Hacks for Surviving Nighttime Feedings
Updated APRIL 5, 2021
Those newborn days can be straight up exhausting. For the first week or two it seems as if you are running on adrenaline alone. But we all know that those early morning wake up calls to feed in the middle of the night catch up to you. You find yourself dozing off in the middle of a feeding waking in a panic thanking God you didn’t drop your baby.
Even though you can’t make those feedings disappear with the snap of your fingers, there are a few things you can do to help make those night feedings a bit easier:
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Keep Your Baby Close
If possible, keep your baby in your room while they are still feeding at night. This way you don’t have to get out of bed, walk to their room, feed, and head back to bed. I don’t know about you but the more moving around I do, the more I wake up, which makes it harder to go back to sleep. We kept Aiden in a Graco Pack n’ Play right next to the bed and all I had to do was lean over and pick him up to feed him.
Keep Everything You Need on Your Bedside Table or Dresser
We made a little basket that included burp clothes, diaper rash cream, diapers, swaddles, etc. and stored that on our dresser. That way, we didn’t have to go down the hall or fumble around to get supplies during the night. Also, the burp clothes that were the ABSOLUTE best were Gerber’s Cloth Diapers. I’m not kidding! They’re bigger than the cute burp clothes, meaning they hold more spit up. Baby Woz’s spit up would always end up on the couch or back of my shirt because the cute burp clothes weren’t long enough to catch any of it. So, we opted for practical burp clothes that are actually supposed to be cloth diapers. BEST. DECISION. EVER.
Essentials to Keep Close By
Extra clothes and swaddles
Keep Baby Swaddled
As long as your baby doesn’t decide to dirty their diaper in the middle of the night, keep your baby swaddled and the lights down so they stay sleepy and it’s easier to put them back to sleep. Nothing is worse than a wide-awake baby after a midnight feeding.
Keep Your Baby on a Routine Throughout the Day
Those night feedings get easier as they begin to disappear. Keep your baby on a good routine throughout the day to help minimize those night time feedings so you can get the rest you need!
Wake Up When Baby Wakes Up
I know that doesn’t sound great, but it helped as Aiden got older. As those nighttime feedings begin to disappear, it helped us realize that Aiden can go for longer periods of time without being fed. So, instead of setting my alarm to feed him every 2-3 hours, I would wake up when he started to want food. I remember when he first slept through the night. We went to bed and Aiden woke us up at 5:45am. We felt like BRAND. NEW. PEOPLE!
Lights off or Keep a Small Night light On During Feedings
Once the lights are turned off your baby’s natural melatonin hormones begin to relax them for sleeping. And keeping the lights off anytime you wake up to breastfeed at night will make going back to sleep much easier. I tried that, but I couldn’t see what the heck I was doing. So, we ended up getting a Hatch Rest which is a night light and sound machine combo. BEST. THING. EVER. What’s great about the Hatch Rest is that it’s multi-functional. The Hatch Rest combines nightlight, sound machine, and time-to-rise alert in one easy-to-use device that you can control from your phone! Again, BEST. THING. EVER.
Sleep In Breastfeeding appropriate sleepwear
When beginning your breastfeeding journey with your newborn baby, all regular clothes get kicked out of the closet. And the same goes for your sleepwear. Having easy access for nursing at night will make your nighttime breastfeeding sessions much quicker and easier for both you and your baby.
Nursings Pads and Nursing Bras
Breastfeeding causes leaks. Yep, the entire time I breastfed our son, I leaked every time he latched on. Most of the time it would come from the breast opposite of the one he would begin nursing on. One time I went to bed and forgot to wear a nursing bra. During one of the stretches of sleep before the next feeding, I woke up with a ton of milk on the sheets and on my pjs. I did not do that again. Always wear a nursing bra with pads in it in case you start leaking.
S.O. Needs to Help
This was a life saver for me! There were nights that I would be feeding Aiden, look over at Jared sleeping, and get pissed off. I laugh at it now, but when I was in the thick of it, it sucked. So, you know what I did? Had him start to help in the middle of the night. I felt bad for wanting to ask for help since he had to get up in the morning and go to work. But when I asked, he was so glad to help me! So, he would do the diaper changes, while I fed him. And when we introduced the bottle to Aiden, Jared would take over one feeding in the middle of the night. A complete life saver. And I’m delighted that I have a husband that is so ready and willing to help out!
