Can breastfed babies sleep through the night, be on routine and settled?

[MathildasMum]

I have an 8 week old little girl.

We are going through getting over a nursing strike at the moment which resulted in me drastically losing my milk supply. i had to supplment with formula and on some days she was mostly bottle fed.

After seeing a breastfeeding counsellor we are moving back to breast and relactating/building supply back up.

My question is ; when dd was on largely formula she was very settled, was sleeping 7-7 apart from dreamfeed and 1 night feed about 4 which was wonderful!

I want to get back to excl breast but can I ever achieve the above on breastmilk alone?

i seem to have got it into my head that breastfeeding = not as satisfied.

Can you settle my worries that once my supply is back up she will take full feeds and be ok - at the moment im having to feed SO often as supply is low.

[Samuel's mum]

Yes they can - is the short answer. For sure. Assuming you are getting the proper support in relactating - do you have any clue what caused the strike by the way?

TBH I would take poorer sleep if it meant the health benefits of breastfeeding - but you don't have to make that choice. In my birth club (babies born at the same time as my dd) there are several bf babies sleeping as you describe with 2 night feeds. One ebf mum (you know who you are) needed reassuring it was OK for her baby to 'sleep through' a few weeks back. It made her anxious. My dd goes 5-6 hours between feeds at night and I'm making no effort to stretch her.

I'm going to let others share their experiences but I just want to mention why SOME formula fed babies seem more 'settled' than their bf counterparts. Formula contains dairy proteins called caseins which are more challenging for a baby's system to digest (as they are obviously non-human). For a young baby it is literally tiring to digest them as well as taking longer so some formula babies can be sleepier as their systems are working hard on digestion. Plus as the casein proteins take longer to work on they linger in the gut longer and give a sensation of feeling full. So this might be lovely for amounts of sleep (and parent's sleep) but is it really lovely?

HTH

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

Hi my lo slept 7 -4 from 7 weeks and hes ebf

Kate

[elf]

My lo slept from 7pm til 7am with df at 10pm from 7 weeks old...  I was then able to drop df at 4 months and she has been on 4 feeds a day until I started solids at 6 months.  My lo used to obviously take very large feeds and knew that she was on a routine and that milk was offered at the same time (after sleeps) every day.  She did however have to give a 'top up' bottle of ebm at 6pm on top of her normal bf from around 3 months as for some reason she was always looking for more at that time.  My milk maybe wasn't as good at that time of night???  She also did good day sleeps as well.  I switched to formula for her 6.30pm feed when she was 8.5 months old as I got very tired from expressing EVERY MORN so decided I had done my dash and over the past few weeks have given her formula during the day as she is well and truely into her solids so I was quite happy to give the formular.  I do still bf her first thing in the morning to give her all that goodness and will continue to until she rejects it...  She has never been sick (touch wood) and I think it is the breast milk that keeps her healthy   I also have other mums in my mother's group who also have sleeping babies and are/were ebf... very healthy babies as well...

[elf]

Oh I forgot to add that yes, we were on a bw routine from about day 4 of her life and she has always settled nicely.  It has always been Eat, activity, Sleep and still is - she loves routine, always has.  I should add that she is probably a textbook baby and was swaddled til 8.5 months (she loved it!!!) which was a very strong sleep cue and I also think this helped with good sleeps and settling 

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

Elf  - I swaddled til about 2 weeks ago, after about 4 days ds started to wake at 2. i fed him for 3 days until the last day didn't fed well when he woke. So the next night swaddled again and slept till 4 again. I don't do df so i think this is good 

Kate

[First Time Mom]

We started BW at 6 weeks and my dd slept at 7, had df at 10, woke once for a feed in the night, and woke at 7am. At 4 months she slept from 7-7 (still did the df at 10ish). She only had night wakes after that during growth spurts (I recall 6 months was a bad one) and she was exclusively bf until 6 months, started solids at 6 months, and we continued bfing until 18 months. I never had a huge supply, never was able to pump (just fed extra during the growth spurts to increase supply).

