Is there such a thing as a turkey-dinner sensation to be induced to sleep?

Your goal is to give baby the turkey-dinner feeling. Physiologically, a full stomach makes you feel tired. Your body wants you to be inactive, so it can concentrate on digestion. By following all the guidelines in this chapter, you should expect your baby to be sleeping through the night (7–8 hours straight) somewhere between 3 and 9 weeks after due date. Some ideas on achieving these are: Express off some of your fat-rich milk each morning to top baby up with late at night. • Lactating mums can try blessed thistle capsules or tea (available at health shops). It is said to thicken the milk. It also commonly makes the baby less ‘windy’. If blessed thistle doesn’t do the trick, then the mother could also try the herbal supplement marshmallow and/or a calcium supplement and/or lecithin, which all traditionally help the baby find the milk more satisfying. Controversially, you may like to make your breastfed baby’s last night feed a formula feed instead of breast. (Please, breast-is-best advocates, don’t fiercely object to that suggestion.) Certainly, breastmilk is the priority — but equally important for the baby’s development are solid sleeps and the prevention of extreme maternal sleep-deprivation.  If your baby is already formula-fed, then perhaps it may be time for the thicker ‘for hungry babies’ product for the last feed in the evening. Have a gap of at least 20 minutes between the final feed and final bedtime, so that the baby doesn’t learn to associate feeding with sleep.