You come home from hospital with your bundle of joy and what you know is that you have to feed your baby every 3 hours. What this invariably means is that you will need to feed him at least once in the middle of the night.
I struggled with this big time. I’m one of those people that need 8 hours of sleep or I will feel like a zombie the next day. Ok, the last stages of pregnancy prepare you somewhat for the interrupted sleep with frequent trips to the loo, but I sure was hoping for my long sleep nights to come back sooner rather than later.
A baby is like a living clock. The little thing seems to know the time better than the Swiss. And so if he gets used to that 1 or 2am feed, he sure as hell is not going to go without it.
So what did I do? I followed Tracy Hogg’s advice. It’s called cluster feeding and dream feeding.
In the evening, I fed my baby at 7pm (or there about) and after burping him and playing with him a bit, I would give him a bath and a massage. Then I would feed him again (thus the cluster), and put him straight to bed.
At around 10-11pm, I would feed him again – this time in his sleep. I would simply lift him up from the cot, feed him and put him back down. No need to burp him because he’s very relaxed.
I didn’t start doing the Tracy Hogg methods with Miss Z until she was about 2½ months old (if memory serves), so it took some time for her to get used to this. But with Mr A and Miss A, it was from day 1, so it was easier.
They started lasting longer and longer – first until 2,30am, then 4am, then 5am… finally, I just stopped giving that feed altogether and gave them the dummy when they cried. They fussed a bit, but not too much and only for a few days. If necessary, I would bring the 7am feed forward a bit.
This happened around the age of 2 months. And after that, even if they woke in the night, I never fed them (nor gave them water) – this would just undo my hard work. My little Miss A, who is 6 months old now, has no memory of course of feeding in the middle of the night. So, sometimes she fusses, because something woke her up, or because she had wind, but she just needs comforting or the dummy, not my breast.
Many Moms will not agree with me of course. I respect that. If you don’t mind waking up in the middle of the night to feed your baby until they’re toddlers, I’m totally ok with that.
For me it was a case of removing that feed before their memory was strong enough to remember it as part of their routine, and demand it (the alarm clock again…), mostly because I really love to sleep 😉