Sleep-nursing A LOT!

VBkaitlin

My 3-month old sleeps with me at night.  This has been working for us for many reasons, including that we both get a lot more sleep and he's a lot happier during the day.  He has now gotten so used to sleep-nursing that I think he's eating a lot more overnight and not eating as much during the day.   He only eats for very short periods during the day. It also seems like he naps more during the day so he might not be sleeping deeply enough at night.  How normal is it for a baby to get a lot of his feeding done overnight, and should I be worried about what this means for the future?  

thehotheartline

DD still does this. I was would worried when I read that she should be eating 7 times a day still, but she was eating about four. When I asked her ped. about it he mentioned night nursing. He said that the frequent eating in the day is only for babies that STTN. Made me feel way better, LOL.

Birdies08

My LO was like that at 3 months. Then she went through the 4 month sleep upheaval time and started sleeping longer stretches without nursing and settling herself (sometimes- definitely not every time). I made sure she was eating plenty throughout the day, which, IIRC, at that time seemed like constantly eating! She was also napping all the time and I'm sure she got good sleep at night, so I don't think that's a cause for concern

Now she nurses down but rarely needs to nurse overnight. Sometimes, if I worked the day before- she doesn't take much milk while I'm gone. It happened really organically for us. The only thing I remember being an effort on my part was to break my habit of latching her on every time she stirred at night. Around the 4 month point, I realized nursing was waking her up more and she could settle herself (again, not every time) if I gave her a moment. 

orange_roses

DD did this. Our nanny told us how she slept all day and barely ate. Then, at night she nursed the entire time and rolled or crawled around. It is normal for babies to do this - especially if you are away during the day. Now, DD is well adjusted and sleeps at night (from about 2 years to now at 5 years)