Breastfeeding and Newborn Sleep Journey
Heyo!!
I want to share some tips from my motherhood journey about breastfeeding and newborn sleeping. I am no expert at all. I get the majority of my advice from a book called BABY WISE. And I highly recommend it to all those pregnant women who really want a healthy sleeping relationship for their baby. Otherwise, some of these tips will just come from my personal experience with 4 babies. Again, no expert here. Don't come for me haha. Just tips that have worked for me lol.
First off want to start and say that the first 2 weeks of life are the most important. It can be thought that you don't have to create a routine right when a baby is born and to just do whatever works. However, I believe it to be so crucial to start some habits right away. I believe that a baby learns what to expect from outside of the womb within those first 2 weeks. If they are being held the whole time in those 2 weeks, they will think that is normal. They will request that. And on the opposite hand, if they are put in a bassinet, they will think that is normal and want that. Same goes for feedings. If you are feeding them at a certain interval, they will expect that. Okay so that's it. Just be consistent in those first 2 weeks for what you'd like the rest of their infancy to look like.
Feed your baby every 2.5 - 3 hours no matter what. If your baby is sleeping, wake them up and feed them. Change their diaper if you need to to get them to wake up. But make them eat. The reason for this is because I believe it tells your baby that you will feed them whether they ask for it or not. The reason you want your baby to feel this way is for the night time. Once they are 4 weeks old, they can sleep 4 hours at night. Soooo, if they have an internal feeling that they don't need to cry for food, then I believe they will be better sleepers. They will assume you will wake them up to eat. My baby is 5 weeks old right now and she sleeps from 9:00pm - to 2:30am every night because she thinks I'll wake her up to eat, but I don't. But every other feed during the day I do.
Make sure every feed is a good feed. A baby will be hungry every hour or every 2 hours if they aren't eating enough at each feeding. For moms who are breastfeeding, for the most part, that looks like 15 minutes on each side. For bottle fed, that looks like a certain amount of formula every single time. And I can be a stickler about this. Make sure again that they get whatever amount they're suppose to. Even if that means stirring a sleepy baby. It'll be worth it. *Disclaimer, there may be cluster feeds where they don't make it 2.5-3 hours between feedings even though they did have a good feed. But that shouldn't be more than once a day and it should occur around the same time everyday. That is what qualifies as a cluster feeding.
When you put your baby down to sleep, make sure they are still a little awake. Babies need to learn how to put themselves to sleep. If you are always rocking them to sleep and putting them to bed asleep, that is what they will always want/need. Help them help you. Put them down when they are still a little bit awake. BABY WISE says put a baby down to sleep 'drowsy', but not asleep.
Once your baby is a 6 weeks old keep them up before bedtime. So let's say you feed them at 8pm and then they go to bed for the night. I'd say then at 6:30pm to wake them up if they are asleep and play with them. Sing them songs, interact with them, be around the light. Be consistent with this time and duration. I feel this helps them be alert and get more tired. So then after their 8pm feed, they can do a longer sleep stretch.
Create a day routine and a night routine. This will help your baby separate their days and nights. For instance, I think people should only use their really strong swaddles at night. As well as only make the baby's room dark and have a noise machine at night. But whatever you choose, make it consistent and only for night time. Thus during the day it would be the same too, but just for days. Only use light swaddles during the day, keep it someone light when they sleep, and let them be use to daily house noise instead of a noise machine.
Breastfeeding can be so painful. Before stopping, maybe try using something called a nipple shield. It protects the nipple during nursing and can make it so much more enjoyable. You can ask the hospital for one after you give birth so that you get the right size. But you can also find them at Walmart and just fit it yourself. You just want to make sure your entire nipple fits into the shield.
A huge benefit to breastfeeding is how it helps your uterus shrink down. If you struggle to breastfeed for long, maybe keep telling yourself this. It's by divine design the ability to breastfeed to thus shrink your uterus back down and help get rid of extra water retention in your body. So if you don't want to breastfeed for long, maybe just do it for a few weeks so that you can enjoy this benefit. It may sound selfish, but I definitely am motivated to get through the initial nipple pain, engorgement and overall discomfort that comes from the beginning of breastfeeding, so that I can enjoy this satisfaction.
Something BABY WISE mentions strongly is not using a sleep prop to help your baby sleep. This could be rocking, a swing, a bottle, or nursing. All of this makes your baby, again, not be able to put themselves to sleep. They need this prop in order to fall asleep.
The common belief is that a baby should have a cycle that looks like the following: asleep, awake, then eat, then back to sleep. However, the best cycle for better sleep is actually: feed, awake, sleep. This is the pattern that should be followed. Feed them, let them be awake, and then put them to sleep. Repeat every 3 hours.
If you struggle with mastitis, reach out to me personally! I have so many thoughts on this! I've struggled with this and have a lot of ideas and tips.
Okay so again, no expert and I hope to not offend. You could follow all these tips and still have a baby with other needs and things not go as planned. I did have my second child who was a great sleeper until he was 4 months old and then decided he was going to wake up in the middle of the night every night until he was 10 months old. So I totally get it! May the force be with us mothers! I hope that even just one person found this helpful in their breast-feeding and newborn journey! If anyone would like to chat with me, I’d love to talk about this stuff! Just hit me up!! Also please let me know what other tips you would add to this!! I'd love to hear them!!!
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