How long are you up in the night with your newborn?

[usagimoon]

Just wondering - my baby is 4 weeks, she'll wake for a feed, which usually takes about 20-40 mins, she snoozes in my arms for a bit, then I'll offer her the other boob and it'll be 20-40 mins again. I'll change her nappy, put her down, probably have to pick her up again and settle her, then I notice 2 hours has gone! Is this normal?! I'm wide awake now and absolutely wired for some reason argh! I think I'm over thinking alot of things, I just feel the night wakes take ages, the 4am one usually lasts until 6am 😴

It used to be about 20 minutes once feeding establishes. Change nappy before feeding as it wakes them up, I only gave one side of boob at a time at night and did this lying down with baby in bed so I could snooze while they fed.

That sounds about right in the early days! It will get easier 🙂 I agree with changing the nappy first!

Baby will become much more efficient at feeding, they'll get a lot shorter. Normal for now, my first was like this. Wake ups would sometimes take 2 or 3 hours! Hang in there.

Initially 2 hours, then down to 45 minutes by about week 4/5 and now at 8 weeks she is done in 20/30 minutes. She drained a very full breast in 8 minutes earlier so it really does get much faster!

Change her nappy at the start or between breasts - I do the latter as starting to feed always brings on a poo for us.

Mine is quite windy so taking a while as he needs to be upright for a bit. Don't need to change badly every time though.

*nappy. Typing whilst feeding.

It can vary, mines 4 weeks today. I was thinking on an earlier feed some can be super quick and she settles amazingly quickly after some feeds and others she's making her noises and wriggling round for quite a while.
Definitely have hours of it at times. And then I'm too awake to go back to sleep and just as I doze she's ready to do it all again! It will get easier and quicker.

*waves to @Isonthecase - apart from being up now hope your night isn't too bad!

I change nappy first to wake her up and then feed. Times can really vary to be honest. 1.30am feed today and she was back down for 2pm. Just woke up again for another feed. Last week feeds and settling was taking 2 hours

I also do the nappy change first and just do the one boob once past birth weight. DS is 6 weeks now and we probably average 45 mins from being picked up to being put down and staying down (although when he was smaller we had our share of longer wake ups where he just wouldn’t be put down, he’s a bit better now)

@PopGoesBang hello! Surprised there aren't more of us on here 🤣

We cosleep and I feed lying down so I just have to help her latch on. It does mean I have no idea really how many feeds she has overnight as it's all just a hazy blur! She falls asleep and delatches herself at some point

Thanks all! It seems to be pretty normal then. I ended up crashing out shortly after posting this, all ready for the next wake up!
The only thing with changing the Nappy first, are they not grizzly? I also find straight after a feed she will poo! 😂🙈

Also I really need to practise this feeding lying down, it seems really helpful for people!

It varies really and also depends how much milk they want to drink. My LO was bottle fed and felt like it took her an eternity to finish a bottle, then of course had to burped and held a while after as I didn’t want to lie her down straight after her bottle. I always did a nappy change first as she was sleepy after her bottle so would settle easier than being disturbed again with a change (but of course babies being babies, sometimes she would do a poo after her bottle and need another change!) 😊

I remember with DD she used to be awake for ages after a feed. I asked on another forum if it was okay to just put her back down and go to sleep while she wriggled and grunted to herself, and it was unanimous that it was fine. Now, i may have been lucky that she didn't mind that, but it definitely cut down my awake time!

This is exactly what my daughter does, she's kicking and wiggling and making all sorts of noise! I think it may be wind and gas, but she always seems alot better when I pick her up! But it can go on for an hour sometimes!

@usagimoon 2 hours is about standard for my 1 month old, although it can vary. There are nights where she does a 10 min snack feed then last night she was up, on and off for 6 hours 😬. I would recommend feeding on your side lying down. I put a small rolled up muslin under my breast to help keep my nipple at the right height for her. I often fall asleep like that while feeding and she usually goes to sleep too if that happens. Be careful any cloths you do use can't go in her face if you fall asleep though.

It's really hard isn't it sometimes 😅

Definitely look into feeding lying down. If you’re interested, you can look up safe co-sleeping with the Lullaby Trust.

What you’re describing sounds pretty much like my experience with my first DC. I’d be up with her for 45-90 minutes, 3-4 times a night. Brutal.

With my other two, I needed to be functional during the day so I couldn’t afford to be faffing about for hours during the night.

With my second two DCs, we co-slept and I used to barely wake up for feeds. I might be awake for 10 minutes or so. I would sniff their nappy, get them latched, and then I’d go back to sleep. We wouldn’t change a wet nappy during the night. If it was poopy, my DH would change the baby while I was breastfeeding. He’d slide a change mat under the baby’s bum on our bed. This prevented any crying (important, because my older DCs were light sleepers and the TODDLERS waking up could seriously ruin the night!), and also prevented the baby from getting to wired. We had a night light in our room so that all of this was possible without turning on the light.

We really perfected the approach with DC3, and I can honestly say that there were very few days when I experienced the newborn exhaustion I’d taken for granted with my first. Highly recommend!

In the words of Lionel Ritchie....

All night looong (all night, all night)

😂😂

Thank you all! X

Had another one of those very long nights and absolutely wired again haha!

Ugh I’m so sorry. I know exactly the feeling you’re talking about. You haven’t slept a wink, you feel on top of the world, you could do ANYTHING… but you know the crash is coming… 😬

Seriously, I can’t encourage co-sleeping enough in this situation. Try it for a nap today! Life changing.

20-30m in all I think. They got a bit quicker over time, but also woke more frequently as they got older, so it kind of evened out.