What do you do to keep awake whilst breastfeeding at night?

[justamumnow]

I've now got a 4 week old baby who I breastfeed...I need to look at something on my phone to keep me awake in the wee hours but I'm not on social and the news is so miserable. What do other people do to stay awake whilst breastfeeding at night? Breastfeeding now and little cherub is staring wide eyed back at me...

I didn't. I coslept and fed lying down. All my night feeds were pretty much done in my sleep.

When they were older and in their own cot I just sat in my feeding chair with my eyes closed until they were done. The last thing I wanted was to wake myself up more.

When mine was tiny, I'd sit in bed scrolling on my phone (on dark mode), usually having a cereal bar and a massive drink. Realistically though I was that exhausted I could of fed him having a jog and still fallen asleep instantly after.

He's 2 now though, so any phone/interaction/snacks wake him up properly. Now I cuddle into him either in bed or our chair and just dose, he only feeds for 10/15 mins tops now so it's not so bad. We also listen to white noise together which really helps us both sleep.

I used to sleep. By number three I fed in bed and slept , albeit lightly.

I remember these days well.

I bought myself a tablet and watched Netflix with the volume low.

Scrolling mumsnet and listening to audio books are my go to (keep volume lowish and mine never seems to notice)

Safely coslept and made a point of not getting my phone out so I could go back to sleep easily if disturbed. Feed on side and enjoy the extra zzzs.

It's been a while, but I didn't do anything to stay awake. Barely opened my eyes, and certainly didn't turn any lights on. When she was a bit older I coslept, so would roll over, shove a tit in her face and go back to sleep.

My baby is 12 weeks and feeds once to wice at night.I would normally watch Facebook reels/video's to keep me awake

I didn't used to try and stay awake. I used to feed mine lying down in bed in the facing each other position in a safe sleep environment and then we would both fall asleep feeding. I would be awoken by them latching again when they needed another feed. It was such a special time.

Netflix! I got through Schitts Creek and Working Moms in those early days - good times!

That's when I got into reading fanfic. It's all free, online, easy to get into because there's no concentration involved (you already know the characters etc).

AO3 (archive of our own) and fanfiction.net

Books! It was the only time I actually had the motivation or focus to read

I last breast fed in 1992, but I think I mostly dozed as best I could.