Waking up to feed Lucy in the middle of the night is not my very favorite part of parenting. But neither is it my unfavorite.
p{color:gray}. Photo: Naturally, we don’t have any photos of middle-of-the-night feedings, so you’ll have to settle for just a generic happy-baby shot.
I know that there will be a day that Lucy gives up her nighttime feeds for good, and part of me will think back on these moments nostalgically. These can be sweet times for us, so here are a few details to refresh my memory when I’m getting eight hours of sleep straight on a regular basis:
* We all know that Jon is The Greatest Papa Ever, but here is some more proof: he gets up with me to get us all settled in the middle of the night. I put on my “pink fuzzy robe”:/news/2006/one-week-after-delivery/ and stretch out on the daybed. Papa hands Lucy to me, and tucks us in with blankets, hands me an extra pillow, and makes sure my water bottle is topped off. Then (hopefully) everyone snoozes for a bit while Lucy gets her snack.
* After Lucy is sleeping away with a belly full of milk, I put her back into her crib and tiptoe to our bedroom. As I hang my robe up on the door hook, it sparkles with static electricity — very vivid in the dark! Papa has been warming up my side of the bed. He turns on the “running stream”:/news/2006/white-noise/, I slip my eyeshades on, and we settle down for a long winter’s night.
* It is rare that I experience middle-of-the-night hunger like Lucy does. But I have been known to wake up extra-thirsty. I often find it amusing when Lucy and I snuggle down for a mid-night feed with both of us gulping away on milk and water.
* Feeding Lucy on the daybed really only started after Lucy was about three months old and I was feeling very comfortable with nursing. In the early days, we would all get up and traipse out to the living room where I could station myself in the “favorite brown chair”:/news/2006/the-lucy-files-october-29/. We’d even do a diaper change, with Lucy “hollering”:/news/2006/displeasure-personified/ all the while. Once I got settled with a pillow behind me, my feet up on the ottoman, and a blanket on my legs, I was usually able to snooze through these feedings quite easily, listening to the nighttime summer sounds. After about an hour of nursing, Lucy would fall asleep so soundly that I could carry her back to her room, swaddle her, and put her in her crib all without her waking up.
* These days, with Lucy taking almost all of her naps in her crib behind a closed door, “we”:/news/2006/revolution-makes-me-sleepy/ “don’t”:/news/2006/at-the-marions/ “get”:/news/2006/sleepy-620/ “to”:/news/2006/sleepy-whatever/ “watch”:/news/2006/cheeky/ “Lucy”:/news/2006/soft-shoulder/ “sleep”:/news/2006/sleeping-through-the-movie/ “very”:/news/2006/sleep-smile/ “much”:/news/2006/pointilist-lucy/ “anymore”:/news/2006/lucy-wakes-up/. This is one of my favorite parts of feeding Lucy in the wee hours: when she is all done, I get to hold her in my arms for a few minutes and watch her snooze before putting her down to sleep. Even if I was grumpy about being woken up, these moments pretty much erase any crabbiness and remind me to marvel at her.
These nursing moments will end soon enough, and I’m sure Mama and Papa (and Baby!) will be glad to get more consolidated sleep. I hope I can remember to appreciate now how sweet these times are — even when Lucy wakes us more often than we’d like!
I am so glad to know that I’m not the only still getting up and nursing once a night! I keep thinking: maybe I’ll get consolidated sleep in the new year… :)
How I miss the days of nursing! Who said bottle-feeding was easier? They were wrong! Mo still insists on eating anywhere from 3:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. every morning. Getting up and fixing a bottle of formula, and attempting to stay awake while feeding him is horrible. I’ve accidentally dumped an entire scoop on my foot instead of in the bottle, and then attempting to get the nipple on the bottle usually results in spilling. Luckily he has become very proficient at gulping it down within 15 minutes, and then we can head back to bed (mine unfortunately, but sleeping with him laying on my chest is better than not sleeping!)
At just barely over a year, I’m still nursing Ben once a night. And, as long as that’s his ONLY wake up, I really don’t mind it at all. I still feel refreshed in the morning and love the cuddle time that we get, since he’s not a cuddly baby (too active during the day to be cuddly).
I nursed Benjamin once a night for quite a while (until I stopped nursing him, actually). Our routine was for James to go get him and bring him to our bed where I would nurse him and then we would sleep in our bed until he got up for the day a couple hours later. That was the only time I ever really slept with him and it was a sweet, cuddly time. After I finished nursing him at 9 months of age, James would actually get up and give him his bottle during the night.
Eliminating that one night waking was a tricky endeavor, but we finally had him finished with it by about 10 1/2 months of age (we finally resolved to correct the habit when we realized we would soon be getting up to get a cup of milk for him since we planned to switch him from formula to milk at age 1).
I have the 6 am nurse, but now we have a new adventure….a 6 am poop that if I am not there right away it blows out EVERY THING….anyone know how to move baby’s bms?
I have one month until Madelyn turns 1 and I am so mixed about nursing. I love the moments, but am so ready to have my boobs back to myself. I guess I am selfish! However there is a part of me that thinks I will and should nurse until number two (assuming that happens in the next year or so, no 5 year olds nursing in this house). HMMM. they are so sweet you just don’t want to making them grow too fast!
Hey, Ann, any news on the tooth development? This morning Madelyn’s first tooth started to cute through the gum…I guess we can’t call her gummy anymore! It only took 11 months and two days!
Congratulations to Maddy! Welcome to the world of chomping. No news on that front with Lucy yet, although I keep having these dreams where I look in her mouth and see a dozen teeth, then I moan about how I wasn’t paying attention and missed her first tooth. Does anyone else have these dreams about missing big milestones?
I constantly dream that Mo just gets up and starts walking/running around. Then I think: When did he learn this? How long has he been doing this?
or in my dreams he’ll just start talking.
I think it’s a regular part of mom life. Anticipation mixed with trepidation. We can’t wait for these milestones, but also aren’t quite ready for them to arrive as we want to savor our babies