Night Nurse: When to Start, How to Deal with BFing?

[sste]

Is it best to start with a night nurse from right when the baby comes home or to wait a couple of weeks? I am thinking esp. in terms of establishing BFing supply but also if I recall DH and I reached our breaking point in terms of sleep deprivation a couple of weeks in, not nec. in the initial days.

Also, how do you balance BFing and the point of hiring the nurse - - to get to sleep! I have zero issues with pumping and bottle use. But, I can't recall how engorged I was in the early weeks and months. I don't think I would be able to sleep from 10am to 6am straight, right? Is the best thing to have the night nurse bring the baby to you once in the night and then use bottle/EBM for other feedings.

You may all be noticing a pattern to my posts . . . we have no family in the area and I really want to enjoy the newborn period this time around!

[Katigre]

I don't think a night nurse would be particularly helpful for a nursingmom b/c you'd still have to get up and pump for each feeding to maintain supply. I think if you do it then it would be best to wait until 4-6 weeks pp.

I don't know if it was just my babies, but I found that nursing laying down in bed and NEVER getting out of bed at night or turning on a light kept me pretty well-rested. I had a flashlight with diapers and a change of clothes next to the bed and a cosleeper attached. The nights I got out of bed or turned on a light I was really tired the next day - it was surprising how such a small thing made a big difference. I did nighttime duty alone with both babies and no family here (they came to help during the day the first week or two but not at night).

[arivecchi]

I have not had a night nurse but my friends who have hired night nurses have used them as soon as the baby arrives. I think that makes sense because both you and the baby can establish a pattern right from the start. Lucky you!

[brittone2]

I don't think a night nurse would be particularly helpful for a nursingmom b/c you'd still have to get up and pump for each feeding to maintain supply. I think if you do it then it would be best to wait until 4-6 weeks pp.
.

:yeahthat:
otherwise I think you truly could be risking supply issues. Some women might still be okay in terms of supply, but this could have an adverse effect on supply for other women.

[newg]

I think if you want to BF you are still going to have to pump at night to keep your supply up and maintain some kind of comfort level for yourself.
I found, even when nursing through the night....if DH let me sleep one session and gave DD a bottle, by the next feeding I was totally engorged, leaking and very uncomfortable.

We also kept the light very low at night............I think the most light I used was a side table lamp by the bed.

[luckytwenty]

I didn't have a night nurse, but DH fed one bottle of pumped milk in the middle of the night so I could get a decent block of sleep, and I never had supply issues. He always got up for the 1 am feeding, and while it's true I woke up engorged every morning (I'd feed and then have plenty left for a pump for the next night), it still seemed worth it to get in a solid 4-6 hour stretch. Anyway, I imagine that if you had a night nurse, you could have her do one feeding, but I wouldn't do more than that or you could have supply issues.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

I don't think a night nurse would be particularly helpful for a nursingmom b/c you'd still have to get up and pump for each feeding to maintain supply. I think if you do it then it would be best to wait until 4-6 weeks pp.


:yeahthat:

my LC told me to wait to introduce a bottle until 3 weeks, when nursing is well established and there is less risk of nipple confusion. i think if u do it before u risk not only nipple confusion but messing with your supply. once at around 4 weeks i pumped one night and had my mom do one of the night feedings bc i had a horrible headache from being so sleep deprived. i did manage to get a straight block of 4 hrs sleep then (yay) but woke up with rock-hard boobs (ow) due to engorgement. it was worth it to get the sleep, but i wouldn't do it often, just to make sure supply is not affected.

i can totally understand your frustration though. we have no family in the area either, and although we had family visiting to help for the first 4 weeks after ds was born, i kinda felt like it was so dumb that i was STILL soo freaking sleep-deprived bc i was still having to get up all the time having to nurse!! it does pay off though,at least in my case... i always had a good supply and never had to supplement. not that there's anything wrong with supplementing btw, but every time i have to pump/use a bottle it's a royal pain for me bc of having to heat milk up, wash all the pump/bottle parts! just whipping out the boob whenever needed was so much easier. but yeah, it totally sucks in the beginning when u are getting no sleep and on top of that are trying to recover from labor or c-section or whatever.

btw what really helped me is that for the first couple weeks DH (or my mom or MIL) woke up with me for ALL the night feedings. i would nurse and then DH (or whoever) would change the diaper and while he did that i shoved food in my mouth (i was soo hungry!). helped a lot that all i had to do was nurse & eat (even though that alone is the hardest/most tiring part IMO!)

[egoldber]

I think if you want to BF you are still going to have to pump at night to keep your supply up and maintain some kind of comfort level for yourself.
I found, even when nursing through the night....if DH let me sleep one session and gave DD a bottle, by the next feeding I was totally engorged, leaking and very uncomfortable.

:yeahthat:

I get the need for sleep, but the problem is you can't know ahead of time if you are one of the people for whom skipping a night feeding regularly (as opposed to once in awhile) will harm your supply. Especially if you had supply issues with your first child, I would be very leery of this.

[twowhat?]

We just powered through it, and it SUCKED. I'd also thought about hiring a night nanny, but I'd still have to get up to pump so it defeated the purpose.

If you want to nurse, my recommendation would actually be to sleep as much as you can while the newborn sleeps (set yourself up so that if the baby falls asleep nursing, you can just sit right there and nap too), and use hired help for your older child.

