Breastfed babies - how many times is baby up in the night?

shrewpin · Jul 31, 2009 3:15PM

Hi Girls,

As the subject says - How old is your breastfed baby and how often are they awake for feeding or just awake during the night?

My lo goes down at about 7.30 and then wakes twice for a feed during the night at 12am and 4am roughly. She is 15 weeks old Is this about right?

I am constantly hearing stories about babies that wake up for either one feed or just need settling down with a dummy (mine won't have a dummy) and some that are sleeping right through!!

I am worried that I should be trying something different or be trying to ween her off one of her night time feeds but I just don't have a clue where to begin.

How are your breastfed babies getting on at night time and do you have any suggestions?

Thanks xxx

JoJopeanutbump · Jul 28, 2009 6:07AM

Hey!!
my lo is 10 weeks and she goes to bed about 9.30ish and feeds at about 4ish then 6ish then wakes up about 9ish ...

shes only just recently dropped the 2am feed !!! but not speaking to soon as its only been for the last 5 nights so hoping this is going to carry on hehe !!
yer my friends baby sleeps through but is bottle fed ... i think wit bf the baby doesnt take as much as a bottlefed baby ....as if i express my lo prob only drink 3oz on a feed ?

i have tried dummies too but i think my lo just likes cuddles and being close to me ...
i have tried other things whens shes crying but as soon as i put her on my bob she falls sleep instantly .. so as this works i think its ok !

cundingo · Jul 28, 2009 6:42AM

Maisie is 4 weeks old tomorrow and she is currently going to sleep in her crib at about 8pm, then waking for feed around 12-12.30, then again around 4 and awake between 7-8am. It all depends how long she is up for at each feed - last night she woke at 12.15 and did not settle back in crib until 1.45am! But at 3.45, she was back in crib asleep at 4.10.
I would like to get to the stage where she will go down about 7, wake around 10, then sleep through a bit longer.

I have thought about giving a dream feed, but not really sure about how this work - any tips?
xxx

mummyphoebe · Jul 28, 2009 9:56AM

My lo is 4 weeks on thursday! on saturday we went out for a meal a took lo with us so weren't home till about 10 he was then awake until 12.30am i gave him a long feed n he slept till 6.30am then he had a 10min feed and slept till 9.30...,then sunday night he was waking every hour or so then last night he didnt go to sleep til 1am then slept till 5.30am....
I have got loads of different types of dummies and the only one he will take (only started taking it today tho) was a really cheap one from somerfield!!

My first was a total nightmare and didnt sleep thro till he was over a year old and now at 19months still occasionally wakes up in the night!! he was in my bed (normally on me) untill he was 3 1/2 months as he refused to settle in his crib from the day he was born!! he wouldnt get into a routine at all while i was breastfeeding and wouldnt take a bottle till he was 9 months old arrrrr so this time im going to be alot more on it!!!

I am just going by what he wants at the mo as he so young but dont want him to get into bad habits, i have not really been getting him ready for bed till after 9ish as i no the longer he is awake the longer he sleeps at night!

Im not really sure about dream feeding as if he is asleep what is the point in desturbing him andf knowing my luck he would want to be awake for ages if i tried!!

There isn't really a regular pattern with my lo he just does whatever lol but this week im going to start trying to get him into a routine...i.e bath at the same time earlier in the evening...

i would say only waking twice in the night is brilliant but thats just because my ds1 was awake 4-5 times a night till he went on to bottles. If they want a feed then there's not much you can do about it...But you could just try rocking her back to sleep for a few nights then she will realise that she's not getting milk so might stop waking up (This did not work for me tho)

xxx

mrs__e · Jul 28, 2009 10:25AM

thomas completely varies. in the last week (he is now 9 weeks old) he has been having a feed somewhere between 10 and 11, then another around 3, and then between 6 and 7. very unpredictable though! xxx

TheHistoryGirl1 · Jul 28, 2009 11:41AM

I hate to say it, but Peter is 21 weeks and has never, ever slept through. At his best he wakes twice (usually about midnight and 4). At his worst (last night for instance) he wakes every two hours from 11 onwards. (He goes down at 7:15/7:30 and is really good about going to sleep initially). The longest he has ever gone is 7 hours (7 until 2 am) but that only happened once.

Until this week I would have said he has more good nights than bad but this week has been pretty horrendous. I haven't had more than 3 hours at one go for what feels like ages. I am taking him to see the health visitor on Thursday, but more for my sake than his. He is clearly fine and getting everything he needs but my husband and I are exhausted.

Don't worry about people saying their babies sleep through at x weeks. Every baby is different and I know plenty of people whose babies didn't sleep through until 5, 6, 7 months. I'm afraid it is just part of life, but perfectly normal for some perfectly healthy babies, so please don't worry on that account. Hopefully your lo will drop a feed naturally soon.

