DH & I were talking last night about how we'll handle nighttime feedings when DD is born. With DD1, we actually both got up almost every single time. He'd get up and change her, then give her to me so I could BF and then I'd put her back in the bassinet. We did this for the first 3 months while she slept in our room.
Our theory was that this way, neither of us could say it wasn't fair because we were both getting up and we were both tired.
This time, he'll be going back to work within a few days of delivery so I'm thinking he'll need sleep more since I'll be home (though he contended that I will have just birthed a human being and I'll need the rest more).
I told him that I would take the nighttime feedings but that in return, he had to accept that during the day I wouldn't be getting to many chores since I'd be tired. He seemed ok with that.
How did you handle the nighttime feedings?
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I voted other. DH likes to stay up later than I do so he did the 10:30/11 pm feeding and then went to bed. I went to bed earlier so I took the 3-4 am feeding. That way we both got a good night's rest. But there were times when DH was just awake and he would come help me anyway. He was great!!!!! But we were lucky in that our LO stopped waking up after 8 weeks so we didn't have to that routine for long.
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well when Liv first came home, she was on formula and BFing. So during the night, he would take some and Id take some. When I transitioned to EBF around 8 weeks, I did it. I felt that there was no reason for us both to be tired, and I didnt mind. DH does almost all of our cleaning, that was good enough for me.
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charlie slept through the night after sleep training so we didn't have many night feedings to contend with.
with olive since i'm breastfeeding, i do all the night feedings. i stopped changing her diaper in the middle of the night pretty early on, so i just had to nurse her (and i'd always fall asleep!)
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With DD I did almost all the nighttime work; with DS he's been on formula since day 1, so I take him from bedtime until 3 am and DH takes him after that. It is so nice to be able to split it.
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We ended up bottle feeding so we alternated. But he would take the crappiest time so I could get more sleep. I need it for my migraines. And I'm a firm believer that you need just as much sleep to take care of a baby all day that you need to work.
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I voted other because it changed over time. The first month we both got up - my husband would change our son and I would nurse him. After two weeks my husband went back to work so he only continued doing this for two additional weeks before it was too much for him to continue with so little sleep. Between one and six months of age I did all nighttime duties (I went back to work full time at 8 weeks). At 6 months of age we took turns, I would nurse the first wake up and my husband would soothe and rock the second wake up, etc. At 6.5 months we sleep trained and night weaned at the same time so my husband took on all nighttime duties since I was still nursing during the day and I didn't want to upset my son by having him smell my milk but not being fed. My husband still handles all nighttime duties and my son is now 14 months old. We just have a poor sleeper so even though nighttime hasn't involved feedings since 6.5 months of age, there are still multiple wake ups on any given night.
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I nursed exclusively, so I did all the night and daytime feedings.
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I did the night feedings because I was breastfeeding. LO started sleeping through the night after the first month, so it wasn't so bad.
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It's really interesting to see how each mom has a different method that works for them!
If I'm able to breastfeed full-time, it will just be me for a while. I'd like to get a co-sleeper to make that easier.
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I can't imagine having DH get up at night since he's back at work already (and has to get up at 5 to get to work). Once he gets home from work he's 100% on diaper duty though, lol, since I do all of them during the night and while he's at work.
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For the first month feeding my baby took a long time. He would nurse for up to 40 minutes at a time, then take a 20 min break, then want to nurse again. So many times I would be up for a total of two hours feeding him. Although I never asked my husband to get up and help, he would. That first month I was so hungry and thirsty, so everytime I got up, he would get up and get me something to eat and drink. It was so sweet.
Our LO wouldn't sleep on his own the first month either, he had to be held. so my husband helped a lot with that as well. He would often take the first night shift, I'd go to bed around 10pm, and he'd hold LO til about 2am, then I'd feed him and take him. Once we started co-sleeping it solved the problem.
My husband was an AMAZING help to me, though I never wanted to ask for help because he was working too. But it was only about a month that that lasted and after that I was able to figure out sleeping with LO and now we nurse in bed at night, so neither of us really has to get up.
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Other- most of the time I take care of the night feedings, but if my husband has the next day off or if I work the next day, or am particularly overwhelmed, he gives me a break and takes night duty with pumped milk.
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@Andrea: my dh and I have pretty much the same system going
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@His Barista: yay! It worked well and neither of us were all that tired in the morning.
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