Regardless of whether you choose to breastfeed or to bottle feed your baby, feeding time can be one of the most important bonding times that you have with your baby. Feeding time should be comfortable for your baby. You should make eye contact with your baby during feeding, and interact with her both verbally and non-verbally. Let your baby know how much you love her. Sing softly to her, rock her, and enjoy the moments that you have with her.
Still, this can sometimes cause a problem with nighttime baby feeding. If you give your baby too much attention during nighttime baby feeding, your baby may wake up fully and may have some trouble going back to sleep. If that’s the case, you’ll need to scale back the amount of attention you’re giving him during that nighttime baby feeding.
Now, it’s not always instinctive for you to reduce the amount of attention you give to your baby during a feeding. Making a feeding boring doesn’t come naturally. In the long run, however, it is probably better for both you and your baby. As much as your baby needs to feel love and attention and feel connected with you, those nighttime baby feedings aren’t necessarily the time to focus on that. Your baby needs sleep as much as she needs affection, and if he’s overstimulated then he’s not going to get the sleep that he needs (and neither are you).
To make those nighttime baby feedings less interesting, make sure the room is dark. Avoid handing your baby toys, or looking at books with your baby. Dim the lights so that you can see well enough that you can take care of your baby, but no brighter. If you don’t have dimmer switches on the lights in your baby’s room, you can instead control the amount of light that flows into the room bu using a hallway light and angling the door.
Finally, you need to learn to read the signs. Some babies will become more awake if you rock them or sing gently, while other babies will become more relaxed. Learning to watch your baby’s reactions will help greatly with those nighttime baby feedings.