[Aly Mac]

I ebf, and L slept through from about 8 weeks to when she got her first tooth! on and off since then.  I think it has soo much to do with other things than just how 'satisfied' they are.. I think if you co-sleep they may wake more often, as it's right there so to speak, but that's not from experience, so I may be wrong.

hope it all goes well for you and your lo!

[binxyboo]

I have a sneaking suspicion I am the person Emma was referring to, who had to be talked down from the ledge just because her baby was sleeping through!

I had supply issues in the beginning, just recently started a post about that, so check it out if you want more details. I have had a full supply since about week 2, and Kate has always fed anywhere from every 2-4 hour hours, and as a newborn, she would only wake twice per night. Lately, she will usually sleep 5-6 hours between feeds at night, sometimes sleeping 9-10 hours!!!!
She is now 10.5 weeks, gaining weight beautifully, although I haven't had a weight check recently, she is happy and content, so all seems good.

I haven't tried to put her on a routine, she just seemed to come wired that way. In contrast, my first baby woke frequently at night to nurse, and loved to comfort nurse during the day, it was his way of being in the world. Even after he weaned, he still continued to wake at night for cuddling, it's just the way he is.

Hang in there. Breastfeeding is such a precious gift for you both. Good on you for battling supply issues, I know how hard that is, and it speaks volumes about you as a Mum that you are going to such lengths to meet your child's needs.

Keep us posted as to how things are going. Best of luck to you and your little girl.

[binxyboo]

And just another quick thing, prolactin levels peak at night time, so frequent night feeds are great for helping you build back and maintain your supply. When Kate sleeps through, I get up to pump, that's how much it means to me!

[liacarmen]

It can be hard to trust yourself that they're getting enough to eat when your BF--my baby was a pretty fussy 4th trimester kind of a guy, and I remember doubting myself a lot that he was well fed. After all, you can't see how much they've eaten, so it's all to easy for a new mom to figure it must be her BFing that's the problem (at least that's how I felt sometimes). I think when they're only 2 months old, the sleep and the eating is still so all over the place, you can't really know if it was the formula, or a phase, or nothing that was causing the longer night sleepings. You're doing awesome work BFing your little darling, if all the signs indicate baby is well fed (wet diapers, content, etc.) you can be assured that she's eating enough, even if she's not sacked out digesting for 7 hours. My son slept for 5 or 6 hours fairly consistently from about 4 months on, and at 6 months started going through the night. I never bothered to try and stretch him. If you can believe this, I miss seeing him at night!

[Samuel's mum]

If you can believe this, I miss seeing him at night!

I completely relate to that!

And yes Michelle - it was you with your getting up to pump as Kate sleeps through! Good point about prolactin levels - night feeds have a special value.

[MathildasMum]

Thank you so much for the insights and support.

Relactating and building supply back up is going well -  only thing is the very frequent feeds necessary for this is blowing apart my 3 hour easy i had got going before all of this went wrong.

Do i just ride it out until im sure my suppy is back to its former glory!?

[EllenS]

I think it mostly depends on temperament.

I had difficulty with my milk coming in and had to relactate, so I know how hard work it is.  And yes, it does make you worry that the baby is hungry.  I think maybe some of our sleep problems now (at 13 months) may be due to me not being a strict with sleep training because of that deep-seated fear that my milk is inadequate (which makes me feel as if I am inadequate as a mommy).  I tell you that so you know you are not alone, and if you want to chat about relactating, please PM me!

That said, we always kept a formula "topper" at the bedtime feed, and she only sleeps through the night sporadically, even now at 13 months.  She has had periods of sleeping through all along, but it comes and goes.  I think it is a combination of metabolism/growth spurts, and the inconsistent sleep training I mentioned.  The formula does not seem to make a difference.

Hope this helps, and please do pm if you want support on relactating, I know it's a b****!

[mum101]

My DD was exclusively bf and was a good sleeper. From the beginning she was having longer night sleeps and well and truly getting enough in the day.  I hear that bigger-born babies are easier to feed and sleep well, she was 9 1/2 pounds