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New Mom with Q's re: Night Time Feeding

EllaSmellaEllaSmella member
in Breastfeeding

My LO is just over three weeks old.

For the first two weeks, I was sitting up in bed and using the cradle hold for night time feedings. In the last week or so, I've transitions to nursing laying down at night. I love it, but I keep falling asleep during feedings and it's creating two problems:

1]I wake up after he finishes the first side and I can't remember if he's nursed on the other side yet. I think some of the time I end up only nursing on one breast, and then he's up an hour later because he's hungry again. Any tips to help me remember if I've nursed on the other side yet? My sleep deprived brain just isn't working well these days!

2]I'm worried about falling asleep for too long while nursing because LO is on his side with his face smushed in my chest and it makes me nervous! As soon as I wake up, I turn him on his back and ensure there is nothing near his face, but I'm worried about that time after I start nursing to when I wake up (I'm pretty sure LO has been finished nursing for a while before I wake up).

Thanks for your help!

 

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Re: New Mom with Q's re: Night Time Feeding

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    Cass04ebCass04eb
    I never tried BFing while laying down, so I don't have MUCH help in the way of not falling asleep but I did use a MilkBand for the first two months to remember which side he ate on. It helped so much to remember what time DS ate and which side he started on. I would just flip it right when he started so that I didn't have to remember it when I was burping him. Just google it and the website should come up. They're cheap and so helpful! The only problem I had was that the plastic sliders broke after using it so much. Now DS is on such a schedule that he eats at the same time, on the same breast every day so I don't use it any more.
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    jamiemsmithjamiemsmith member

    I rarely fall asleep anymore since he's so efficient now, but I used to move my nursing pads around to remember which side he's eaten off of. I would take it out when he'd finish one side (since I didn't leak from my second letdowns). So when I noticed both pads were out, we were done (plus mommy brain is a pain!). Then I'd put them back in. 

    About the sleeping with LO smushed up on chest... try to pull LO's bottom as close to your body as you can, and turn his or her head slightly up so his or her chin is pushed against your breast, but the nose is farther out. Now LO may move, but this always made me feel better... now his kicking around starts to hurt as he's getting bigger, but it's still working. Plus LO will start to pull away more when finished (at least that's my experience). 

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    cindyhowcindyhow
    You can use an elastic hair band on your wrist to remember which side to start on next.  I always switch it to the opposite wrist when I start nursing.
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