Team_Blue_aka_doublebubble · Jul 28, 2009 1:12PM

I was bullied to give lo ff as he wasnt sleeping thru, guess what he had ff and still didnt sleep through, he didnt manage it till he was 6months, truely dont believe it was anything i was doing he was just hungry, only with the introduction of solids did he stop waking, but he still isnt a pig, will only eat when he is hungry and is a light weight

xxDBxx

millysmum_naomi · Jul 29, 2009 5:25AM

Ruby is now 7 months old, since she was just over 6 months, i stopped feeding her in the night. sounds tough and it was bloody hard cos all i wanted to do was cuddle her and feed her when she cried. however i knew she wasnt really hungry and i need her to learn to sleep through for when i go back to work!
anyway, she now sleeps from 7:30 to anywhere from 5:45am-7am. i figure this is ok! if she wakes before 7am, i feed her then and put her back down. its anybody's guess really cos dd1 slept through fro 16 weeks 12 hours a night!

flickaty · Jul 29, 2009 8:09AM

freya 16 months and was still having a night feed until about 2 months ago!! at around your little ones ages she was probably having 2 or 3 feeds a night. so to me it sounds quite normal. they are all different my first daughter slept through from about 10 weeks, they are all so different you can really compare what your baby is doing to any one elses they all do things in their own time. xx

PinkToothbrush · Jul 30, 2009 3:57AM

Until Lily was on 3 meals a day at 6 months she'd wake up anywhere between 2-5 times a night, probably 3 on average :roll: I'd DEFINITELY be happy if she'd only woken twice a night at 15 weeks $:\$ )

tor6 · Jul 30, 2009 5:20AM

hiya, my 17 week daughter,Amelie, goes down at 7pm, is dream fed at around 10.30pm and then sleeps through until about 4am (gradually getting closer to 5/6am somedays!)

Until we started a definate bedtime routine of bath, massage, fed and cuddle (with badly sung lullaby!) she was more unpredictable.

Mrs Dickson- the dream feeds work by either quietly picking you LO up before they actually wake for a feed (ideally between 10-11pm), or giving them a bottle whilst they are asleep in their crib. You don't need to worry about winding as if your LO is pretty much asleep then they don't tend to swallow much air, just need to make sure you don't talk to them, turn bright lights on etc. I'd recommend it to anyone as since doing it I don't get woken up as soon as I've fallen asleep as it acts as a good top up and buys me a fair few hours!

xx

Tilly09 · Jul 30, 2009 7:45AM

Maddie is 10months old and goes to bed around 6pm (sometimes 5 and sometimes 7 or 8 though), she cries a few times for her dummy (but doesnt actually wake up unless someone doesnt go in and give it to her!) until about midnight, when she wakes up.

I USED to feed her at midnight and 4am ish, but the last week I have been giving her water or a dummy and a cuddle instead, which will hopefully stop her from waking up so often! (My mum's advice lol fingers crossed). She doesnt cry for long, I can tell she want sto sleep but really wants the breastmilk... however if I DONT feed her to sleep, she goes longer between waking up... So Yes, between 7pm-7am, she gets NO milk! But she does end up sleeping in my bed after the midnight wake-up, so co-sleeping seems to calm her down enough to not fully wake up during the night after midnight.

When she was younger (0-6months) she was a dream; she fed to sleep every night about 8pm and slept til anywhere between 6 and 9am the next day, not a sound from her. I was really lucky! But as soon as those teeth starting nudging their way through it was a different story and a very diffent sleep routine for us!

Good luck

P.S. I learnt that it helps to keep lights off as much as possible (mayb just a little nightlight) and dont change bub's nappy (unless its a messy poo) until morning. Lying down while breastfeeding was the best thing I ever learnt!

FlirtyFilly · Jul 30, 2009 9:56AM

I similarly had an easy time until Logan was about 6mths, he slept through from 2mths from 9 til 8, but then he started waking more often. Most of the time now it's bed at 7, then BF at midnight and 5am til 9am wake up. I know he's doing it out of habit and not hunger but my darling boy will scream for several hours and refuse to sleep without milk first during the night, despite being fully able to go to sleep at bedtime and naptime by putting him down awake and leaving him!

he's got a stubborn streak from somewhere?! hhehe

rubyjavy · Jul 31, 2009 10:07AM

i dont know if this helps but my first started sleeping thru the nite from 6 weeks, after she was getting ff, when i had my second it was a nightmare, complete opposite, shes wud wake 2-5 times during the nite, and im assuming it was cos she was bf up til 4 mnths. when i started to ff her she wud wake once during the nite for a bottle, which she wud hold herself and go back to sleep so i had a goodnite sleep aswell.....
now my third lo who is 16 weeks, is mixed feeding, she has bf all day, and then by evening when i feel i haven't got nething left to feed her for her to settle thru the nite i give her a ff, just 4-5 oz and she sleeps on average 6-7 hours, if i try to only bf her she will wake up between 3-4 hours so im aaauming she stays fuller for longer with the ff, which is why altho i wanted to exc bf i still end up giving her ff, just to get my beauty sleep.......
however if i had the knack to feed her while lying down i wudnt bother with the ff before betime i wud just feed her once or twice at nite with her beside me......
neways my point was that each baby is different, even if theyre from the same family with the same bedtime routine being placed on them, and i think bf babies tend to be hungrier sooner than ff babies, so dont worry abt wat ur lo is doing compared to everyone else, as long as she feeds and settles wel and is a happy baby, ur both doing great!!!

s-evans · Jul 31, 2009 3:15PM

For a long while (from about 6-8wks), my lo just woke up once during the night and this got later and later (from 3am towards 5am). At about 4 months, she slept through for about a week.Since then, she has been waking up earlier again, sometimes once sometimes twice at the very most.

I started weaning this week, but she isn't sleeping any better. Infact she is feeding more during the day and night (she is 6 mths, so assuming it is a growth spurt). Last night she went down at 9pm, was up at 11.10pm, 12.30am. 4am and 7.55am. Im planning on giving her two meals hopefully next week and hoping this will help her sleep better.

Breastfed babies - how many times is baby up in the night?

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