Returned to work, no longer skipping night feeds

[Laykha's Mom]

Hello all -

Since I've returned to work, I'm finding that my DD (almost 4 months) no longer sleeps through any night feeds.  I read on kellymom.com that if a breastfeeding mum is gone during the day, the baby will often wake for night feeds.  Seems this is happening with my LO.  She has the same number of feeds during the day as if I were nursing her myself, usually taking a good 4-5 ounces per feed.  Before going back to work, she'd usually skip a middle of the night feed, or at least go an extra few hours.  Now, its like clockwork - every three hours - even with a 10pm dream feed.  Wondering if other mums returning to work experienced this as well.  Will she readjust or might I need to try and wean her?  When she does wake to feed, she usually feeds 15 minutes.

Thanks much -

Susan

[Samuel's mum]

It sounds as though she is reverse cycling as you say. It is quite commonly what happens when a mum goes back to work. She really wants to make a connection with you and say hello and milk is a bonus! I've read of babies who barely take a sip of water during daylight hours and feed like crazy at night. Some breastfed mums encourage this (the ones who can manage without much sleep!) if for example they have little success pumping and don't want to supplement. I would personally try a few things before weaning her if you can. You could start by offering more during the day. You could experiment with giving larger bottles or even try some cluster feeding when you are home with her. Perhaps also think of ways to increase bodily contact with her when you're around in the evening to try and meet that need. Maybe some skin-to-skin time or some close time listening to quiet music that is part of the nighttime routine. Then at night, imagine you weren't working - what methods would you use? Is there someone else who can settle her instead of you? Have you used pat/shush or pu/pd depedning on how mobile she is? I would approach nighttime weaning as you would naturally and see what happens.