The first 10 newborn nights
I’ll start with saying that obviously every baby is different and every mum has their own journey following birth as they enter motherhood. The journey we’ve had so far with Ottie has been very different to the journey we had with Hallie, I just wanted to share what the first 10 nights have been like for us to show just how different each night has been.
Night one - We came out of theatre at about 7:30pm and into the recovery room. Ottie fed approximately every two hours. At about 2am she had a mega sick session getting out all of her mucus. Luckily we had a fab midwife on hand who was a pro at winding her and getting all this mucus out.
Night two - On the ward. Ottie cluster fed (feeding really regularly) from 10pm to 5am. My milk hadn’t come through at this point and she was going mad for it. Because she wasn’t satisfied from what she was getting she was then near impossible to settle and put down so she spent the majority of the night on me either feeding or dozing.
Night three - On the ward. All that cluster feeding really knackered her out and she was the sleepiest little bear. I was setting alarms to wake her every three - four hours and even then she was too sleepy to feed. Cue enormous, sore boobs. Due to her lack of feeding there was then a concern of jaundice. She was plotting just below the line needing treatment so we were kept in another night to see if she got better or if she needed to go for some light treatment.
Night four - On the ward. Ottie woke up and cluster fed from 1am to 5am - minimal sleep for me but ideal as when it came to the jaundice test the following day she’d totally kicked it.
Night five - First night at home! Ottie woke to be fed approximately every two hours.
Night six - Ottie fed from 10 - 11pm, 1:45 - 3am, 5:30 - 6:15am.
Night seven - Ottie cluster fed between 5pm - 12am (wow) but then slept until 5am.
Night eight - Ottie fed between 9:15 - 10:45pm then woke at 1:45 and fed until 2:30am and then back down until 6:15.
Night nine - Ottie fed on and off from 7 - 10:45pm then a quick feed at 2:30 then woke at 7am.
Night ten - Last feed finished at 11:20pm then fed at 2:30 but didn’t really settle until 4:45 then woke at 8:50am.
Since then Ottie has picked up a cold so has been harder to settle at night but when calm we’re still getting the occasional decent block. This is something we didn’t get with Hallie until she was around 5 months old! She was an every two hours feed consistently from day one.
The above isn’t a guide or an indication of what your newborn should or shouldn’t be doing but just sharing so expectant parents can see what they might expect when their bundle of joy comes along and just generally showing how irregular and all over the place newborn sleep is.
