Pinky McKay
Your newborn doesn’t know day from night; tiny tummies don’t hold enough milk for your baby to sleep through the night yet; and night time breastfeeds are important to maintain your milk supply – your prolactin (milk making hormone) levels are highest at night so these feeds are boosting your breast milk.
Individual women have varying milk storage capacities, and although this doesn’t mean you have a low milk supply it can influence how frequently your baby may need to feed. Then there are growth spurts when babies will have an increased appetite so they step up feeds, day and night for a few days. And, if your baby has been exposed to any bugs, your little one will increase breastfeeds to boost their immunity, so this can mean a few extra night feeds.
Simply knowing night feeds are a fact of life right now, doesn’t mean you won’t be hanging out for uninterrupted sleep as soon as possible. The thing is, it’s perfectly normal for your your baby to need night feeds through his first year of life and possibly even longer. Thankfully though, there are some tips that can help you get more rest and make night-time breastfeeds much easier.
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Keep the lights dim
Keeping the lights dim will help you and your baby stay in ‘snooze mode’ rather than ‘wide awake’ – and harder to get back to sleep. In the early days you will most likely need some light to see that baby is latching well and he will probably need a nappy change too. Pop a dim bulb in your bedside lamp or use a dimmer on your light switch and if your baby needs a nappy change, do this half way through his feed then nurse him back to sleep – your breast milk has lovely ‘night time’ hormones that will encourage drowsiness and a quick return to sleep. As you become more experienced at breastfeeding, you may be able to avoid switching lights on at all, just snuggle up together and enjoy a quiet feed in the moonlight.
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Keep baby close to you
Safe sleeping guidelines advise sleeping with baby near you to reduce the risks of SIDs. Keeping your baby close makes night feeds easier too, as you arouse at your baby’s early hunger signals, rather than waking fully to fetch your crying baby from another room and having to settle him before you can offer a feed. An upset baby may have difficulty latching at the breast and his sucking is likely to be disorganised, so he may not take a good feed so will wake again sooner for another feed, meaning less rest for you.
The key points to remember for safe sleep include: stay smoke-free (during pregnancy too); avoid alcohol, drugs or medications that can reduce your awareness of baby; don’t share sleep with your baby on sofas, upholstered chairs or recliners; keep your healthy baby lightly dressed, on his back, and near you for sleep. And, keep breastfeeding.
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Learn to feed lying down
One way to ensure more rest during night feeds is to feed lying down (see the Red Nose safe sleep guidelines for bed sharing, so you are prepared in case you doze as you feed). Lie on your side and experiment with pillows and positions (you may need 2 pillows to support your head), lie baby beside you with his nose level with your nipple, you can support him by cradling baby on your lower arm or you could bend your arm up near your head and use your ‘top’ arm to hold him close. Some mothers lie their baby on a small pillow to give enough height for him to reach the nipple – we all have different sized boobs so one size positioning doesn’t really fit all of us. One mum with larger breasts told me she would lie on her side with a towel under her breast and line baby up next to her nipple, supporting baby with her top arm.
To change sides, roll over and reposition baby or, if your breasts are big enough you can simply lean over a little and offer the ‘top’ breast. To avoid a wet bed from leaking breasts, it can be helpful to place a towel under you too.
You can also try a ‘laid back’ breastfeeding position, propped up on pillows, reclining with your baby on top of you with his tummy against you.
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Set yourself up
Set up a basket or trolley with nappies, wipes, breast pads, a spare onesie (for ‘poo-splosions’) and a towel. Most breastfeeding mums say they feel very hungry during the night, especially in the early weeks. Keep a drink bottle of water on your bedside table and, instead of waking yourself fully to get up and raid the fridge, keep some healthy snacks next to your bed or feeding chair – Boobie Bikkies are a convenient, nourishing snack, they are individually wrapped so stay fresh and you can nibble a cookie with one hand while you feed your baby.
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Don’t watch the clock
Watching the clock as you wake to feed your baby will trigger the crazy spinning voice in your head that does maths all night when you wake to feed your baby – “if I get to sleep right now, I’ll get 2 hours and 45 minutes sleep before she next wakes.”
You are so busy doing the mental arithmetic as the clock clicks over that eventually you are in a total panic because you KNOW your baby will be awake in less than half an hour – so you just lie there frozen, frustrated and angry, waiting for the yell that says, she’s awake!
Relief: I can feed her and get back to sleep – I’ll still get a couple of hours before the sun comes up. Better check the phone to make sure. Oh, I’ll have a quick look at Instagram first – half an hour later…… oh no, the room is getting lighter, I can hear the traffic…. Damn!
Just don’t look at the time! And if you are having difficulty getting back to sleep after a feed, try listening to a podcast or audiobook (keep ear plugs in your feeding basket). This will distract you from anxiety about lack of sleep so you will probably fall asleep and miss the plot (literally) but at least you won’t be missing extra sleep.
Looking for gentle, respectful ways to help your baby (and you) sleep without compromising breastfeeding or the beautiful bond between you and your little one? See Pinky’s book Sleeping Like a Baby (it’s available on Audible too, if you don’t have time to read). You can download the first chapter FREE HERE.
