Breastfeeding and sleeping through the night

[Wei]

It seems that formula fed babies tend to have an easier time with sleeping through the night.

I have been on EASY one week so far and DD is 6 weeks old now.  At nights, she seems to wake up like clockwork.  On average, it takes 30-40 min for her to get past Stage 3 into Dreamland from the time she hits the bed by the 3rd yawn.

Bedtime 8:30 pm (I'm still trying to find a bedtime routine that works consistently... she seemed to like massage one day, but not the next... I still give her a wipe down - no bath as she only gets a bath 2-3 times per week... I will bathe her during this time too every odd day and wipe down every other day)

Dreamfeed 10:30

Wakes up at 1am, 4am, 7am....good morning at 9 or 9:30am.

She seems to fall asleep without shh pat during the morning hours after I feed her.  She's still at Stage 3 when she hits the bed though.  Mom usually stays watching for half an hour!

It just seems that breastmilk will only last her 2.5 - 3 hrs at most with EASY, even with tanking her up.  Before, with accidental parenting it seemed I could get her to last 4 hours on occassion.

I'm just wondering how long it took you ladies, who were solely breastfeeding, to get your LO to sleep through the night.  Just so that I have an idea and perhaps some hope my LO may sleep through the night too.  Did anyone not manage to successfully get their LO to do so?

Thanks,
Wei

[NikiJ]

Hi Wei

My lo slept through very early on. 

Have you tried cluster feeding?  Feeding every 2 hrs from bout 5 or 6 in the evening.

Niki

[RachelC]

Check out these links from the breast feeding FAQ board... they may help put your mind at ease.  It is very normal for a baby at this age to still be waking so frequently at night.

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=55035.0

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64627.0

HTH

[jbepko]

My first slept from 7:00 to DF at 10:00 until 5:00ish at 6 weeks but my second didn't make that stretch until about 8 weeks and he never took a DF. I think cluster feeds and Df are 2 good ways to try to achieve a solid night....but a solid night of baby sleep isn't 6:00 to 6:00 for another few weeks!

[Wei]

I have been doing clusterfeeding but it doesn't seem to make a difference in the times she sleeps.  If I overfeed her she will tend to spit up quite a bit, but she's handling it pretty well so far.

I'm just not sure why clusterfeeding her isn't doing enough to keep her sleeping more.  So I figured it was b/c I was BF her... and BF milk tends to get digested so much faster anyway.

Wei

[SylvieA]

Hi there
It really depends on the LO. My DS had to be woken up for feeds early on(every 3hrs) and would only wake up at night at growth spurts (6weeks is one) other than that he went for 6-8 hrs until 2.5 months and then started stretching his sleep time. I considered 6 hrs as sleeping through. I never did anything special other than at night he always looked hungier so we did cluster feeds. At times it felt like he was always nursing. We never did DF, tried but didn't work, it made him wake 3-4 hrs later.
We never really started a routine until he was around 2 months, although I still bfed him on demand when needed (growth spurts, comfort nursing, cluster feeds) other than that it was feeds every 3 hrs.
You're LO is still very young so I wouldn't worry too much about having a strict routine until he is a bit older. He'll let you know what he needs.

[First Time Mom]

My dd had one nw until she was 18 weeks old. At 6 weeks I was just starting 2.5-3 hour EASY, prior to that I was feeding on demand to get supply established. I also found my dd could go longer in the morning and early afternoon between feeds than in the evening, I clusterfed and gave a df.

On my birth thread there are moms who formula fed their los and they also had the same issues with nws so I think it's a myth that ff los will sleep through the night earlier, they may be able to go slightly longer but at this age nws are still normal.

[Erin M]

At 6 weeks you should be right at the 6 week growth spurt, so that could be part of your reason right there.  I agree with the PP that it really depends on the baby -- weight, how much their stomach holds at this time, things like that -- FWIW mine started giving me 6-7 hour stretches at around 7-8 weeks and slept through (DF to about 7AM) around 3 months.  We didn't drop the dream feed until about 7 months and she's generally a great sleeper.

[brown0602]

Wei:

Just wanted you to know that my lo is now sleeping longer and is bf. He will be three months this week, and his toughest time was the 6-8 week period. He now sleeps for 5 hours and then for another 4 hours. Hang in there!!

[Wei]

Thanks ladies!  That gave me lots of hope!  DD can only go 4 hours with dreamfeed...so maybe longer in another month from now!

Wei

[bubbaloo]

My lo still doesn't sleep through the night

Seems like she is always having a growth spurt

[Cassie]

Palmer still wakes up around 4am for a feeding and he is 9 months!!!

[deenz]

Both my girls slept through (from DF) at about 4mo.  They also had times of sleeping through before the 3m growth spurt hit, but after 4mo it was consistent sleeping through.  They are/were not big babies.  My friend's exclusively bf baby (big) slept through from 6wks.  But then her also big second baby, did not sleep through til much later.