Night Time Feedings Part One

One of the biggest shocks to my system when my first child was born was the fact that he had to be fed every 3 hours--all the time--even at night! Didn't he know I needed 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in order to function and meet all of HIS needs during the day?? He was a very inconsiderate baby :)

Peaceful night time feedings are all about--you guessed it--organization. As you know if you've been reading my blog for a while, I think that all feeding responsibilities need to fall to mom--even at night. It may be tempting to say, "Hey, Dad, I've dealt with this baby all day--you take the night shift," but I truly believe that for at least the first four weeks, all food needs to come from mom (even if it comes out of a bottle).

Night time feedings are a big perk for us bottle feeders--we should only have to do them for about 7 to 10 weeks. As was explained to me by an incredibly rude lactation consultant, one of the biggest downfalls of formula is that it stays in the baby's digestive system--specifically the intestines--longer, making the baby feel fuller longer, and allowing him to sleep longer. Why this is considered a "bad" thing still alludes me--sleep = good.

Try to think of night time feedings like going away for a short trip--you need to pack. Our babies sleep in our room. My dad thinks we're nuts, but I love having them close to me. More on co-sleeping later. Because my baby's already in the room where I sleep, I don't ever want to have to go into another room to get supplies in the middle of the night. I have all of my feeding supplies in my room and ready to go so that when the baby wakes up, I can stumble around, prepare the bottle, and feed the baby with minimal effort.