[luckytwenty]

You know what? Reading these other posts makes me wonders if the BF issues I had with my daughter--frequent blocked ducts, for one, too much supply and constant leaking--were because I skipped that 1 a.m. feeding. Maybe it's better to just go through it without the block of sleep. It's a very short time in the scheme of things, after all. Sigh....

[sste]

Oh, I should clarify, we were thinking of 1-2 nights of night nurse per week max. Not every night! Do you still think supply issues?

Last time, I had zero supply issues until I went back to work FT, and even then I more or less made it through to 14 months BFing.

What happened last time was that my c-section recovery was slow and brutal and BOTH dh and I had to get for every single feeding for a good month . . . he had to carry the baby to me. And then go to work for 12 hours! At about six weeks, I was crazy with sleep deprivation - - literally, I was having visual hallucinations of thinking things were moving in the periphery of my vision. DH, who is physically just a work horse with incredible endurance, basically served as the night nurse 2-3 a week. But, I am starting to worry that DH is pushing himself physically too hard . . . and I have vivid memories of what a lunatic I was after a few weeks without sleep.

[newg]

my friend is thinking of hiring some help during the day............so all she has to worry about is feeding the baby...........the nanny (or whoever it is) will help her take care of her toddler and any newborn needs (changind diapers and such)......so then she can sleep during the day as much as she wants.

that might be a better option for you.

[KrisM]

For getting the baby during the night, I'd get a co-sleeper or cradle or pnp with a bassinette and set up next to your bed. I only had to sit up and reach down to get the baby. I never got out of bed.

But, probably once a week or so wouldn't be bad, but you'll likely have to pump still or be really engorged!

[swissair81]

I actually don't spend much time getting up at night. Baby cries, I stuff he/she on to nurse & I go back to sleep. I wake up in time to switch sides. Contrast that with actually having to be awake enough to pump & put the milk away.

[ewpmsw]

If you find an experienced night nurse, she or a lactation consultant could probably give you some guidance, OP. Would you consider having her bring DC to you for a feeding so you don't have to get up or pump? (My mother helped in this way when we first brought DD home.)

If sleep is an issue for you, I think you're doing the right and responsible thing hiring a night nurse. GL and congrats.

[gatorsmom]

Well if a night nurse is like a post partum doula, then they start the day you come home from the hospital. My post partum doula would bring the twins into my bedroom when one was starting to show signs of hunger and help me get them to latch on. Then, while I was nursing the babies, she and I just chatted about, well everything. When the babies were done feeding she would take them downstairs to our family room where she would burp them, change their diapers and rock them or walk with them until they fell asleep. She wouldn't bother me again until it was time for the twins to bf again. This whole set up was wonderful because I slept while she cared for the babies. This helped a lot in the beginning because I was recovering from a csection and I got very little sleep durin the day due to EBFing the twins. She helped us for the first 4 weeks.

[twowhat?]

Well if a night nurse is like a post partum doula, then they start the day you come home from the hospital. My post partum doula would bring the twins into my bedroom when one was starting to show signs of hunger and help me get them to latch on. Then, while I was nursing the babies, she and I just chatted about, well everything. When the babies were done feeding she would take them downstairs to our family room where she would burp them, change their diapers and rock them or walk with them until they fell asleep. She wouldn't bother me again until it was time for the twins to bf again. This whole set up was wonderful because I slept while she cared for the babies. This helped a lot in the beginning because I was recovering from a csection and I got very little sleep durin the day due to EBFing the twins. She helped us for the first 4 weeks.

:yeahthat:This would have been ideal in my book. Except maybe 3 months worth of help:) You can doze while baby is nursing. It's the getting up to get baby, burping, changing, swaddling, settling and soothing baby back to sleep that is the big drainer. If you can afford this kind of help I think it would make a big difference for you. I just powered through it with just my husband's help (he was up with me every single time)...I remember how good it felt to get 5 hours between feedings (which translated to something like 3.5-4 hours of continuous sleep).

[SnuggleBuggles]

I would use a night nurse but still plan to nurse every feeding. Yes, you'll have interrupted sleep still but to be able to hand baby off to someone else just to hold and rock the baby (which both of our boys needed in those early weeks) is a wonderful thing. I remember after ds1 when we handed ds1 off to my mom after a 6am feeding and she took over...wonderful. Just to be able to completely relax and sleep knowing he was safe and cared for. My ear wasn't straining to hear him. It makes a difference. Eta- so even though my sleep was still interrupted again in 2-3 hours, at least I got good quality sleep in that time.

Beth

[hillview]

Well if a night nurse is like a post partum doula, then they start the day you come home from the hospital. My post partum doula would bring the twins into my bedroom when one was starting to show signs of hunger and help me get them to latch on. Then, while I was nursing the babies, she and I just chatted about, well everything. When the babies were done feeding she would take them downstairs to our family room where she would burp them, change their diapers and rock them or walk with them until they fell asleep. She wouldn't bother me again until it was time for the twins to bf again. This whole set up was wonderful because I slept while she cared for the babies. This helped a lot in the beginning because I was recovering from a csection and I got very little sleep durin the day due to EBFing the twins. She helped us for the first 4 weeks.

My friend had a night nurst and she did this. She also pumped one bottle worth when she was used to nursing. She got a lot more sleep than I did.
/hillary