Night-nursing lying down?

[J's Mama]

So, I'm mentally preparing for the birth of my second child in Sept. Before my DS was born I remember being told that co-sleeping would be great for nursing because I would just be able to nurse him in bed and barely wake. Well, that turned out not to be the case. For at least the first 4 months, he was so gassy and in need of burping after each feeding that I had to get up and nurse and burp him in the rocking chair. At the beginning I went to look up "burping" in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and there was no mention of it. Is this a myth? Were any of you able to breastfeed your newborns in bed without burping? I feel a little naive. How did you night-nurse with your newborns?

[fruitfulmomma]

If my mommy brain is remembering correctly, I did have to burp them sometimes for at least a few weeks, longer with my last one. I didn't need to be out of bed though. Usually I will lay on my back and lie them over my tummy to get to their backs. Then I pick them up and place them on my tummy so we are sleeping tummy-to-tummy.

The sleeping while nursing thing comes later but I still found it much more restful to just lie in bed awake than to be up moving around.

My youngest is 17 months and I usually wake when she is fussing around for the boob and then sleep while she is eating and wake again when she is finished and I turn her over away from me then, so we are sleeping my tummy to her back.

[cocoanib]

I'm new at this with a 9wk old, but this is what we do.
The last nurse of the evening usually ends with me lying in bed with her on my chest burping her. When she has burped and is sleep, I roll her over onto her back and then we sleep usually with me facing her.
In the middle of the night I generally don't burp after feeding. Only if she is stiring around like she's gassy. Then we do the same position again as at the beginning of the night.

[ssh]

I nursed lying down and usually we just both went back to sleep. I didn't think breastfed babies gulped air the same way as bottle fed ones do. Neither of my DDs needed burped often, and not at all with their in bed night nursing sessions.

[averlee]

I found that my daughter rarely needed to burp during night nursing sessions, and if she did, I just sat up in bed with her for a minute. I mastered side-lying nursing right away because my sutures made it painful to sit.

[mamadelbosque]

I've never regularly burped either of my boys and co-slept and night nursed laying down and back to sleep all. the. time. Ds1 took a month or two to figure out side lying nursing, but ds2 had it figured out from like, night 1 or 2 Good luck!!

[J's Mama]

Thanks so much for the great responses! I never thought of laying him across my stomach to burp! I'll have to try that! Although, I may get the baby this time that doesn't need to be burped! Fingers crossed! But of course, we're not taking into account all the diaper changes in those early weeks!

[Llyra]

I regularly burped during the day, but at night I only burped if baby was having trouble settling. I nursed twins, the second time, and good grief if I had to stay awake to the end of a feed in order to burp a baby, I would have died of sleep loss during the first week. No, I always just popped in the breast and went straight back to sleep, while the babies did their thing. If they squirmed or fussed, I'd give them to DH to burp, but only if they were uncomfortable, which didn't happen too often at night.

[Nicole730]

I also don't even attempt burping at night. Not much during the day either, unless she gets fussy and needs it. It it's at night, I either turn her on her side and pat her back or else across my stomach like the others.

[akind1]

We didn't figure out side lying nursing until around the 3 month mark. prior to that, I did get up and nurse, but if DS is asleep when he's finished, I don't bother burping him. (granted, he only was waking up once a night then, so getting up to nurse wasn't a big deal)

once we figured out the side lying thing (1st baby, but also, I have big boobs and it was hard to see his latch. once he could really latch on his own, and I didn't need to "aim" so much, side lying was much easier) defo didn't burp at night. He will fart alot at night sometimes though . . .doesn't seem to bother him enough to wake up

[Adaline'sMama]

Im also new to this (9 wks), but we've been side-lying since she was 2 weeks old. I feed her when I go to bed at around 12. She wakes up at 3 and again at 6. I burp her when I'm done feeding the first time. I almost never burp her at the 3 oclock feeding, and sometimes I burp her at 6 (sometimes we just go ahead and get up). I am so glad we started nursing this way from the beginning. When she was 1-2 weeks old, I would nurse her while lying on my side when we were both awake. I think that's helped a lot. Also, I cant keep her on her back, she always rolls onto her side. So she may be burping while Im asleep.

[sunnygir1]

My babies were both born early, and neither had good head control. Both were fairly slow nursers, and we didn't get the hang of nursing lying down for the first few months.

They also both had colic, dd until 7 months, and ds until 4 months. Because of their gas pains and tummy troubles, I burped them. After we got the hang of side-lying, my ds still needed burping usually...he would let me know because he would squirm and cry and not sleep. I'd pick him up and walk him around and he'd burp and fall asleep.

By 6 months he didn't need that burping most times. I still sit him up after nursing (at 8 months) so that he can burp, and he doesn it on his own most times.

So, the long and short of it is that I think your lo will let you know...try it out, it can't hurt.

[J's Mama]

Thanks for all the great responses!

[NSmomtobe]

I didn't master this until he was 6 weeks old, but now if he needs to burp during the night, I lie on my back and drape him across my belly.

[staceychev]

I don't burp my DD often, and didn't with the first either.