Switching to night shift - worried about bedtime

beyerlm

Hello All. 

I'm in a situation and would love any/all advice you ladies may have. I am doing two weeks of night shift starting on Monday (the 10th) with the last shift on the 19th. I'm not worried about pumping or feeding my little one. What I am worried about is his bedtime and how my husband is going to be able to get the baby to sleep.

Right now, I basically nurse him until he sleeps, put him in the bassinet-type thing by the bed, and about half the time he'll stay asleep; the other half he'll make some noise for a bit and then fall asleep without much fuss. If I don't nurse him, he's inconsolable until I do.  He does wake up 1-2 times to feed during the night. I'm really not sure how my husband will get the baby to fall asleep in the first place. Baby seems to only want me at bedtime and he knows when it's time. I don't want him getting a bottle, especially not a full one since he doesn't stay at the breast for long. 

Any suggestions for how we can get baby to sleep without having to nurse? He is 4 months old and exclusively breastfed. It's only for 12 days, and really only on the nights I'll be working that there is the potential for a problem. 

mrsseguin

I'd have DH do it by himself for a few nights while your home, and not 'rescue' him if he's having trouble.  See how it goes and try to figure something out. 

I work nights, 3 nights a week (random days), 4 nights if I do OT.  DH got himself into a routine on his own that works for him.  We EFF so I don't really have any actual ideas on what to do other than to have him do it on his own and see how it goes.

ASmallWonder

I'm confused. You're working a (presumably) 8 hour shift, plus travel time which spans both his last feeding of the night, as well as his usual night wakings and yet you don't want him to have a bottle. That's not possible. You can't deny him of his needs so he MUST have a bottle.

beyerlm

Thanks for all of your responses!

I hope I wasn't too confusing with my post. I'm working 12 hour shifts at night, just 6 shifts over a 2-week span. And baby is 4 months old, not 11. 

I didn't mean that I would deny him a bottle period. I would rather he didn't get a bottle if all he needs is to fall asleep - which he'll do just fine normally without a bottle. If that's what he really needs, then I'm all for it. Sorry to sound so harsh there!

He seems to be in the middle of that 4-month sleep regression that I keep reading about. So now he only wants to sleep while being held (not something we normally do). I did just that last night because he would NOT let me put him down without screaming. We did that for about 4 hours - fall asleep, set him down, scream, pick up, fall asleep... We'll see how tonight goes.