Bed Breast

I think I have just done something slightly insane...

But it worked...

For now.

My husband is away tonight so I am flying solo with the bed time routine and night wakings.  Tonight, the little man fed until 19:20 was asleep in my arms but then woke.  I couldn't get him back off just by holding him so I sat him on my lap and rocked a bit, telling him stories and singing him his favourite song, Moonshadow by Cat Stevens.  Eventually he nodded off and stayed asleep in his cot for three hours.

I got him out of his cot to feed him and he fed to sleep.  Unfortunately in moving him to put him back into his cot he keep waking.  I didn't want to keep feeding him continuously as he would overfeed and be sick.  So at the last attempt to put him in his cot, his eyes wide open, I did something slightly crazy.  I leant over the cot with my boob hanging down and gave him a quick few sucks, which did the trick to get him sleepy again.  He released so I pulled away slightly.  Then he tossed and turned from side to side a few times and went to sleep... ten minutes later and he is still asleep.  I wonder whether he will stay this way for another three plus hours or whether I am going to have a crying baby in 20 minutes or so?

Will report back in the morning as to whether this madness has worked.

Well I wanted him to fall asleep in his cot, didn't I??


4th Jan 2016 - He did fall back asleep for another three hours but that insane moment was a one off! I have since found a much better method for getting my son to sleep in his cot!

Night nurse

Sleep deprivation creates a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to managing babies.  I am so tired that I will do anything for an easy life.  So in the middle of the night, it is much easier to pick up to nurse than it is to think about what else could settle him.  What is even easier, is to nurse him in bed with me so I can fall straight back to sleep.  The result?  My baby is more often sleeping in with us than he is in his own cot.

Now on the one hand, this isn't a problem because it is a sure fire way of me getting more sleep across the night.

On the other hand, I have to question whether I want to set this up as a habit.

In all honesty, I am in two minds.

In order to actually try other ways of settling our baby, we have to be more compus-mentus in the middle of the night.

A lovely breast-feeding advisor recommended to me that I only feed our little man when I am sure he is hungry and that at other times, my husband should take him out of the room and rock him back to sleep, away from me so he can't smell my milk.  She warned me that it may take a few weeks before we notice a difference.

So because it is the weekend tomorrow, we are going to give it a crack.  Let's see what happens.