Nothing shocked me more as a new mom than nights. I pictured sweetly breastfeeding at night maybe once and then laying my baby back down for a blissful sleep. That didn’t happen. My son woke every two to three hours. I pulled out my phone and searched: “When do breastfed babies sleep through the night?”. Everyone’s opinions differed. I wish I had some of these tips during my son’s first few months.
I am so excited to welcome my sister-in-law, Melissa, with her coping skills for breastfeeding at night. Melissa is a first-time mom. Her son (my nephew!) was born in October 2015.
“My newborn wants to nurse all night!” is all I could think as a new mom. These breastfeeding at night tips helped save my sanity at nighttime. If you have a baby, you need these!
Nothing prepared me for the nights as a new mom.
As we valiantly commit to providing the best nourishment for our little ones, moms nursing newborns also commit to 24-hour days and 10-12 hour “night shifts” that can leave us not only sleep deprived, but within millimeters of our sanity. By the third week of my son’s life, “bedtime” began to haunt me as I dreaded the impending and potentially dark, desperate, and lonely night ahead.
At my local breastfeeding support group, I asked the gathered twenty or so moms if anyone else had experienced night anxiety and how they coped. I discovered I was nowhere near alone – almost every mom had experienced this unique brand of night terror. Each one had unique ways to keep it at bay.
Because your brain can be a little fuzzy late at night, we’ve created a list you can keep by you during those late sessions. Get this now and then read on.
Here are the ways these amazing mamas not only survived the night, but took it back. These transformed the ways I perceived nocturnal nursing sessions and helped me reclaim my sanity.
Ask for help
Easier said than done, I know. As mamas, it is empowering to feel that we know best when it comes to our children. The reality is that we cannot do it all, and we cannot do it alone.
I spent the first 4 weeks of my son’s life trying desperately to get my husband a full night of sleep so that one of us could be sane and clear-headed during the day. In the end, I realized that no one was going to benefit from an insane and empty-headed mama.
When my husband started giving our son a bottle at one feeding per night, the resulting sleep transformed my experience of motherhood.
Of course, not every mama has a partner to help and not every baby can take a bottle. I have nursing friends whose mothers, sisters, and friends help for day-time naps. I also know many moms whose partners bring the baby to their wife in bed at night so she can do side-lying nursing and be up for a much shorter stretch.