Middle of the night feedings...

[piper84]

I have another baby-related question!

What is your routine when the baby wakes you up during the night? My 2-month old will sudden start screaming bloody murder. Since I'm formula-feeding only, I'm always torn with running downstairs to make a bottle first or go soothe him (but then bringing him downstairs with me will sometimes wake him up).

Do you change your baby's diaper during the night? Also, do you burp your baby like you typically do? Often times he'll fall asleep on the bottle but when I go to burp him, it will wake him up.

Lastly, do you put your baby back in the crib (or co-sleeper, etc.) while he/she is still awake or do you wait until baby is asleep?

THANKS!

[jinnifah]

What is your routine when the baby wakes you up during the night? I usually try comforting him first - sometimes it just takes some patting and shushing to settle him back down. But I also know he's perfectly capable of sttn so he's not necessarily hungry. If I end up nursing its more to soothe him than nourish him

Do you change your baby's diaper during the night? I did when he still took 2 boobs - I'd change him in between since I knew the 2nd boob would knock him out. Recently he only wants one so I don't change him unless I know he's pooed

Also, do you burp your baby like you typically do? No. I pick him up and hold him upright for a bit to see if he burps (he's a really good bumper). Might rub his back. But I generally avoid anything that might wake him. If I'm nursing in bed I just leave him where he lies.

Lastly, do you put your baby back in the crib (or co-sleeper, etc.) while he/she is still awake or do you wait until baby is asleep? It depends. If it's the middle if the night and he's still obviously sleepy, I put him in the crib awake. He'babble and squirm for a bit then fall asleep within 2-3 mins.
If it's later in the morning though (say after 5) I'll make sure he's asleep before laying him down because his continued drowsiness is uncertain.

[Deleted]

I got the bottle first- figured less commotion to bother ds with so he could focus on eating, then sleeping. I stopped changing around 3 weeks when motn poops were over. I burped him. He would burp, yawn & then fall asleep. So cute. I would put him down when he was like 90 percent asleep. I also never undid his dwaddle overnight.

[bunch]

So I was about to type up what I did but I realize I don't remember. I know I didn't change the diaper unless it was pooped in. I'm pretty sure she was still awake when I put her in the crib. I always jumped up and fed her, but she only ever woke once or twice a night so I know she was hungry. Hmm.

[drloretta]

We put a small fridge and a bottle warmer in DD's room. I would change her while her bottle was warming, then I'd feed her, if memory serves.

I always burped her after a feeding, and i put her back in the crib however she was. I don't remember her being awake or asleep. She was super easy either way.

[karinothing]

When DS was little (and even now) I pretty much always nurse him just because I am too lazy to deal with trying to comfort him w/out the boob.

I stopped changing diapers when he stopped pooping over night. DS is a very easy burper. I usually just changed position from nursing to holding him and he burped.

When he was itty bitty I had to make sure he was asleep before I put him in the crib. At about 6 months I was able to put him down awake.

[pugz]

We do both breast and bottle. We still struggle with sleepiness so we do a lot of things to keep her awake while eating. I get up with her and take her jammies off and change her diaper first thing, which ensures she's really awake enough to eat. Then I BF her about 10 min per side, less if she pops off because there's not enough there for her :\ . Then I wake up dh, hand her to him, and go downstairs to get her bottle. We make our bottles up the night before and keep them in the fridge. She takes them cold. We always do cold or room temp and have never heated the bottles so she doesn't have a preference.

She currently takes about 3 oz, we burp after every oz or 1.5oz and the last burp is most important because she will puke up the whole bottle if she doesn't burp at the end. Sometimes she is falling asleep and we are pounding on her back, but we gotta do it to get that burp!

Once she's done with the bottle/ burping we change the diaper again. Sometimes we have to change her diaper before the last oz if she's falling asleep at that point already, then we don't change again after. Put her back in her jammies and re-swaddle her. Then we rock her back to sleep using the white noise machine and her paci and she falls asleep pretty quick, less than 10 min usually if she's already sleepy, sometimes longer if she's wide awake. Whole routine usually takes 60-90 minutes from start to finish, but we typically only have to do it once in the middle night, and then again between 5-6am, but I usually get up and do the whole routine myself at that point and eat breakfast, then take a nap while she naps.

[bunch]

Sept 15, 2012 20:03:02 GMT -5 pugz said:

We do both breast and bottle. We still struggle with sleepiness so we do a lot of things to keep her awake while eating. I get up with her and take her jammies off and change her diaper first thing, which ensures she's really awake enough to eat. Then I BF her about 10 min per side, less if she pops off because there's not enough there for her :\ . Then I wake up dh, hand her to him, and go downstairs to get her bottle. We make our bottles up the night before and keep them in the fridge. She takes them cold. We always do cold or room temp and have never heated the bottles so she doesn't have a preference.

She currently takes about 3 oz, we burp after every oz or 1.5oz and the last burp is most important because she will puke up the whole bottle if she doesn't burp at the end. Sometimes she is falling asleep and we are pounding on her back, but we gotta do it to get that burp!

Once she's done with the bottle/ burping we change the diaper again. Sometimes we have to change her diaper before the last oz if she's falling asleep at that point already, then we don't change again after. Put her back in her jammies and re-swaddle her. Then we rock her back to sleep using the white noise machine and her paci and she falls asleep pretty quick, less than 10 min usually if she's already sleepy, sometimes longer if she's wide awake. Whole routine usually takes 60-90 minutes from start to finish, but we typically only have to do it once in the middle night, and then again between 5-6am, but I usually get up and do the whole routine myself at that point and eat breakfast, then take a nap while she naps.

