Breastfeeding at night

I would like some opinions on breastfeeding at night. In the beginning I was sitting up to BF my 4 month old during the night. As time has gone on it has become easier for me to BF laying down and we both fall asleep whilst he is feeding. The problem that I am having is that he has now started to wake up and cry when the nipple is out of his mouth and will fall to sleep again when I put it back in. We are now waking multiple times per night and as he was already a 3 hour waker during the night it has become somewhat problematic. We sometimes co-sleep, sometimes bassinette by our bed and over the last couple of nights he has woke from a dead sleep and screamed as soon as I have tried to put him back into his own bed. I fear that I have created some problems for myself and his night sleep patterns are going out of control.

Has anyone been through a similar situation or have any advice?

It is possible this is just a phase your baby is going through, sleep can be an issue at this age.
Feeding lying down and drifting off is the easiest way of doing it, but of course best if you're not being woken all the time.
If you can, get a copy of the No Cry Sleep Solution. Pantley has some ideas for dealing with this sort of problem (as well as a lot of others). But don't blame yourself for creating a 'problem' - it is very likely that something else is going on for your baby and this is simply his best way of dealing with that.

my ds2 was exactly like this- we just ended up co-sleeping fulltime as it worked out to be the best thing for both of us. we are still co-sleeping now (he's 17 months). he only really feeds once or twice overnight now, so i don't really mind- he still loves to be snuggled up to me though. i'm really enjoying it, as he's my last baby so i'm making the most of it iykwim?
i don't think you've created a problem at all. your baby just likes being close to you. he's so young at the moment, so if you're comfortable with it, i would just 'go with it' and follow his lead. you sound like you're doing a great job :)

Thanks for your replies guys. I am happy to co-sleep and also to feed overnight whilst lying down as it certainly gives me the most amount of sleep but just wondered what I can do about him waking every time the nipple falls out of his mouth. I have the sleep book by Pinky Mackay which I love, she is amazing. He is our first, we are going pretty good and doing the best we can.

Do you think he's waking because his tummy isn't as full as it could be? Maybe you could try waking him properly, sitting up to feed and then if he has a full feed he may happily release your nipple and sleep for a longer period?
I know this means you have to wake up properly which isn't desirable, especially when it happens several times a night (and trust me, I know all about that! Neither of my kids were happy to sleep with me, even with a nipple in their mouth, LOL!) but it might mean longer stretches of sleep?

EXACT same situation over here. And she used to sleep so independantly too. I think I'm going to start cosleeping now, after resisting for five weeks. It seems to be the only thing left for us.

Glad this isn't just us. Tonight we will try the suggestion of sitting up to feed him. I will keep the boobies away until he's hungry, prhaps when he is older and can move for them himself I will go back to lying down. That is unless he is worse in which case I will just take being woken.

My little one does similar things. She sleeps in a hammock next to the bed, but sometimes sleeps in with us. There have been some nights when she will only sleep attached to me with me curled around her, but other nights she is happy to lie next to me or go back to her bed after a feed. I am ok with the sometimes all nighters but i wouldn't get much sleep if it was every night.

Does your little man take a dummy or suck his hand (or anything else)? Can you offer him this when he detaches? Does he hold your hand or have some other connection to you? My little one will sometimes settle if she is holding one of my fingers or if i have my hand on her tummy.

After feeding, can you pull your top down (or up) so your nipples aren't right there? Have you tried detaching a little earlier so he gets used to going to sleep or through stages of sleep without the nipple?

good luck tonight

I can't feed DD2 lying down, she gets to cosy and promptly goes back to sleep without feeding properly :rolleyes: and is awake a short time later looking for more.

I've had to go back to sitting up, it was so nice and warm in bed, but I've put a nice cosy blanket with my bf chair to wrap around us. Before I feed her, I sit her up on my lap while getting ready, the wait seems to get her starving and she feeds alot better :lol:

i fed sitting up overnight till DS was about 5-6 months old. once he was a little more mobile, i found that it was easier to feed lying down.

we started co-sleeping full time around 5 months, after resisting for a while & i'm still co-sleeping now at almost 14 months.

hang in there, i definitely found that it got easier around 6 months because i didn't have to leave bed or move to deal with the overnight feeds - for me there is a psychological thing about actually having to get out of bed!!

I feel lying down too and find that some nights missy can wake for loads of feeds, other nights she is fine. Some nights when I detach myself from her vice grip she roots around for ages, other nights she is fine. There seems to be no consistency!

I agree with marcellus, try the No Cry Sleep Solution book, it is similar to Pinky's but different at the same time and has some wonderful solutions for exactly this issue.

Sue xxx