You’re a new mom, you’ve lost a lot of sleep, but your baby has finally started sleeping through the night (or at least a good portion of the night) and you are THRILLED! Then it comes time for your maternity leave to end and you head back to work. All of a sudden, your excellent little sleeper starts waking up and wanting to nurse at night. You are wondering what is going on!!
Well, this is actually a VERY common occurrence. Lots of babies do what we call “reverse cycling” when mom heads back to work. Your baby will still eat during the day while you are away, but they miss you and they miss the closeness of nursing – so they will wake up during the night and actually start nursing more at night and eating less during the day.
I went back to work when my son was four months old. He was an excellent sleeper and started sleeping 8 PM to 4 AM when he was just four weeks old – so I was one spoiled new mama! Well, literally TWO DAYS after I went back to work, my little guy stopped sleeping through the night and didn’t do it again until he was nearly 12 months old!! He would still go down at 8 PM, but would wake up every morning at 1 AM and want to nurse. I was so tired since I was now working full-time that I was always falling asleep while sitting up trying to nurse my son in the middle of the night. So I ended up bringing him in bed with me instead! He would nurse and I would get some much-needed shut-eye! My husband used to wake up and I would be sound asleep and my son would be nursing away.
If this happens to your baby – don’t worry – it’s NORMAL! And do what works best for you – for us, that was co-sleeping. And no matter what – always remember “this too shall pass” – it is GOLDEN RULE of parent-hood!!
Did your baby reverse cycle when you went back to work? What did you do to cope? Please leave a comment and share your story.
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This happened to me also. My little guy was never a great sleeper, but once I went back to work part time when he was 3 months it got bad. Looking back I feel so silly because we didn’t co-sleep… well actually often we did… him in his crib and me on the floor next to him! WHAT WAS I THINKING? Thank goodness I have seen the light and the next one will co-sleep in OUR bed!
To this day, my guy wakes every night (he is 4 next month). Sometime in the middle of the night, he wakes and comes to our bed. It works perfectly for us because we love the snuggle time but daddy and I get time alone in the evenings when he goes to bed in his own room. And weekends are “family days” and almost always mean co-sleeping all night.
I really wish more families were encouraged to co-sleep because it is one of the main things that a working mom can do to support her breastfeeding relationship. If only I had known that earlier!
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