep safely following the guidelines than fall asleep sitting up feeding so don't battle if you're too tired. You'll be fine!!

We used a cosleeper cot. We had a dim nightlight on all the time. DS used to poo a lot so my tactic was to feed him from one breast so that he wasn't upset, then change his nappy by the light of the nightlight, then feed him from the other breast, by which time he was usually asleep again and ready to go back in the cot. Usually we could follow this whole process without waking my DH. It helped that he was right next to me so I could pick him up to feed him before he had a chance to get upset.

DH sleeps on sofa.... still... 9 months on....

and i have a bedside light on still.... 9 months on...

I’ve got a 4 yo and 8 week old. With both of them I sit up in bed and feed with my bedside light on. It’s got quite a low wattage bulb. I’ve taken to switching it off part way through the feed with the baby now as it seems to help him settle better after. DH doesn’t usually wake up. Or if he does he just goes straight back to sleep. I did the same with my older child. It depends on what kind of sleeper your DH is. Lots of people boot them into the spare room during these early months. I’ve done that on the rare occasions I’ve needed to co sleep (I save it for bad nights only, but you may like to just do that all the time), as it feels safer that way. If they do a poo and you need to change a nappy you will want a light on but both of mine have stopped night time pooing by around 4-6 weeks so hopefully that will be a short lived time for you.

I’ve got a 3 week old. We have a Co-sleeper cot and one of the daylight alarm clocks. I use that as a lamp on the lowest setting and feed propped up by cushions semi reclined. I take to another room if need to do a full nappy change. Baby wails but settles quickly. My boyfriend tends to sleep through this IF he’s fallen asleep before the baby wakes iyswim. We have a sofa bed for nights where one of us needs to be up/ catch some sleep. I try to have him sleep nights and I’ll often get an evening nap in.

Should say sliding him back into cot is a bit of a palaver as he doesn’t like it to be cold. I sometimes tuck a muslin under me and then use that as an extra sheet. Doing one handed with sleepy baby on me can be challenging

Place marking

Pick up crying baby, reach down and grab mat/nappy/wipes from next to bed (and when bottle fed grab a bottle from cool bag and plop in the bottle warmer on bedside table) all by the light on my phone. Change baby, feed baby, wind baby (all half asleep) and settle back in Moses basket. The end

Oh and I’ve rarely ever let my OH do night feeds because he makes such a meal out of it. I can get the whole thing done in 20 minutes by phone light and without moving from the bed. He seems to have to get up and down and turn lights on.

I set myself up a little feeding station upstairs. I used the bottles of ready made milk at night so we had a mini fridge (from our flat share days) the sterilised bottles and bottle warmer on top of the chest of drawers. She slept in a crib next to our bed so when she woke for a feed I would get up, Pour the milk in the bottle, pop the remainder in the fridge, bung the bottle in the warmer, do the nappy and then settle back down in bed and do the feed. We have fairy lights around our bed frame so I'd just flick them on and that was enough light to see what I was doing but not bright enough to wake DH.

Moses or cot by the bed (I moved furniture to get this) then bedside light on (even as an experienced bfeeder who fed 3 babies in total - in the early weeks I had to be able to see them to be able to get them latched on properly, so I needed some light and my glasses!). Fed propped up - those cheap v cushions are great for this. Changed nappy only if I had to, then back in receptacle of choice.

Never liked bfing lying down (spurty and 2 of my 3 were very fussy feeders), didn’t want to co-sleep. Did shush-pat to get them to settle in cot/Moses.

I just pick baby up, prod nappy to see if it needs changing, feed baby in bed and then straight back to sleep I do it all in the dark with no lights on, in the beginning I had a nightlight but now I can do it totally in the dark.

We coslept with baby next to me and I would wake as soon as he woke, before he ever cried. I had a dim nightlight which in the first few weeks I used to help latch (after a few weeks I didn't need it) and we fed lying down with my eyes closed. We'd both be asleep again by the end - baby simply unlatched when finished. He never pooed at night so I didn't change him at night.

Don't leave the room

practice changing semi darkness
I always changed nappies (my choice)
Feed burp sleep

I have a 5 month old. DH sleeps in the spare room every night so no worries about waking him.

Shall see how it goes with this one (due tomorrow!) but I've got a lamp by the bed that I can switch to a red light (doesn't affect your night vision and shouldn't wake OH up) and adjust the brightness/dimness to the right level so my plan is switch that on, feed from one boob, then change nappy if needed then feed from other boob and put back to bed and hopefully I'll fall asleep again without too much trouble.

I remember with DD I would go sit on the sofa (lived in a studio flat then so was all in the same room) to feed her and kept my eyes shut as much as possible so I wouldn't wake up too much.

DH in spare room for at least 6 months

We have a next to me but ended up cosleeping - wasn't the original plan but it is the best way for us and means we both sleep much much better, baby helps himself to milk in the night and neither of us wake up. I just do what my sister calls the hug and roll a few times in the night so he isn't feeding off just one side.

I have a SnuzPod which he won’t sleep so is just in bed next to me, he just stirs a bit which wakes me, he latches on while I’m still lying down and then we both go back to sleep while he feeds. I never get out of bed and because he doesn’t cry at night my husband isn’t disturbed - he’s in our bed too.

He’s nearly 6 months now but when he was newborn he was in the SnuzPod and I used to sit up in bed with a groegg light on because I wasn’t good at getting him latched on to start with but once we both got used to feeding we can just stay lying down!

We had DH is the spare room eventually. He tried to sleep through DS' crying but had a lengthy commute and was eventually at risk of nodding at the wheel so moved into the spare room. We're now expecting DC 2 and no longer have a spare room as DS is in it so I may end up in the nursery as DH is too long for the sofa.

I couldn't sleep and feed because my boobs aren't big enough and I was concerned about DS choking. I was so tired I was concerned I wouldn't wake. If nappy needed changing it happened between sides when BFing. I had a great dimmable light that you touched to gradually brighten or dim and then let go so had very little light.

Separate bedrooms for us after both babies 1 and 2. Meant I could have the light on if needed, the tv and not have to try to do things quietly.