On Jul 20, 8:16 pm, wrote:
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).

It sounds like you are doing a great job with her.

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.

September is coming up soon for you. For your DD, September is a long
way away. When September arrives, she will be more than twice as old
as she is now. She will naturally go through many changes by then.
From her point of view, it may be a bit soon to prepare for this.


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.

One of the big differences I noticed over time with my babies is that
I got to the point that I, like the baby, could nurse at night
without really waking up. This came sooner with each baby, which was
a good thing since I only could take daytime naps with the first.

If you want to work on sleeping while you nurse, here are a few things
that helped me.

1. Prop baby's back into the right position during feeding.
2. Prop your own back/hip into the right position. I found a bunched
pu comforter behind me worked better for me than pillows.
3. Prop your bottom arm/hand into a comfortable position so your
shoulder doesn't get sore.
4. If your hand gets cold, wrap it in a light baby blanket.

The bigger my baby got, the less I needed to do these things. Even
though it seems like quite a bit, they became automatic for me.

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.


It is likely to change on its own since your baby will be so much
older in September.

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?

All these things sound like they would be likely to make her sleep
more in the daytime. If she is tired and really needs to go down for
a nap, they could be good, though it may be more convenient for you if
she can nap with some activity going on.

If they make her nap more than she needs to in the daytime, then you
may find that nights turn into day for her and she is awake and ready
to play, not just nurse at night.

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).

This seems OK to me. Growth hormones are higher at night. At her
age, it seems normal that she would need more milk at night than in
the daytime. In general, it is good for her to be more social in the
daytime.

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.

I wouldn't do this at her age, but when she is bigger, you could try
waiting to see how much she needs to eat in the night by waiting to
see if she settles herself back to sleep without really waking, or
starts to really wake up. I wouldn't wait until she is upset though,
since that could make it much harder to get her back to sleep.

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.

Keeping daytime the social time seems like the way to go. Right now,
she has that right. As long as you don't increase the daytime sleep
time in order to get more work done then, and make sure she really
does get stimulation and parental interaction when she is awake in the
day (it doesn't take too much to stimulate a small baby) she is likely
to keep night for sleeping.

--Betsy