. Big hug to you. It will get easier.

[Ashley&Scott]

I nurse DS every time he wakes up, it's the fastest way to get him back to sleep.

We changing at every waking around 8 weeks, when he was no longer pooping overnight.

We cosleep so I'm no help about laying back in the crib.

[piper84]

You all are great! Thanks so much for the replies. Very good info... I will need to try some of these things, especially keeping the water and formula powder upstairs.

[vanillacourage]

We prepare a bottle with water only, then put the right measure of formula in a shot glass and put both on the bedside table. At 3am it's easy to throw the shot glass in the water and shake to mix.

DS2 is old enough (5 months) that we don't really have to burp him. We only change him when he's really wet. God willing one day soon he'll legit STTN right through a wet diaper.

[Deleted]

If DD wakes, I change her diaper then nurse and burp her. I usually have to rock her for a bit after that. Sometimes DH will give her a pumped bottle instead.

[galaxy8227]

When DS would wake up at night (started STTN at 5 months) I would change his diaper each time (didn't always go back to sleep with a wet diaper) but I would make the bottle before I went in to get him. He didn't start going down drowsy but awake until 7 months--he needed to be rocked to sleep and we put him down asleep. We did always burp him as well, otherwise his stomach would wake him back up

[Deleted]

Sept 15, 2012 20:03:02 GMT -5 pugz said:

We do both breast and bottle. We still struggle with sleepiness so we do a lot of things to keep her awake while eating. I get up with her and take her jammies off and change her diaper first thing, which ensures she's really awake enough to eat. Then I BF her about 10 min per side, less if she pops off because there's not enough there for her :\ . Then I wake up dh, hand her to him, and go downstairs to get her bottle. We make our bottles up the night before and keep them in the fridge. She takes them cold. We always do cold or room temp and have never heated the bottles so she doesn't have a preference.

She currently takes about 3 oz, we burp after every oz or 1.5oz and the last burp is most important because she will puke up the whole bottle if she doesn't burp at the end. Sometimes she is falling asleep and we are pounding on her back, but we gotta do it to get that burp!

Once she's done with the bottle/ burping we change the diaper again. Sometimes we have to change her diaper before the last oz if she's falling asleep at that point already, then we don't change again after. Put her back in her jammies and re-swaddle her. Then we rock her back to sleep using the white noise machine and her paci and she falls asleep pretty quick, less than 10 min usually if she's already sleepy, sometimes longer if she's wide awake. Whole routine usually takes 60-90 minutes from start to finish, but we typically only have to do it once in the middle night, and then again between 5-6am, but I usually get up and do the whole routine myself at that point and eat breakfast, then take a nap while she naps.

Kudos to you...I was exhausted just reading this!

[Deleted]

I am BF so a little different (and my DD is only 11 days old so everything is very much trial and error)...

I started out changing her diaper first because she falls asleep on the boob and I wanted to get her situated so that I could burp/rock her and put her down. But she was getting so angry since I guess she was starving and by the time I got her diaper changed she couldn't settle herself enough to start nursing. It made the process so much longer.

So now I just start nursing right away and then halfway through (usually the first time she starts to doze) I will change her diaper and finish nursing her. This seems to be working better.

She soaks her diapers and is still pooping through the night so I will change her until she at least stops pooping. Then I will change based on how full her diaper is.

She is not a great burper, but I do pat her back and rock/sway her simultaneously to at least get things moving. I am usually able to get a burp out of her half-way through.

I am not brave enough to put her down while still awake yet (at least not at night)...but usually she is pretty drowsy and will fall asleep relatively quickly. I do make sure to keep the room dark and not interact with her, other than to wake her so she keeps eating. The whole process so far takes me about an hour.

DH wakes up everytime I come back to bed and mumbles something like "are you done already?" and I want to smack him, haha. I've been really lucky to get decent stretches of sleep so far, though.

I think PP's suggestion of having the formula ready to go in his room is a great idea!

[Deleted]

I try really hard not to talk to DS or make eye contact with him when he wakes up at night - I just nurse him, change him (if necessary) and put him back down. I put him back to bed right away even if he's wide awake and he *normally* will fall back asleep within about 5 minutes.

lately (he's teething) he sometimes will cry when I put him back down, in which case I have to do a bit of soothing before I put him down.

I have found that having a 'routine' seems to help him at night - I think he knows after he eats and gets changed in the middle of the night its back to bed, not playtime!

[hannamaren]

For L, I would go to the kitchen first to grab a bottle, but our kitchen is four feet away. I also pee first if I think I have to.
I would usualy change her first and then feed her. then she would fall asleep and I would put her down awake.

Now, I only feed her at 5am to stretch her wake up. I have to change her diaper or she often pees right through and wakes up earlier. I give her a bit of milk, change her with the bottle in her mouth and then give her a bit more. She goes down awake. Has been since about 6-7 mths. Should have probably started that earlier but I was lazy.

[mrs07]

Definitely sooth first.

I always comfort myself with the thought that if nothing else, if the baby is in pain that I can't make better or I don't know what's wrong, I am still able to comfort and love on the baby so he knows he's not alone.

Def burp, baby will get used to the drill. As gently as possible, but I kwym.