It’s such a beautiful, quiet, soothing thing to feed a baby to sleep. They begin restless and fidgety, itching to latch on and feed for all they’re worth.
You watch their little face, hungry greedily, noisily swallowing every mouthful. The only part of their body you see moving is their lips and throat, the rest of their body is paralysed so their focus can be solely on being fed.
As they feed, slowly their demeanour changes. Slowly little eyes begin to flicker and close. Limbs begin to relax. Swallowing slows down until all that’s left are little tongue flickers done unconsciously. Finally they let go, asleep, full, satisfied.
It’s such a beautiful thing to watch.
At 3 and a half months, my own beautiful little boy has clocked what’s going on. He knows feeding sends him to sleep, so he refuses to feed after a certain point. He just doesn’t want to miss out on anything that’s going on. He feels his eyes closing so he pulls himself away, determined not to fall asleep.
Often the only way I can get him to sleep is to feed him as much as he will let me, and them rock him to sleep in my arms. This works, but he only sleeps for half an hour until his hunger wakes him up. I’ve found that if I can feed him exactly at that moment, before he has properly woken, then he will feed to sleep. Then he gets milk drunk, sent into the sleepy stupor that mothers long for, which tells them that they might have an hour of peace.
Knit in the Forest 