Your baby isn't waking and feeding in the night just for fun! 

• Your baby is following his body's signals. Arriving with no sense of night and day, when he's hungry, he asks for food...at 3pm or 3am.

• Your baby's tummy is small and needs regular feeds - your baby can't help wanting more food when their egg sized tummy was last filled at least an hour ago!

• For those breastfeeding, your prolactin - the milk-production hormone - levels are higher at night so regular night feeds signal to your body that baby is growing and needs more fuel! Not stimulating your breasts at all during this middle-of-the-night window can signal your milk supply to drop (as well as giving you a big, full, not-so-comfortable surprise when you wake in the morning...)

• Sometimes your baby may be waking for reasons other than hunger (see my older post on why babies wake) but snuggling close to you or someone else who loves them and sucking on the breast or bottle calms and relaxes baby and helps send them back to sleep (if nothing else is bothering them that needs rectifying!)

• Just like you and I, your baby's body needs a certain amount of calories/fuel over the course of 24 hours to keep them satisfied and to grow! So, understandably, if they've not managed to eat so much in the day, they might want to play catch up overnight. This is why I'd always advise, if you can, to make sure baby is fed regularly in the day (none of this 3-hourly schedule malarkey!) And they might just stretch that bit further at night, especially as their circadian rhythm develops and their body distinguishes between night and day, prioritising rest at night! 

Perhaps you can find ways to make these wake-ups as least disruptive to your sleep and theirs as possible. For example, explore laid back or side-lying breastfeeding positions so that you can rest while baby feeds and your baby can access a feed easily even if not fully awake. Keep lights low and interactions minimal during these feeds - your baby will gradually learn that night is not the party-time that day might be. 

Of course, disrupted sleep is hard on our bodies and beyond, so get the support you need: from friends, family or professional help so you can pass on some of the load!

If your baby's night waking is becoming a real struggle for you and your family, please find support, even just for some respite. Sometimes the reason baby wakes or is harder to settle, even with a feed, may need more exploration. You know your baby best. And you're doing great.