Ideas please! 8 week old waking hourly after first night feed

[BerthaYoung]

Hi everyone, I’ve been lurking for a while and learnt a lot. Now I have a question of my own! DD is 8 weeks old, EBF if that’s relevant, and sleeps relatively well - usually 4 hours or so from 9:30pm ish, and occasionally up to 7! I know how lucky we are...! She wakes between 2-4am to feed, feeds to sleep, I hold her up for a bit to let the milk go down, then she goes back in the bedside cot easily. But she’ll then wake about an hour later...I change her if I think she needs it (though she doesn’t really poo in the night now), feed her, and she sleeps again...for another hour! And repeat. I’m very grateful for the first block of sleep, but I’m not getting much sleep after 3am so if there’s anything we can do to encourage a second stretch I’d love to hear from people! Thanks

Totally normal I'm afraid - you just need to stick with it! You produce the most milk from about 3am onwards so it's normal for babies to take advantage of that - it also helps keep your milk production up to the levels your baby needs. I had exactly the same thing and it did start to calm down at around 3 months so I could get some longer chunks of sleep.

@Nowisthemonthofmaying is on the money. I have a 17 week old attached to me on the bed right now for a nap and it does get easy. You’re doing great and continue to take your babies lead. I don’t change my baby now unless I know he’s done a poo or is actually looking uncomfortable. Ps we co-sleep and it makes those early hours easier (ish).

*easier, I would never say easy 😂

Definitely yes to the co-sleeping - it's not for everyone but if you can do that and feed lying down then all you have to do for the night feeds is plug the baby onto the boob and then drift off again...

@Nowisthemonthofmaying a woman after my own heart once you nail lying down feeding it’s a game changer. Don’t know why I was so reluctant to co sleep the first time?!

Thank you both I feared I might hear ‘it’s normal!’ Not that I’m complaining - I know how lucky I am BF is going well. Good to know the hourly wakes might settle soon-ish though. I’m not too keen on co-sleeping as I’m scared of crushing her (both me and DH regularly wake up panicking that the baby is in the bed!) but this morning I was pretty dazed so fed lying down (while typing my post!) and she’s now asleep on our bed, so I might adopt that as a nice way to ease into the day.

Solidarity to all the night-feeders!

PS. Do you burp your babies after feeding lying down?

@BerthaYoung not anymore. He soon lets me know if he needs a burp mind!

Yes, well put @AHPforthe123 ! Thanks.