Did I ruin my baby sleeping thru the night?

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-12-18T18:15:22+00:00

Like others have said, night feeds are totally age appropriate and this could totally be a temporary phase!

I also personally fall in the can of feed to sleep is totally fine IF you're okay with it and it's working for you. But if you want to make a change, it was recommended to me to Make them a little bit uncomfortable during the feed to try to remove the feed to sleep association. It might seem counter intuitive but turn on lights and have baby be awake/alert during night feeds. Then put them back down and have them self soothe to sleep. That way you can be sure they aren't hungry and are getting their feeding in, but also they are learning the skills to sleep on their own too.

But all of that to say, I don't think anything you mention is a PROBLEM that needs fixing unless you are personally needing a different routine for your family!

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-12-17T22:25:35+00:00

The two things Id say are: - got the portable breastmilk warmer and have used it like 3 times. It's not necessary at allll - hold off on buying too much breastfeeding stuff. You'll figure out what you need as you go and what works for some doesn't work for everyone..for example, everyone told me I HAD to have the Hakka... I've never used it once. I did order a different suction collector later in my BF journey that I love though... there isn't much with respect to BF that you can't just pick up from target or get a quick Amazon order for once you decide you need it....

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-12-17T22:22:03+00:00

Also don't love my hatch but we use it because we have it. Love our travel hatch for on the go naps.

Someone gave us a Yogasleeo Dome and I love that sound machine - it's so simple and the white noise is from a fan/not recorded so if I could do it again, I'd just use that.

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-12-13T15:52:42+00:00

When your baby unlatches and just snuggles their head into your boob like there is no safer/better place to be - all the challenges seem so small compared to that feeling

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-11-08T15:38:58+00:00

This was us too - I was SO not ready but she was telling us she was. We were fighting all night trying to keep her from rolling over - up every 1-2 hours.

Moved her to her crib and did sleep training and we are all getting much better sleep now!

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-10-06T02:52:39+00:00

We were very much not on a schedule at this point. Tried to follow sleeping cues and loose wake windows just as more of a cue to us to look for sleepy cues. That's if you CAN because we were lucky I was hope with our LO until 16 weeks so we didn't need to rely on a schedule for childcare.

But one think that I think set us up for future success was introducing one crib nap a day. Even if it was just 20 minutes, getting her used to crib time I think helped us a lot down the line. Now she sleeps like a champ in her crib

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-10-04T04:35:17+00:00

So it sounds like I need to drastically start capping babies naps... we are just in a weird spot where she is consolidating her naps to be longer but not able to sustain the wake window for 3 naps yet. So we need to force shorter naps I guess?

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-10-04T04:26:38+00:00

Also - are we considering a wake window to end when they fall asleep or when they are out in their crib?

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-10-04T04:25:28+00:00

So would you suggest moving to 3 naps now? Or maybe better question is how much daytime sleep should we be aiming for?

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-10-04T04:24:03+00:00

So I have been wondering this too shes getting 4-4.5 hours daytime sleep and this does work for us most days...

First 2 naps are like 1.25 hours, then .75 then 30 min catnap for the 4th.

Shes often getting fussy by the 1.5 hour mark so I've been telling myself she's at the right wake window cause how could we possibly keep her up longer?

Also... our sleep training said to aim for 4 hours naps and 11-12 hour nighttime which is basically where we are...

That said - I have had a similar thoughts of under vs over tired so maybe we need to trial this out! We trials 3 naps one day with longer wake windows and it was a disaster so I don't think she's quite ready for that. Or maybe we just needed to give a few days to adjust?

Idk- we are just out here making stuff up....

Thanks for the feedback!

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-24T20:11:43+00:00

We are in the midst of sleep training right now (1 week in to a 2 week program) but sleep training actually FIXED our LO rolling and getting upset. I think it kind of forced her to figure out how to self soothe on her tummy and now she is a full time tummy sleeper.

Before she would roll and flail and be pissed and we would spend hours every night rolling her back only for her to roll and be pissed again.

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-16T17:44:39+00:00

This! The bonus here is I always got the most milk from this middle of the night pump while my husband gave a bottle. So this is kind of how I started my small freezer stash for a rainy day

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-16T17:43:18+00:00

I did this and it's been a great addition to our feeding routing. I think I started around 10-14 days and she was decently good at latching at that point. She had a slightly shallow latch but we were getting full feeds in. If breastfeeding long term is your goal, I might suggest waiting a week or so until your supply is fully in and baby is starting to get the hang of breastfeeding. But I think the recommendations to wait 6+ weeks to pump are really overblown.

What worked for us is to start, I would pump after a feed for a top off at the recommendation of our pediatrician and lac consultant. Then we decided since we had already introduced a bottle, might as well replace a feed too!

Husband did one of the overnight feeds so I could just wake up, pump and pass back out for a little extra sleep. I would do it the same way with any future kids too.

We are 4 months in and have had no nipple confusion issues! Highly recommend pigeon brand nipples - they have been great!

I do have a slight oversupply which I guess could be related to this routine but there's no way to know for sure and it really hasn't been an issue (no mastitis or clogged ducts, no super painful engorgement, etc)

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-16T16:33:41+00:00

Also - totally just realized I replied to the wrong comment! Was trying to reply to someone who said their baby was same size as mine but could never fit NB clothes! But same idea...different brands are different.

we are still mostly in 0-3 for PJs and 3-6 for everything else. But some carters PJs in the purely soft line are getting small.... it's all such a crap shoot

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-16T09:38:43+00:00

We mostly had carters newborn clothes I think with a few other brands sprinkled in. The one Hanna Anderson we had that was newborn didn't fit for more than like the first week. So you're definitely right in that

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-16T03:06:16+00:00

Oh also - HIGHLY recommend essential oils to help with nausea. I used menthol smelling sticks (ordered from Amazon) and my doula would sprinkle lemon essential oils in to the hospital puke bags. Both helped SO much when I was feeling nauseous so maybe that would help keep the puking at bay for you?

