MOTN routine

mle106

Interested to know what your routine is with your little one when they wake in the middle of the night-- My 3 week old usually wakes up 3 times. We nurse, burp, change his diaper (it's either really wet or poopy), then finish nursing. Sometimes he goes right back down, and sometimes he needs some rocking/movement first. The whole thing can take an hour, which I would love to cut down since it all starts over in another hour or two when he's up again. What's your MOTN routine?

tdegarmo1

My LO typically falls asleep nursing so my routine is: diaper, nurse, zzzzz

Do you BF? Typically BF babies don't need burped like formula babies do. I do burp during the day to help w fussiness but not at night. I don't want to add any stimulation.

ccquick

OP we have the exact same routine. I'd also love to cut it shorter, but I really don't see how .

karissama13

My LO sleeps really well so he doesn't wake up during the night so we wake him up every three hours and change him, reswaddle him, feed him, burp him and put him back in his rock and play and he is out in like 5 min again. It takes about 30-40 min each time. We are pretty lucky.

Dannylion24

Any particular reason why you nurse first (& therefore twice)? My 6 week old doesn't really wake up at night anymore (giant knock on wood), but I usually changed him first then lowered the lights, settled into a rocker, and he'd just take a bottle and pass back out. He's baby#4 for us and that's pretty much always been our nighttime routine.

maryxc1

Nurse one side, diaper, nurse other side. She generally goes right back to sleep. I do the diaper in the middle to wake her back up. If I don't get both sides fed at night, she is back up in 1.5 hours instead of 3.

junebugjam

I change, nurse, rock to sleep. Can take up to an hour but sometimes less if I'm lucky. The longest part for me is making sure he's sound asleep enough to put down or he'll wake right back up.

He's three weeks old and wakes every two hours like clockwork. It's exhausting but I can't get him to sleep longer consistently. Once in awhile he'll go three hours between wake ups, but it's rare.

kbellebelle

I have the same issue OP. She's 3 weeks old and breastfed and usually poops near the end of nursing so I don't waste my time changing at the beginning. Sometimes I need to change her between sides to wake her up too. She always needs a burping or she'll throw up as I'm changing or when she goes back to sleep. The changes usually wake her up too even with just a night light on . I wish I could nurse and put her down, she sleeps so well if I don't disturb her. Our routine is about an hr also, same during the daytime before her naps.

mle106

Last night I tried changing him before nursing and little man was NOT having it. Total grumpy pants. He nurses for so long that the diaper change is a good break and it wakes him up too. He does seem to need burping even though he is EBF - maybe I just won't try so hard for it at night.

Sound like this is just our reality right now and hopefully things will stretch out soon so us mamas can get some more sleep!

smcniff

maryxc1 said:

Nurse one side, diaper, nurse other side. She generally goes right back to sleep. I do the diaper in the middle to wake her back up. If I don't get both sides fed at night, she is back up in 1.5 hours instead of 3.

This exactly. I burp after the first sid,but not the second. Takes around an hour. I feel like it will get shorter as she gets better at nursing.

mommaa1615

She usually wakes up after 3 1/2 hours She usually wants her food asap so I try to avoid all the fuss & warm up the bottle ahead of time. If not/usually at night I start to warm her bottle & then change her & feed her..Depending on her diaper I will change her again & then rock her to sleep. Sometimes this takes up to an hour so hoping I can cut back on that time! I make sure to burp her once every ounce & that made such a huge difference w her gas

LBeez13

OP I also have the same routine and I wish it was quicker but I don't see how it can be.

katiebranz

Similar routine as OP, also takes about an hour.

t8keepr03

With DD and now this little man it's new diaper, make a bottle, feed and get back to sleep. After I make the bottle I turn down the lights and have to burp every ounce or so. DD would fall right back to sleep but this little guy is in party mode. So it's taking us close to 2 hours to go back to bed. We are working on getting him to switch his days and nights around the right way. After he is done with his bottle I swaddle him back up and rock him so he isn't stimulated but he has other ideas. I'm exhausted because I am up with DH and DD at 7 am regardless of what this little guy decides.

babykoz214

Change diaper and reswaddle. Then, nurse. Typically LO only nurses on one side and usually only for 15 minutes or so. I always try to put him down flat in his PNP first after every feeding (he always starts out here initially at about 11:15 pm) but he usually fusses and after a couple minutes I'll move him to the RNP where he sleeps better. If he falls asleep in the PNP that's ideal.

mperez95

For the past 3 weeks I got pretty lucky, I ebf & co-sleep ... We officially go down at 11ish, 12 the latest (she usually goes for her last feed around 10:30, I feed on demand not by the clock).
After we go to bed she only wakes up for one feed around 4-6am:
Diaper
Side-lying position
Quick burp
Back to sleep.
That takes us about 35-40 minutes at most and then she sleeps all the way thru the night up until 10am (still need to work on bringing the wake up and bed time hours back to reasonable times). Throughout the day we get lots of playtime so that she knows it daytime.. However I'm a ftm and have not yet returned to work therefore everyone has different factors affecting their routine, but a big part of our schedule is due to teaching her day from night.

anxiousmommy85

maryxc1 said:

Nurse one side, diaper, nurse other side. She generally goes right back to sleep. I do the diaper in the middle to wake her back up. If I don't get both sides fed at night, she is back up in 1.5 hours instead of 3.

Here too. Works like a charm.

loriann091

Since LO still sleeps in our room, once I hear her fussing around I let her fully wake up before I pick her up to start our routine. Then, I take her in the nursery, flip on lights, nurse, diaper change, nurse, lights off/swaddle, rock back to sleep. Takes about 30 minutes total. She is almost 5 weeks, but she still doesn't nurse for very long (5-10 min a side, tops). She's up about every 2-3 hours, usually.

@dannylion24 @mperez95 how are you gals getting your babes to sleep so well at night?!! I need the secret, lol!

mperez95

@loriann091 lol I keep her up most of the day talking to her, tummy time etc .. One night we went down for what I thought to be a nap and viola, she slept most of the night with me

ColleenS629

When DD wakes up, DH changes her diaper (or I do depending on the time- he does MOTN, I do early morning), then I feed her side lying in bed. She usually needs to burp a few minutes into the feeding because I have a forceful let down. Then she'll finish eating (she only feeds on one breast per feeding), I reswaddle her, and hold her until she's asleep. Then I put her back in the RnP and rock her a little to try to keep her asleep. This can take 20 minutes or it can take an hour depending on how long it takes for her to go back to sleep and stay asleep. 

ETA: If I can get her to stay awake for a really good feeding before bed, we'll go to sleep around 9-10 and she'll sleep til around 2:30 then wake up again between 5:30-6:30. If I can't get her to do a really good feeding before bed, she'll wake up an extra time- usually 11:30ish then 4ish. My big boys wake up around 5:30-6:30 so that's when we are up for the day regardless.

mommaa1615

Okk what is MOTN?! Can't figure it out : ">

katiebranz

Middle of the night. It took me a long time to get it figured out.

Dannylion24

@loriann091 I think little guy just likes to snooze. I do try to keep him the most active before bedtime (tummy time, stories w his older siblings, bath every night even if it's just a rinse so the soap doesn't dry his skin, baby massage), but from the get-go he was sleeping 4-5 hours at a time and now he'll usually go 7-9 hours, eat,and sleep another 2-3 hours. I guess 4th time's the charm! He's also formula fed (nutramigen for skin/allergies). Best of luck! You guys will get there! I remember well the days of sleep deprivation - my 1st didn't sleep through the night till 14 months (& by then I already had another - a 2 month old).