Need advice for nighttime BF
DD is a slow eater--usually 1 hr per breast and tends to fall asleep. Since birth, we've had latching problems and "power struggles" in which she fights to stay on the tip of my nipple only and then can't settle down for a good 20-30 min. afterwards. Since this was a time consuming process during the day, I pump and give her bottled breast milk at night. Now at 4 weeks, she latches fine and I'm ready to try breast feeding her overnight.
What do you typically do for these late night feedings in order for your little one to go back to sleep? I have to constantly correct her latch and I can't see a darn thing with her nightlight. I know if I turn on the light, she wakes up and stays up. **This happened last night--she was up from midnight until 2:30am. This may seem like a silly question, but I've had such a hard time with latching and milk supply, I just don't want to screw up our progress so far. Thanks!
Re: Need advice for nighttime BF
Maybe if you move the night light to a better plug where it lights up more of the room? Or take the cover off so it's just bare bulb? Ours doesn't have a cover because DD who is almost 2 has hidden it somewhere so it's pretty bright. My first suggestion is to change her diaper first to make sure she is nice & awake for the feeding, also making sure if she falls asleep on the breast you don't have to wake her back up after the feeding. Second suggestion is to have some kind of noise maker in the room such as a radio going at all times or a fan all night, that way she doesn't hear you exiting (such as gathering boppy, dirty diaper, maybe tripping over something, or opening/closing diaper genie or door etc) since a noise like that could potentially startle her back awake. Then just my input on the night light so you don't have an overhead light on to wake her up too much.
We have a big box fan that is pretty loud that stays on all night, as well as an uncovered night light. When DS wakes up I immediately unswaddle him, change his diaper then sit on the bed with boppy to feed him in the dark. After he is done he's usually pretty sleepy & I immediately reswaddle him & lay him back in bassinet, then throw away diaper in bathroom & get back in bed. Very seldom does he stay awake at night, but when he does I also have the swing in our room so I just move him from bassinet to swing & get back in bed. That usually puts him back asleep pretty much immediately. The first couple weeks we had issue with him staying up after his 3 or 4am feeding, so I guess you could say his days & nights were mixed up. But I found that having very little interaction at night (don't make eye contact & try not to talk to him) makes it MUCH easier for him to fall back asleep & he stays awake more in the day. Hope that helps! Good Luck!
We have a standing lamp and based on some recommendations I read in a baby book somewhere, we put a red light in it. It is supposedly less disturbing than a blue or yellow light. It's also a three position touch lamp so that I touch it once for the lowest setting. Until recently, LO just fell back asleep but now it's better if I leave it off at night. Since he's a lot older than yours, I'm not needing to correct his latch or position him anymore. I stopped using the light ~1 mo ago. BTW, LO was also a slow eater for a long time, 30 min per side and took both sides until ~4mo old.
We also switched the overhead light out to a dimmer switch but that was too bright for the middle of the night.
We have this nightlight https://www.amazon.com/Mobi-70185-MOBI-Tykelight-GloMate/dp/B005LIEMV4/ref=pd_sim_ba_3
It is awesome because it has a choice of 4 different colors (blue, red, green and bright blue) and you can move it anywhere you want in the house (it's cordless and has a charger). The red and blue lights are really dim but bright enough to see what you are doing. We put it on the blue setting and put it behind our bedside lamp and it never wakes DD up. They are like $15 at WalMart. Another suggestion, can you turn a nightlight on in another room so that you have a flood of light coming from somewhere, but not directly in the room you are nursing in?