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Old July 23rd 07, 05:47 PM posted to misc.kids.breastfeeding
Larry Mcmahan
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Posts: 143
Default Tips to decrease nighttime nursing?

Hi,

First let me say that you are doing an outstanding job raising your
daughter. Second I want to each another poster that at 5 weeks this
sounds like absolutely normal behavior. If I do my math right, she
will be about 9 weeks at the beginning of September. That's almost
twice as old! :-) A lot happens in 9 weeks. You will find that
her stomach will grow and her nursing sessions will spread out a
little. Second, as another poster asked about, you are not clear
about how you feed her at night. Do you sit up? Do you stay awake?
With a couple weeks of practice you should be able to simply lie
face to face with her, latch her on, and go back to sleep while she
nurses. We found that with a little practice, this works quite
well.

Good luck,
Larry


In article om,
says...
Breastfeeding is going well. My 5 wk. old daughter is 11 lb. 4 oz.
We've managed to stave off some problems before they started (e.g.
thrush and sore nipples). Now that I'm feeling confident with that,
I'm ready to start thinking about getting more sleep. However, I of
course don't want to compromise my daughter's health or our chances
for extended breastfeeding down the road. I go back to school full
time in September and will need more sleep at that point. I'm
preparing for the transition now.

The current pattern is as follows. DD eats most efficiently at night.
We "put" her "down" (i.e. swaddle and rock her) at 7 p.m. She's
usually in a deep sleep by 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. She rouses lightly (not
fully awake) around 9 or 10 p.m., during the 11-12 o'clock hour,
during the 3-4 o'clock hour, the 5-6 o'clock hour, and then again
around 8 a.m. At this point she's pretty wet so I change her (we use
cloth diapers but that's another story) and she awakens. I feed her at
each of these intervals. The feedings are quick (15-20 minutes) and
very efficient - excellent latch, excellent pump, no slurping, no
smacking, just soft happy moans. She actually never really wakes up -
just makes enough "hungry" noises to awaken me at which point I pick
her up and put her to the breast. Daytime is a different story ... she
nurses about every 2 hours but is not nearly as efficient (unless
she's tired). She often pops of the breast, looks around, etc. And
often, during the day, she just wants to suck (no milk) so drinks a
little then protests until she can suck on my finger.

So, how do I begin to change this pattern? I LOVE that she sleeps but
would love it even more if I could share it.

My first inclination is to revamp the daytime nursing environment.
Usually we nurse in the living room where people are coming in and out
(DH is a student who works at home), the radio is on, and/or I'm
chatting with my mother-in-law or on the phone, etc. DH has really
started noticing her environment in the last week and I notice that
she pops of the breast to "look around". I'm thinking of setting up my
nursing station in the bedroom and investing in some sort of blanket
or nursing shawl.

In addition, I've also thought about introducing the swing (i.e. the
Karp method) BUT I'd much prefer if DH led the way on this one ...

Any suggestions?

Bottom line concern: now that she's gone through her first "growth
spurt", DD seems to be weaning her (or me?) off of daytime feedings -
they are more social events (relative to nighttime). In light of this,
is switching her clock around impossible now? As I said, ironically,
she sleeps through the night - because I feed her before she fully
awakens.

Finally, in part because we've had a grandma here for the past 6
weeks, DH is worn, held, or rocked nearly all day (basically the only
time she's out of someone's arms is when she wants to be on the floor
or sit in her bouncing chair so that she can get an unobstructed view
of the room). We bed share at night and she sleeps in a special co-
sleeping sleep positioner. I'm thrilled that my daughter doesn't know
a world where she's not held all the time and clearly at night she
doesn't feel the need to "comfort nurse", which is great (she makes up
for during the day). BUT DH and I are going to get busier in September
and she'll be doing more sitting and sleeping alone during the day.
(We aren't doing daycare - but rather will be taking turns working at
home.) I want to get this nighttime sleeping vs. daytime eating
routine established so, in the event that she doesn't feel like she's
getting adequate parent time during the day come September, nighttime
won't because eating PLUS social time. I hope that makes sense ...

Your suggestions are appreciated.