When to start sleeping through the night?

[Elisabethpate]

When can I start trying to get DD sleeping through the night? She is four weeks and 9.5 lbs. She gets a bottle with 2-3 oz around 11pm and then sleeps until around 3, sometimes later. I have to go back to school (I'm a teacher) in a few weeks and have to leave the house by 6 am. I am dreading it and don't know how I will be able to make it through the day with so little sleep! Already my husband is giving the 11pm bottle so that I can go to bed earlier but I am still exhausted from the middle of the night feed. The 3am feed takes forever because she always falls asleep after a few min and then wakes up if I try to put her back to bed. Then she always has a big poop and eats some more. The whole process takes at least an hour but usually more. Any advice?

[*happy*]

first of all...hugs!!!my LO is 7mo now,but i remember those first few weeks!they are sooooo exhausting-your body is recovering plus you have a newborn to look after.we started giving a DF properly at 8 weeks and DD started going through to 5/6ish from then on without another feed.she was always a good night-sleeper though.....(NOT a good napper....but that's another story!!!) i relied alot on chancing my arm with the soother in the hopes that she just needed to suck,not feed & it worked for us (she is also not a v hungry baby!)gradually,she stopped waking so much (every 1-2 hrs) & we  weaned the soother when she figured out how to suck her fingers. not sure re the weight side of things but i was BFing & terrified i was starving her so i brought her to my PHN every week for a weight -check & she was always thriving. HTH!sending you sleepy vibes.xxx

[Erin M]

Hun, I know it's hard to be sleep deprived, but she's still so incredibly little.  Babies have such teeny tiny tummies at this age and those MOTN feeds are very important to packing on the pounds in those early days.  I'd look to try to wake her up as much as you can in order to get those calories in her -- maybe a diaper change when she wakes, or halfway through the bottle in order to get the whole feed in.  She should stop pooping sooner rather than later during the night, all 3 of mine continued to need NFs for months, but didn't need diaper changes at the same time.  Maybe you could hold her for a few minutes to see if she poops before you give the bottle, so the diaper change will wake her up?  The goal is just to get it all done quickly and get back to bed.  Also, as hard as it is, get yourself to bed as early as you can.