10 Reasons To Love the Night Feed

Sometimes, just for kicks, Mr Only Girl and I reminisce to a time when we would say “goodnight” to one another, safe in the knowledge that it would be just that, a good night. We’d lean in for a quick peck before going our separate ways into the land of nod, with no intention of seeing each other again ’til morn. Oh what a time that was – pre-baby-time to be exact. These days, following the preparation that comes with heading to bed: spare dummy and bottles prepped for night feed, dogs out for a wee and grabbing something cosy to slip on at 3am – we simply give each other a tight squeeze before bidding “good luck” to the other! That’s exactly what our nights are riding on – luck!

At 11 months, Casper shows no sign of sleeping through the night; sure, this might happen once in a blue moon but we’re not kidding ourselves that we’re anywhere near not seeing our wee babe in the wee hours on a regular basis just yet.

It was during one of these many night feeds/cuddles, that I realised, all is not lost – there must be something positive about being up at stupid-o’clock and sure enough, once I’d racked my brains hard enough, the great reasons to be awake at 2am, 3am and 4am hit me. Of course, mother nature and #teamnosleep are actually doing us mother’s a favour, or 10 favours to be precise…

10 Reasons to Love the Night Feed

1. Phone Charge Optimisation

On the arrival of my lovely, big, shiny Iphone 6, 11 yr old kindly informed me that in order to ensure the longevity of my battery (he meant, instead of me carrying round that mobile charger everywhere to ensure I never lost touch with Instagram for more than 5 minutes!) I should only charge my phone until it hits the 100% mark. In other words, putting my phone on charge before I went to bed and leaving it there all night, whilst I peacefully slumbered was, in fact, killing off my battery, and with it my lifeline to the outside world! Solution: make sure you set a little human alarm to wake you in the middle of the night, then take your phone off charge!

2. Hydrate

Struggling to fit 2l of water in? Drink some at 3am to catch up on your daily intake.

3. What’s Australia Doing?

If you’ve ever cursed that you never have time to catch up with those pesky, sun-loving smug bastards you once knew who emigrated to Aus or NZ – now’s your chance as you’ll be working on an international clock thanks to your new little person. For the past 11 months I’ve seen more of what my Australian cousins have been up to, than my best friend who lives minutes down the road, thanks to being able to check social media at 2am.

4. Going Back to Your Roots

Yes. 10,000 years ago you could’ve been eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger in your sleep, so we evolved to snooze in small chunks to avoid danger – even now we still sleep in cycles, each of which ends with a “micro arousal” (yes I’m giggling at that phrase too!) where we’ll groan or change position in bed, or even awake. So thanks to our little babes, we’re ensuring we stay alert for all those sabre-tooth tigers prowling suburbia.

5. Wrinkle Free

Surely the less time our faces spend crinkled into the pillow (usually dribbling) not only means we’re not sleeping, but our visage might stay a little more wrinkle free! Ok, what we lack in wrinkles we make up for with dark circles and blood-shot eyes, but every cloud mamas!

6. No More Guilt

Have you ever felt that pang of guilt when your mother or other self-righteous light sleeper asks: “Did you hear that storm last night?” – when in actual fact you slept peacefully through the whole shebang like a hungover teenager?! Well, rest assured you will now be hearing every mild breeze occurring between 1-4am.

7. Bye Bye Bed Hair

Less pillow time = less muzzed up hair! So tomorrow when you’re feeling like poo and struggling to function without an IV of coffee – be happy in the knowledge that the back of your head doesn’t resemble Worzel Gummidge’s barnet,

8. Justify That Spend

Spent a small fortune on bed linen? Appreciate it by being awake in it and share you’re love of it by bringing a small human in for a cuddle too!

9. Oh, nearly forgot…

Of course, obligatory bonding time with your bundle of joy!

10. Annnnddd, finally…

This one’s a bit of a bonus! Automatic membership to the worlds most rockin, zombie mum filled club #teamnosleep sleepings cheating.

On a slightly related note… after some tips on how to keep healthy as a new mama? Find my and tonnes of other super-mum’s tips on how to keep sane and healthy in this thing called motherhood in THIS nifty little e-book by Shields.org.