BF and/or pumping every 3 hours. How???

[Anonymous]

How is this possible???

Waking up every few hours to nurse and/or pump is killing me. I actually felt delirious the other day. I went to grad school while working full time so I understand sleep deprivation but this is ridiculous. How do people do this and still function? Is there a routine or trick to timing feeds?

Please help!

[Anonymous]

My baby was tiny and I had to nurse her every two hours for a month. I actually walked into a wall.

[Anonymous]

Isn't it usually every 2 hours? How old is your baby?

The "trick" is that you nap and you don't fully wake up while nursing in the middle of the night. And it's only sustainable for about 12 weeks. After 12 weeks I had my babies straightened out to only wake once or not at all from 12-8am.

I never timed feeds. I fed them as much as they could possibly eat. Larger tummies = better eating and longer periods between nursing.

[Anonymous]

My babies slept in the bed with me or in a co-sleeper pushed right up to my bed. I'd basically roll over, put my baby on the breast, and go right back to sleep.

How old is your baby? I don't remember the every 2 hour thing going on and on for what felt like forever. It was such a short period of time in my whole breastfeeding experiene.

[Anonymous]

I breastfed over maternity leave, and once I went back to work I pumped at work / breastfed when home. It’s definitely hard, especially if you don’t have a baby whose a great sleeper. I only got up at night if baby needed to nurse, I wasn’t scheduled. I went to bed extra early to try to get more sleep.

[Anonymous]

have you tried using the haaka while you BF? I needed a mental break from pumping (and staring at the lack of ounces I was getting) so I decided to exclusively BF for a week and use the haaka on whichever boob I'm not starting with. I was able to get 4-5 oz a day. I'm a teacher so it's not sustainable in the long run but maybe it can give you a break from the excess work of pumping/setting up/cleaning?

[Anonymous]

I did this with my son- he wouldn’t nurse, and I pumped every three hours to establish my supply. It was really hard. I had a baby nurse for 4 weeks but no help after that, and my days were literally feeding, changing, pumping while playing on the baby mat, then holding my newborn to sleep. It was a sweet and exhausting time. I’m pregnant with number 2 and don’t think I could exclusively pump again while also parenting an older toddler.

[Anonymous]

Every 3 hrs is pretty good for a newborn. My first did that. Second was every 1-2 hrs.

[Anonymous]

You just power through, hon. You can do this.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it’s awful. I had a fever with my first and would spike a fever after every nurse or pump and then I couldn’t sleep. I was too inexperienced to realize how off that was, but finally broke down and got an antibiotic.
Highly recommend sleeping thru nursing if you can figure it out.

[Anonymous]

the answer is - don’t do it. I don’t know why you’re pumping at night but STOP. The only way I maintained sanity was by having my DH give the midnight bottle. I nursed at 9, went to bed, and slept til 3. you need a block of sleep.

[Anonymous]

You just do. Sometimes you’ll get a three or four hour sleep and you’ll get renewed. It’s not forever.

[Anonymous]

I coslept with my third. I felt pretty good every day.

[Anonymous]

If you can pump a bottle or do formula, have your partner give the first bottle after the longest sleep. So if the baby passes out at 10, you put in earplugs and sleep through the first wake up. That should get you 5 hours or so, which will change your life. My boobs exploded a few times but it was totally worth it.

[Anonymous]

You get an arms reach cosleeper. Even if you have a pack and play or crib in your bedroom, something about not putting my feet on the floor helped me go back to sleep faster.

Don’t change diapers at night unless it’s poop.

Use something to catch milk in the other breast while you nurse or use a hand pump - get a few ounces and have your partner give one bottle a day. I would sleep 8pm - 12pm/1am with my husband doing one feeding. Getting 4 hours consecutive once a day was the key to feeling functional.