Saturday, July 31, 2010

The Midnight Feed

Following the advice of The Baby Whisperer, we started giving R "dreamfeeds" to keep her asleep through the night. Basically, we feed and change the baby before she wakes up, so that she does not in fact wake up. The midnight feed is my domain, and Senpai takes care of 6 am.

Can I tell you how much I love the midnight feed? She is asleep, blissfully asleep, and cooperative. I haven't told you yet, but R has colic. HAD colic, actually, she is growing out of it. For the most part she is better, but there are some days/nights when she just has to get at least an hour of screaming in, whether for old times' sake, or to drive Senpai and I up the wall, or both. She may scream so hard that she can't calm down to eat and therefore chokes on the milk she so desperately wants. But I tell you what, there is none of that at midnight, none! I just gently pick her up out of her crib, ease us down into the glider chair, slip the nipple into her mouth, and she sucks to her little heart's content. After a diaper change and some light taps on the back to encourage burps, I settle us back into the chair, rest my feet on the matching gliding ottoman, and taste heaven. My beautiful little baby girl, snuggled up against my chest, heart to heart... it brings tears to my eyes to think of it. Such a peaceful moment, night after night. She doesn't pull away and lean her head back to stare at the ceiling fan, or rock back and forth to let out a belch. There's no fuss, no tears. Just sweet baby sleep, right there in my arms, with beautiful baby dreams.

What do babies dream about? Fresh milk, warm snuggles, clean tush? She must be in heaven, too.

I haven't figured out when I'm supposed to stop the midnight feed, but I'm not looking forward to it. I imagine it ends when I get tired of doing it. In that case, R's boyfriend will protest my coming over to their apartment and sticking a bottle in her mouth while she's wide awake, finishing a midterm paper on her laptop. "Thanks, Mom, that was just what I needed!" Lol!

1 comments:

Amy Capelle said...

We did the same with Chloe, but her feed was at 10 pm. I think at about 7 or 8 months we gradually pulled the time closer and closer to 8 pm and then dropped that bottle altogether. She now goes to bed at 7 pm with no bottle at all and sleeps until 6:30-7 in the morning. The Baby Whisperer rocks!

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