BFing at night

ProwdMommy

My boys are 4 weeks old now and are stil perfecting BF so it still takes about 30-45 minutes for them to nurse.  I have been tandem feeding, which is working fine, but at night they are falling asleep at the breast and it ends up taking over an hour to get them fed.  Last night I just caved and gave them bottles for two of their feedings because they don't fall asleep with bottles and I can finish easier and get back to sleep myself. I don't really want to continue with this because I am worried about my supply tanking at night.  Just wondering  what others do at night.  I know that has they become more efficient at BF that this will not take as long but I want to know I should do in the meantime. 

heatheric71505

We went through this too.  We started by undressing them before nursing.  Then my husband was on sleepy baby patrol.  If one started to fall asleep, he would try and wake them back up by rubing their back, feet, etc.  If that didn't work he would burp and change them to wake them up and I would keep nursing the other baby.  Hopefully this stage will be short lived. 

ProwdMommy

we do change their diapers to wake them up but I have not thought of undressing them.  I may try that tonight. Thanks.

jalaiaa

Yeah, I used to have DH wake the sleepy one up. The first few months were awful like that. But then it got easier. Right around 6 weeks we started letting "the other one" sleep instead of waking him to nurse. Then DH would give a bottle of pumped milk. When I nursed one I would pump at the same time to keep my supply up and have something to feed whoever DH was giving a bottle. 

BeccaLandes

My husband I would both get up, and both give a baby a bottle.  While I bottle-fed, I would pump (usually pumping out about as much as they were eating), and we got the whole process down to about 30 minutes and could hop back in bed.  

Asher became a much better nurser, so around 2 months I would nurse Asher and pump, and when Benjamin woke up my husband would give him a bottle.  Asher would only nurse for 5 minutes, and so the whole process would take me about 15-20 minutes. 

monkski

I remember those days! Luckily they are short lived. We turned on all the lights and the TV (which helped keep me up too - and entertained :-)  undressed and changed diapers. Sometimes a cold wash cloth on their forehead and neck (it was August though too and really hot). I'd also blow on their faces. We had to constantly be doing one of these things though because they would just fall right back to sleep. GL!