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Posted by chelsea on November 17, 2002 at 23:12:01:
In Reply to: Re: nursing question posted by Rowena on November 16, 2002 at 19:56:40:
: Chelsea, : Does your baby regularly fall asleep on the breast? Does he frequently feed for only a few minutes before he falls asleep? Does he wake after only 20 or 40 minutes then look for the breast again? I your answer is yes to all these questions. Then the solution to your problem may be to teach your baby to fall asleep in another way. If he relies on the breast to fall asleep you will have a very hard time trying to stretch his feeding out because of the risk of him becoming overtired. Thanks for the reply. Sometimes he falls asleep while nursing but and sometimes not. When he does, it is usually towards the end of about 10 minutes or so when he is finished anyways. The tricky part for us is that he rarely sleeps for more than a couple of hours. Sometimes he'll wake and we will do everything to try to rock him to sleep again. This will work sometimes, but more often he will stay awake and then he discover that he is once again hungry. He also can very easily get overtired when he is awake for 2 or more hours at a time. He is an incredibly alert baby. He doesn't want to miss a thing! I always look for signs that he is getting tired and start up with quieting down and helping him to sleep if necessary. I worry that he is grown used to me or dh getting him back to sleep whe he wakes and cannot get himself back to sleep. This happens every night after the 3AM feeding. He stirs for hours not allowing any of us to sleep. Most of the other night feedings are very easy and he goes right off to sleep afterwards. Any tips or advice for us? I know he is still young but we are fantasing about a good night's rest!lol
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: This can be very normal behaviour for a breast fed baby. He is growing very well so you obviously have a very good supply. A very common reason why breast fed babies will want to feed so regularly is because they have learned to associate feeding with sleeping. If a baby regularly falls asleep during feeding they learn that "this is the way I go to sleep". They will then want the breast not only when they are hungry but also when they are tired.
Thanks!