Breastfed babies.

Quality

When did your baby sleep through the night?

My little fella is still up anything between 1 or 4 times a night. He is 12 weeks now/:(

marti101

I dont really think its to do with being breastfed or bottlefed.My youngest is nearly a year and is still being breastfed and he slept through the night from a young age.My other two were also breastfed and 1 slepth from bout 4 months and the other never slept at all.Its more to do with the child themselves and whether they are naturally good sleepers.

IsThatSo?

Eldest slept through at 14 weeks, second didn't sleep through until went on solids (earlyish) so can't remember but it wasn't too long after his big brother.

BF babies do seem to have disturbed nights for longer whereas forumla fed babies sleep through a lot quicker. This info is from discussions with friends, but as previous poster said there is also an element of personality to it too

littlebug

eldest was bottle fed from 5-6 weeks and didn't sleep through the night for 3 years. Youngest didn't sleep though the night til he was weaned off the boob at 8 months.

bazwaldo

Our 4 were breastfed for between 4 months and 1 year. And none of them slept through the night till way after the started on a bottle.

But they all loved their boobies and would want comfort sucks rather than drinks sometimes (always on demand). Once on the bottle, they got used to that too and the odd time they slept through the night. Not until we cut them off the bottle completely did we get regular full nights from them.

We had to start by weakening the milk more and more each night and after a few weeks it was water. Then they got fed up and slept

This was our experience and I don't think it was anything we were doing wrong. It was just our babies wanted to be awake so that wouldn't miss anything. Thats what it felt like.

Crea

DS slept through the night at 7 mths. He is still bf 2 mths on. In my case he was a light sleeper so had to moved from our room. Also I stopped the comfort sucking, once he was asleep or settled I put him into his cot.
My other ds was over 1 before he slept the night and he was bottlefed from 16 wks so the bf isn't the cause of not sleeping the night.

deisemum

My first lad was breastfed until he was 6 months.

Following the midwives advice as he was very jaundiced for his first 6 weeks I gave him a bottle of formula at night. He just couldn't settle at night and when he was 14 weeks old a friend who had breastfed her 2 children suggested I drop the bottle to see if it would help. I did and he slept 9 hours which was a first. He then slept through the night apart from when teething.

If my second son was my firstborn he'd have been an only child. I breastfed him until he was 15 months and the little toe rag never slept more than 2 hours straight until he was about 16 months. Thankfully from following the advice of Dr Christopher Green's in his book Toddler Taming I managed to get him to sleep.

marti101

Lol deisemum why are 2nd babies so hard.They must give you the easy 1 first to lull you in to a false sense of sucurity.Then after that BAM here comes the hard bit.:D

deisemum

I think when you have your second you sorta think been there done that so think you'll know better second time round.

Must say he's 11 now and hasn't given us to much grief apart from sleep depriviation, a very good child, very good pupil, polite etc but the teens are approaching.

My own sleep pattern is so ruined by him that I've never managed to sleep a full night since he was a baby.

silja

My two were exclusively breastfed for 4 months, then partially till just over 6 months, now they are on juice and formula and still don't sleep through

Quality

My little fella is in the bed every night too, the minute I put him i the moses basket he wakes up.

I am sick of the comments from people that he should be in his own bed, At least I am getting a rest not being up and down with him. he is probably my last baby and I just want to enjoy him.

Ahh well i suppose I can get used to having to give him the night feed for a while longer!!

Silja! Hats off to you for breastfeeding twins. Lot of respect to you!!

nesf

Our lad was breastfed but didn't sleep through the night regularly until almost 5 months iirc.

C'est la vie. Work through it, grit your teeth etc.

bazwaldo

The definition of sleeping through the night differs too. For me when they are babies (less than 1), it means they can still drink at night and are asleep by the end of the drink. So you don't really wake fully yourself. Its when you have to thread the floorboards for 30 mins after a drink thats the killer. A few quick drinks I can live with.

But I'm the Dad, but the mrs has fallen asleep while breastfeeding. But I'm on bottle duty at night once the breastfeeding stops.

Someone posted it a few weeks ago and it was something like, "There is something that happens in your brain that makes you forget all the bad bits and you think it wasn't too bad when they are babies. Otherwise, there'd be a whole lot of only children about."

One last thing. All ours ended up in the bed and providing you make it safe, we found its the only way to get a decent sleep.

nesf

bazwaldo wrote: »

"There is something that happens in your brain that makes you forget all the bad bits and you think it wasn't too bad when they are babies. Otherwise, there'd be a whole lot of only children about.

Ditto with the pain of childbirth.

deisemum

With my second son once he was put down he's sleep for 2 hours then it was every hour. Some nights I didn't even bother going to bed.

My husband worked away from home for 2 years until I gave him an ultimatum, only home at weekends after having his meals served up to him, uninterrupted sleep during the week, then b1t*h mother in law used to go on about him needing his sleep at the weekend. :mad:

littlebug

bazwaldo wrote: »

But I'm the Dad, but the mrs has fallen asleep while breastfeeding. But I'm on bottle duty at night once the breastfeeding stops.
.

My Mr said that too. after 8 long months the munchkin finally took a bottle one evening and never woke during the night again. I felt strangely cheated :D

MrPudding

Quality wrote: »

When did your baby sleep through the night?

My little fella is still up anything between 1 or 4 times a night. He is 12 weeks now/:(

Our first child slept 10 to 12 hours per night from the first night she spent at home. She was breastfed for about 10 weeks.

The others have not been quite as good, but have mostly slept through after a few weeks, apart from the odd night.

MrP

bazwaldo

littlebug wrote: »

My Mr said that too. after 8 long months the munchkin finally took a bottle one evening and never woke during the night again. I felt strangely cheated :D

I don't blame ye, I almost feel cheated too having read that

At least you didn't have to deal with Mr Grumpy the next day like my mrs.

Redpunto

my ones 3 and wont sleep through the nite:D

Seriously, my one was bout 16 weeks before i noticed the sleep time lenghtening.

Tipsygypsy

Hi, I have three boys, all of whom were breastfed til about 1 yr old. The eldest didnt sleep a full night until he was about 2, this included walking/dancing several times EVERY night to get him back asleep ... and on more than one occasion at in the car at 2am to help him dropoff. How we had the energy to have another baby I'll never know.

On the second little man (lets call him the hunger monster - constantly feeding!), well despite the fact that he fed every 2nd hour during the day he slept his first full night at about 10 weeks. He had a soother from early days because he would never have come off the boob without it!

The third little man was also given a soother young and has been the easiest by far. Fed at reasonable intervals and slept well from the start. was sleeping full nights at 3 months and has always gone asleep on his own. every now and then he may have a week of disturbed nights but this usually coincides with teething.

I reckon every child is differant, but there are a few things that can make a differance, like not holding them when they are sleeping and encouraging them to nod off on their own (without music/dancing/boob/rocking). And of course the more used to noise they are the better. I found the soothers a lifesaver for my younger two, because I just couldnt have handled another one like the first fella, but I know that not everybody likes to use them.

Hope you get some nice full night sleep soon.

face2face

We have three boys, all breastfed, no.s 1 and 3 slept the night at 7 weeks, and no 2 about 16 weeks. If I had my time again, the first two would definitely be in the bed with us, it is the way forward imo. Also don't worry too much or read Gina Ford, if you relax it will happen naturally. Just do the same things every night - bath, bed, story, light off etc. Its very hard when you are without a decent sleep, so good luck!