Waking LO for nursing/DC Question

sunflwra · March 2012

Hi ladies-

I start back to work in a few weeks. I will need to leave by 6:30am and DD will be at home with DH until he takes her to DC, leaving around 7:30-8:00am. DC is pretty close to home, so once they leave, she'll be there within about 15 minutes.

I'm wondering about getting her up in the morning to feed her. The last few nights since she's been sleeping in her crib, she's slept through the night- usually until about 8-9am, so I'm pretty sure we'll need to wake her up (at least initially).

My plan is to get ready before waking her and then get her up at 6am to nurse before I leave. Then I'll put her back down to sleep (or in her bouncy chair if she's wide awake or DH will be leaving soon). He'll get her ready and then she can eat again at DC when she's ready.

Would you agree that it's best to nurse her myself, even though it means waking her a little earlier than she would need to be up versus just having a bottle ready for DH to feed her a little later in the morning?

Mrs.BoomBoom · March 2012

I hated pumping and didn't respond well to the pump so it would be worth it for me to wake and BF rather than have to pump. (especially that 1st one of the day) I also wanted a few awake minutes before I left for the day so I really prized that 1st feeding.

I'd probably play it by ear though and see what works best for you.

jlsimon56 · March 2012

I did when I first returned to work. But I have since stopped b/c it wasn't worth it. I leave for work at 5am and LO doesn't go to DC until 8am....and sometimes she wouldn't go back to sleep.

Once your LO starts DC, she may move her bedtime earlier, which would in turn have her wakeup time earlier. My LO used to go to bed at 9pm, but literally days into daycare, she moved it to 7pm. Now with the time change, we are keeping it at 8pm (haha, tricky parents!).

SilliRy · March 2012

If you wake her and she doesn't go back to sleep, will your husband be able to get ready? We really struggled with this--I was dream feeding LO before I left, so DH didn't have to feed her, but they were waking at the same time and it was really difficult for DH to watch DD while he was getting ready (especially once she became mobile).

I would probably see how it goes. Try waking her and nursing for the first couple of days, but be willing to leave a bottle for your DH to feed her if needed. There's definitely a big learning curve to figuring out the morning routine! While my DH always had milk in the fridge that he could have given her, she was never a huge fan of the bottle anyway so he never gave her one. There were definitely days that he just took her to daycare a little earlier where they would give her a bottle right away.

Jills83 · March 2012

We do pretty much exactly what you are asking about. When I first went back to work, LO went back to sleep after I fed him at 6:00. Now he stays up and DH gets up to take care of him. It works well for us because 1. I don't have to add an extra pump session, 2. DH gets a little extra quality time with LO every day, 3. DH likes it because it gets him up and on schedule every day.

I think you will just have to feel it out and see how LO responds to the dream feed.

Mrs.Handy · March 2012

I would probably move your LO's bedtime to earlier so that she gets up a little earlier.

This plan may work for a little while, but once they get older they will probably want to stay up if you wake them up at 6:30. Also, once DS was mobile I needed to be around in the morning so that DH could get ready.

sunflwra · March 2012

Thank you ladies! I'm going to start with morning nursing session because I have a feeling that DD will start going to bed earlier once she starts DC, so hopefully that will mean she'll get up earlier.

Good thing is that she's pretty content just hanging out in her bouncy chair for a while if needed, so if she doesn't go back down, DH can keep her in that in our room/bathroom while he gets ready. We'll give it a try and see how it goes!

CarlaAndJames · March 2012

sunflwra:

My plan is to get ready before waking her and then get her up at 6am to nurse before I leave. Then I'll put her back down to sleep (or in her bouncy chair if she's wide awake or DH will be leaving soon). He'll get her ready and then she can eat again at DC when she's ready.

This is exactly what I do, except I wake her up about 5:30. Most of the time, it's a dreamfeed, she never even opens her eyes, just nurses like she's famished and then falls back asleep in my arms. Then DH wakes her up at 7:30 and she gets her first bottle at daycare around 8. Has worked perfectly for us for the past 5-6 months!

ETA - the one crappy thing is that she now wakes up on her own at 5:30 for that feeding, so I have to get up and nurse her that early on the weekends too. But it's worth it! And she always goes back to sleep for a few hours afterwards.

I love that morning nursing session, next to her bedtime session it's my favorite. It's completely quiet, we're the only ones up, and I get to start my day just LOOKING at her. I know that sounds super corny, but it's a really great start to my day! I'm thinking I'll keep this morning session as long as she wants it past a year.

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