if she wants to feed to sleep then go for it. I have with all 3 of my girls and the sky did not fall down and they are no rods in my back go for what is easiest for you and baby and that is usually feeding to sleep.
Argh don't listen! You need your rest and your bub is a week old. I certainly wouldn't be waking her to play with her just to put her back to sleep. My bub is 7 months and he feeds to sleep at bedtime and he has no worries putting himself to sleep during the day.
I generally do the feed, play, sleep thing, but at 7 days old pretty much all they do is feed and sleep! I'm not sure when they are supposed to play! For what it's worth, when they're older I don't think the playin makes them sleepier, I just find that by getting the feed in first I ensure something goes in before she falls back to sleep again!
Ignore your friend. Feed to sleep has worked here for three babies. You do what is best for you, bub, and your family. Believe in yourself and have faith that you can do it. Take the pressure off and enjoy your special time with your bub.
Sorry, I always get annoyed when I hear of poor new Mums being given silly advice
Tasha - you are doing exactly what your baby needs. Interesting to know that when breastfeeding, your body releases the hormone oxytocin, which produces calmness and even sleepiness which also helps YOU relax and sleep, as well as being a 'natural relaxation' technique for encouraging your baby to sleep. Full belly, cuddles with mum = secure baby who is drowsy, relaxed and ready for sleep
Go with it. And as for any other advice you may get ..... Smile and nod!!
We did feed play sleep or feed play feed sleep. But play in the early days was chatting with DD for a few minutes if she was awake but that wasn't every feed cause there wasn't time before she needed to sleep again. Feeding to sleep is magic, nurturing and calm for everyone. I still like to sleep next to DD for naps after feeding to sleep.
I'm feeding to sleep right now :-))
I always say if the first 12 weeks do what ever you need to do to get through the day (and night), whatever works for you. There is plenty of time to work on other methods after that. They can change a fair bit around 12-13 weeks and I personally think 'habits' don't form until much later so I don't think you are going to 'teach' or form any 'habits' - good bad or otherwise - at this young age so just do what you can to survive and leave the advice for another day, especially as you are feeding so often which I can tell you is very time consuming and actually really really tiring.
My DD1 was quite wakeful and did have a kind of 'play' or awake talking snuggling time after a feed but not all babies are like that and if they are feeding often like my DD2 did they really just want to go back to sleep because their sleep gets sooooo interrupted from waking up hungry all.the.time. So if some awake time happens that's fine and dandy but at this stage I wouldn't be forcing it just for the sake of it.
We didn't start the wake/feed/play/sleep routine until 3.5 months - like others have said, the first 12 weeks are just about what the baby wants & needs (in my mind). The transition to something very routine based went really well for us as well - so the idea of bad habits starting at 7 days old seems silly to me. Also, my DS2, who use to feed to sleep at bedtime (the only pre-sleep feed that we did once we started the "routine") no longer does so (he's now six plus months) - he stopped on his own (he feeds and gets put down awake) and I MISS IT! I loved when he would fall asleep while feeding - it was the sweetest and now it's gone so I wouldn't try to change these special baby moments as they disappear too quickly and when you know it's your last baby (as it is for us), you look back and think "wow, that was quick".
Reply With Quotego for what is easiest for you and baby and that is usually feeding to sleep.
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