Breastfed baby night feeding - experience wanted!

[linka81]

@imystery Wow, go you for nursing twins for a year! That’s very impressive. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[imystery]

@linka81 Thank you! As others have said, I think night nursing was much more for comfort for a long time. I was fine with it. I got mastitis at around 9 months and my supply took a hit, but they didn’t seem to mind. It was similarly gentle when they weaned. I was nervous but it was almost like they knew there wasn’t more milk so they stopped waking us up.

 

[katrina2017]

@linka81 Twice a night except when sick or teething, in which case it could be all night until they are better. We have his crib sidecarted to our bed.

 

[alwayspondering]

@linka81 Baby is 11 months, I bed share and feed to sleep. On good days, he will wake up three times between within his 11-12 hour night sleep. On days where he’s teething or going through a leap, he might feed every hour or more. He is not that interested in solids, but we do serve 3 meals a deal

 

[solid_rock_ministries]

@linka81 I have 16mo, and we started night weaning when she was 15mo.Dad took all the night wakeup and offered her water. Yes she cried, but it soon got better and she knows the drill. We took it slow and gradual, she would nurse every 1.5- 2 hours. So first week I stayed in other room till 11 pm, as she nurses at 10 pm. So after a week she got used to having water at 10pm and going back to sleep. Then I stayed in other room till 12 am, so by then any wakeup till 12 am she will get snuggle from dad and drinks water. Now we have reached till 4 am. Target to reach till 6 am.

 

[skittles78]

@linka81 My baby is almost 7 months and is currently down with a mild cold on top of teething. He’s been waking up every hour to nurse right now, poor thing I have a little cosleeper for him that I use so it’s not hard to feed him, but obviously it’s exhausting

Normally when he’s feeling well, he only wakes 2 or three tips a night for a quick feeding and it’s pretty obvious to me that he’s probably just thirsty. I get thirsty at night too so I don’t mind it. I take magnesium and don’t have any issues falling back to sleep after

 

[syncakes]

@linka81 9.5 months here. I nurse him to sleep around 7:30, lay him on his crib in his own room, then we have 1 of 2 kinds of nights.

1) he wakes up at ~11pm for a nursing session. I put him back in the crib and he sleeps until ~4am. At that point, I'll bring him into my bed, where he nurses back to sleep and sleeps till ~7am.

2) he wakes up at ~3am and I go ahead and bring him into bed.

Either way, I can tell when I pick him up from the crib what kind of feed it'll be. He's either sleepy enough to go back into the crib, or he's restless and I know he'll only go to sleep in my bed. Sometimes that means he comes into bed at 11pm, and sometimes it means he stays in his crib until ~7am.

 

[knoff]

@linka81 8mo, used to spend the first half of the night in their own bed and finish in bed with us but currently in with us from the start. EBF until solids at 6 mo, now we’re up to 3 meals a day alongside BM. Typically only 1 motn feed around 5/5:30, it’s been this way for about 1.5 months.

 

[dak]

@linka81 My first would wake up ever 2-3 hours I think, but it's been a while and I'm not too sure. Since we bedshared it wasn't a problem for me and I barley woke up. I weaned her at 16 months since she slept much better without nursing to sleep and i didn't want to mess it up by nursing at night either. She got a waterbottle at that point.

My second has had the same schedule for a few months now (he's almost 11 months): one nursing sessions around the time I get to bed (11 pm), one in the middle of the night (3-4 am) and a lot of nursing back to sleep in the morning, since I don't want to get up that early (5-7 am). So on good nights that end early we wakes me once. Currently the times are changing a bit and his first stretch once I come to bed gets a bit longer. We stopped nursing to sleep and he's getting good at falling back asleep on his own. I feel like he'd maybe start sleeping through the night if I cared to put him in his own bed. But maybe it would make everything worse. Who knows

 

[circe]

@linka81 My little guy will be 8 months on Thursday and until recently was up about every 2 hours. He recently started sleeping through his 1am wakeup so now we get a good stretch between 10 or 11pm and 3am. When he does wake up he usually just has a little snack and is back in the crib within 10 minutes. We room share. He also goes back to sleep after his 5am wakeup and usually sleeps until 7 or 8.

 

[katrina2017]

@linka81 I nursed my first for 13 months (roomsharing all 13 months). By 6 months we were down to one middle of the night feed, which she self dropped by 9 months. We got lucky though - I had fully intended to keep night feeds until at least 12 months (when I knew I’d start the weaning process for personal reasons). I did switch to rocking her to sleep around 6 months for
the start of the night, as she was taking 2 hours to nurse at the start of the night, and I needed that time back. I also had my husband handle false starts/wakes within the first hour or two after going to bed, which helped her get to that one feed on her own.

To protect my supply I did a pump before bed once she dropped all feeds.

 

[arizonachristian]

@linka81 LO is 17 months, we bedshare (since he was 4 months old).
Sometimes he will sleep 4 hour stretches, but mostly 2-3 hours. He doesn't really feed anymore at night, just suckles for a minute and then continues sleeping.