Kind of just came here to vent. I’m 31, a FTM, 8 months postpartum. My baby is EBF except for when she’s at daycare 3x a week while I’m at work and takes a bottle with pumped milk. Recently she’s hit some sort of developmental leap (started crawling/pulling to stand, etc.) and her sleep has regressed. We were getting typically 5 hour stretches and now she’s back to waking every 2-3 hours and the only thing that calms her in the night is nursing. I haven’t bothered with trying to get my husband to bottle feed her at night because it seems it’s more a comfort than a hunger thing. Anyway, I am f***ing tired. I love the bond that we’ve created through our breastfeeding journey, but it is so hard to be her main source of nourishment AND comfort. When she wakes to feed at night I struggle horribly to fall back to sleep afterwards. I’m writing this at 7am and have been awake since 3, finally decided to get up and fold laundry instead of laying there miserable waiting for the next time she’ll wake to feed. I’m so tired I could cry. I want to make it to at least a year (and hopefully beyond) but for my sanity I don’t know how long I can keep up with these night feeds as a working mom who also wants to find enjoyment in both motherhood and other parts of her life. I feel like I’m hanging on by a thread. Thanks for reading this far. Just looking for some commiseration I guess or any advice you may have
@evelynssye Not sure if you already do this but co-sleeping is the only way i can rest. My baby is 9 months and also EBF. I just let her use me as a pacifier as we both sleep.
@dreat Please be super careful with this! I’m a PICU nurse and have actually seen many kiddos come in brain dead because they went with lack of oxygen for too long from being suffocated by moms boob/armpit while cosleeping
@dwytnjme Interesting, do you know if the parents of those children were following the safe sleep 7? I ask because I also work in hospital risk management and many of the cases I see that come through for infant suffocation the parents were either using alcohol/substances, in a bed with blankets (or air mattress… so many of these cases involve air mattresses), or fell asleep on a sofa / chair. I would be curious to know the prevalence of infant suffocation when parents follow the safe sleep 7 guidelines.
@evelynssye Even if you stop breastfeeding you’re still babies main source of comfort and safety. The wakes won’t necessarily stop if you start formula feeding especially if they’re developmental! We survived by sleep training!
@evelynssye My 8 month old is similar. She’s sleep trained but nurses back to sleep. She has given me long stretches in the past but now it’s 3ish hours between wakes. Last night before bed I tried nursing then topping off with a bottle. She slept from 7:30p-2am before asking for boob! She only took two extra ounces before bed but maybe that’s all she needed.
Could be a fluke but I read the idea from an old thread here and it worked the first night. Maybe give it a try if you can? I’ll be pumping after her bedtime from now on just to get a few ounces for the next nights bottle.
@evelynssye You don't need to quit breastfeeding to cut down on night feeds. You and your husband can find other ways to comfort your baby back to sleep -- it might just take a bit of practice and a transition process.
Thanks all, just to clarify, she is already sleep trained (or was…) but wakes to feed usually once per night, but recently it’s been many times and nothing will settle her without the boob, she just cries and cries