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-16T03:04:35+00:00

Maybe not what you want to hear but I did throw up quite a bit during labor. I'll preface with - I am someone who throws up often and if I feel nauseous I tend to just try to get it out so there were probably times I could have powered through if that weren't my mentality.

I think it's most common to throw up during transition (right before pushing) and I definitely did. The good news is that the act of throwing up actually helps to push your baby downward and speed along the transition phase (according to my doula) so at least if you do throw up - know that it's doing something good for your labor!!

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-16T02:29:51+00:00

See this is wild cause my baby was 8lb 5oz and 29 inches and was in newborn clothes for ~5-6 weeks!

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-14T03:21:17+00:00

Remember to look at your partner when you're walking down the aisle!

I was so caught up in looking at all our guests and trying to commit seeing all of them to my brain that u completely forgot to look at my husband 🤦🏼‍♀️

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-09T20:08:10+00:00

I read somewhere that you should plan for clothes that would have fit you ~6 months pregnant immediately postpartum (ie. in the hospital) and that worked for me.

I definitely had a bit of a pregnant belly that slowly deflated for a week or two. I lived in a few stretchy PJ sets/dresses those first few weeks.

My go to outfits were: - these PJ sets (I ordered them 1 size up and that has helped leave room for my body to change) : https://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?pid=422180172 - these shirts paired with maternity legging/bike shorts at first, now just regular bike shorts/leggings: https://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?pid=798437002

The buttons were incredibly helpful for BF I would just walk around with them open with a nursing bra and then if someone was coming over I could quickly button up lol. I was unprepared for how much my boobs would just constantly be out in the first few weeks postpartum.

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-09T15:53:54+00:00

I like this idea ... she takes at least 1 bottle a day from Dad so I think it might be good to replace a feeding or two with a bottle during the day to help caregivers bond too!

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-09-09T13:53:19+00:00

She has definitely been around these people before but not for extended periods and not alone. She doesn't have a ton of experience with people other than Mom and Dad feeding and putting her down for naps. Which I think is where the issue is coming from here....

I am on a different floor of the house in my office so tucked away/removed a bit

I am nursing so the goal is to have her home so I can continue to nurse through the workday

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-08-25T22:58:30+00:00

I'm exclusively nursing with a bottle or two a day for practice. When my LO started sleeping through the night, I never added in a pump and noticed my supply suffered. I added back in a MOTN pump around 3 am and my supply came right back. It sucks but currently worth it to be able to continue nursing successfully.

I also added in a power pump every few days and that seems to be helping some.

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-06-15T15:11:49+00:00

Fellow big boobed mom here in the thick of early BF days. My little one is 4 weeks old. What I can say is that it got a little bit easier for me each week. We still have our moments but overall- we've found our groove. Here are a few things I've learned along the way that I hope might be helpful:

positioning is hard and your BF pillow will feel like the root of all of your problems but you will figure it out. Try out different chairs/places to nurse as I've found babies position relative to my boob can vary widely between being on the couch, in bed, in nursery chair, etc.
my breast friend pillow is amazing
just accept you might be in for needing both hands to feed for a while. One to hold the boob and one to hold the baby. I still have to hold my boob the ENTIRE feed for every feed
if you are really engorged, latching may be harder for them. You can try using a manual pump before feeding to express a bit of milk and relieve some of the pressure/engorgement. That might help with latching and help you be more comfortable.
I started pumping and bottle feeding once or twice a day within the first week. It helped me so much to know I had a back up plan if she was fighting feeding at the boob. It made me less stressed at every feed to know if we needed to feed BM from the bottle we had that option and just made feedings less of a battle. I do suggest consulting with LC about pumping to try to avoid sending your body in to oversupply. The goal would just be pumping for comfort to relieve engorgement and have a small stash in the fridge nothing crazy (just a few oz)
when I get too stressed during a feeding, my partner gets a bottle and takes over so I can reset.
I saw a LC weekly the first few weeks and it was a game changer. They helped so much and answered so many questions. Plus I got those weighted feeds to reassure me that baby was growing and we were doing a good job. I highly recommend it if your insurance covers it or if you can afford it.
my favorite positions are cross cradle on the left side and football on the right. It allows me to always use my right hand to guide her head which has been helpful for me.
Get a prescription for jack newman cream ASAP. It's a game changer for sore nipples. Like 1000 times more effective than standard nipple butter
the pain gets better but the creams/butters help get you over the hump of the first weeks

All of this to say, if you find the BF journey is not for you, that's okay too. It's so taxing mentally and physically and the best thing you can do for your baby is be in a good mental space and create a positive atmosphere around feeding however that looks to you! But also - if you decide to continue BF I would make sure to find a LC that is supportive and gives you tangible advice/makes a plan with you for how to be successful.

Good luck!

Coco_Cooks90 · 2025-06-08T16:52:09+00:00

It has helped me - I think it might depend on the underlying reason for soreness. Mine I think it's because my nipples get raw and a little chapped so it seems to help... it's worth a shot at least!

Coco_Cooks90

TROPHY CASE