Do you plan on sharing baby duties during the night for the first few months?

Question

And if so, how? Especially if you're planning on breastfeeding? I'm a FTM and just thinking about how I would like to do that. I plan on breastfeeding and cosleeping for at least the first 6 months.

Answer

I am curious to hear from women who have already done it and were exclusively breastfeeding...

Answer

I exclusively breastfed my first two.  I obviously did all the feeds then their Dad burped/changed them settled them back to sleep in their basinette next to our bed.  You are up so often feeding,  every minute counts.

Answer

My hubs has about a month off so at first he really wants to help at night. I'm exclusively breastfeeding and not co sleeping but baby will be in our room in basinet. We are going to play it by ear but I'm thinking my husband will get baby changed when he wakes and then pass baby to me for feeding. After hubs goes back to work I just want him to sleep and I will care for baby at night.

Answer

during the first few weeks, my hubby will be getting up with our 2 year old on the weekends and once my milk is well established i plan on pumping so my hubby can get up and participate is helping feed too

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I'm fully aware this plan could change once baby arrives, but my husband is going to do at least one night feeding on the weekend nights once breastfeeding is established and I can pump a bit. The first 3-4 weeks I'll probably be doing it mostly on my own because I'm the one with the boobs, but my husband said he'll get up if I'm really struggling (ie: baby's been up every 45 minutes and won't stop crying). I'm hoping to get to a point relatively quickly where I can get one night of uninterrupted sleep a week. I have a friend who did this and swears by it - she said at three weeks old she started pumping and that one night of uninterrupted sleep made her feel like a totally new person.

Answer

My husband works swing shift and gets cranky when he doesn't get enough sleep. I am solely responsible for all nighttime care. He says what's the point of him getting up since his boobs don't work like that. It's irritating but I'd rather do that than listen to him complain all damn day about how tired he is like he's the only one who didn't get enough sleep. 🙄

Answer

With my 1st I would pump 1 bottle a day (2-3 oz), which would take me all day to get. And I would go to bed at 10 right after last nursing session. Since our son wouldn't sleep anywhere but in our arms, he would hold baby while he slept, when he woke to eat he would feed him with the bottle and get him back to sleep when he woke again to eat next he would wake me and I would take over for the rest of the night. It allowed me to sleep from 1030-3/4 ish for the first month which was a big help. Then daddy got a bad cold and I just brought him into my bed and would nurse him laying down.

My 2nd we just went right to bed sharing and didn't even try a bottle which worked fine for us.

Answer

I'm planning on doing it myself for the first 12 weeks since I'll be on maternity leave and he will have to work. After that we may do what my mom always did. She would breastfeed then hand baby to dad and he would burp, change and get baby back to sleep.

Answer

I'm a ftm so I guess I'll have to see how it goes. But I plan to do most of the night feedings and changing myself. My husband says he will wake up with me and won't be able to sleep through it. But I'm going to be a stay at home mom and he goes back to work full time pretty much the following week. So I want him to get more sleep since he works 8 hour days and sits in traffic 1.5 hours each way. He needs rest. I know I do to but I'll have my mom to help me during the day the first few weeks and it'll help me get some rest.

Answer

My husband and I have our "baby shifts". We both work full time so I take 12:30a to 12:30p because he works 3a-12p and he does 12:30p-12:30a because I work 3p-12a. On my days off I take the baby most of the day because hubby works 6 days a week and I only work 4.

Do you plan on sharing baby duties during the night for the first few months?

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