10 TIPS FOR EASIER NURSING AT NIGHT

During the first year that you will spend with your baby, you will spend a lot of time feeding your baby at night, so you might as well enjoy it. You have two nighttime goals when it comes to feeding him which are: for you to get sufficient rest and for you to meet the nutritional and emotional needs of your infant. Remember, a happy mother and a well-fed baby is the whole point of nursing in the first place. Here are some tricks that will be very helpful.

1-- You should remember your goal at night time, which is for your baby to sleep. You can't force your baby to actually sleep. Your role as a parent is to help create an environment for the baby that induces relaxation so that sleep can overtake the baby naturally.

It is my belief that the ultimate goal of nighttime parenting is give your baby a good attitude about sleep, so that your child grows up seeing sleep as a good thing, with no fears of either falling asleep or staying asleep. In order to accomplish this goal, you will put a lot of effort into parenting your child to sleep and parenting her back to sleep when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Eventually, your efforts will become part of her inner resources, and she will be able to do this for herself.

This goal is not the same as training baby to sleep through the night as soon as possible by denying him parental comfort. What it does mean is that, letting him cry sometimes will allow the baby to correct his own sleeping behavior.

With the cry-it-out method, there’s an important lesson that your baby learns which is that you aren't going to come, so they may as well give up. Less-persistent babies give up the screaming phase quickly. Since they can't trust parents to be there, they learn to deal with their issue on their own.

When dealing with babies, you should try to think of nighttime parenting as a long-term investment. The middle-of-the- night time you put in now will save you a whole lot of sleep in the years ahead. Your children will sleep well when they are older, and the good relationship you have built with them will keep you from lying awake at night worrying about them.

2-- You have to develop a realistic ideal of night nursing. Don’t try to assume that you know how your baby is going to sleep at night or try to assume that this baby will be like the others. This will make it easier to deal any hardships that may arise from your colicky baby. (Remember that your other children may not have been colicky).

You may have a mellow baby who breastfeeds with relative predictability by day and sleeps in 4-6 hour stretches at night. Just so that you know sleeping a five- hour stretch qualifies as sleeping through the night by most doctors when the baby is less than six months of age.

You may be blessed with a high maintenance baby, such as one who will settle for nothing less than a lot of food and comforting needs day and night. Both types of babies are normal so don’t be shocked or disparaged. Also, you have to realize that when babies wake up frequently to nurse they are only asking for what they need to be healthy and not trying to bother you.

This means more than just getting bigger, it means developing to the fullest potential physically, emotionally, and intellectually as well. Nearly all babies know intuitively how much nursing they need for nourishment and for comfort so take their words for it. Remember that at this young age, babies' wants are the same as their needs to them so when your baby wakes up for food at night, he likely needs it so don’t ignore him. He really needs this feeding. In fact, a common medical cause for an infant failing to thrive is not getting enough feedings at night.

Of course, part of what your baby needs at night is the personal contact with you, and you may even learn to appreciate these nighttime feedings as much as the baby does.

3—You will want to be open to trying various sleeping arrangements with the baby until you find the right one. There is no right or wrong place for baby to sleep. Whatever sleeping arrangement best suits the entire family is the right arrangement for your family. Be open to trying all kinds of different ones until you find the right one for your family.

Sleeping arrangements may vary at different stages of baby’s growth too, so don’t be shocked when things change on you. Some babies settle better when they are sleeping snuggled right next to mommy all through the night, some babies seem to sleep better in a crib, and others sleep better when they switch from sleeping alone to sleeping with a parent.

Most breastfeeding infants sleep best snuggled next to the mom. Don’t get me wrong: a baby’s sleeping zones should be decided between both parents as well as the baby. It's no one else's business. Do what feels right to you. Don’t feel pressured by other people’s opinions.

Some ultra-sensitive infants are so stimulated by mother's close presence that they are better suited to sleep without her just so that they can settle down, yet they don't sleep well in their own rooms. In this case, try the sidecar arrangement. This is when the baby is close enough for nursing, yet mother and baby are not so close that they keep each other awake.

4-- You can also offer your baby frequent feedings during the day. As babies get bigger, they get busier during the day and forget to eat so you have to fill in the blanks for him. This will help baby to make up for missed feedings at night. This happens especially after six months. In this situation mother may be the one who tried to make the baby breastfeed at least every three hours during the day, so that he does not need to nurse as much at night.