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sleeping through, am i asking too much?

DS was formula fed and sleeping through from 12 weeks, DD is now 13 weeks and going 2-4 hourly at night, the best we have had is 11, 4 and 7, but its rare, does your BF baby sleep through? there are two ladies at bf group getting 11 hours! am i expecting to much of my baby at 13 weeks?

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  • Both my babies never slept whilst breast feeding. My eldest is 4 and she fed twice a night till she was about 9 months. My other daughter is now 5 months and she wakes 3 times a night, sometimes more. It is very hard work so I know what you are going through. I go to a breast feeding group and I have come across some women who's babies sleep more than mine too but some sleep less. They're all so different. Your baby is still very young and needing small frequent feeds. Sounds normal to me xx
  • Mine didn't sleep through until nearly five months, sorry!! I was told that once they reach 12lb they are physically able to go through the night, but many don't because they need help to go back to sleep because they haven't learnt how to. Because bf is so easy once you get the hang of it its the easiest thing to do to whip it out in the middle of the night because you know it will settle them. Once I'd figured out that actually my dd didn't need milk, she needed to learn how to go back to sleep I changed my tactics a bit and instead of trying milk first I'd try it as a last resort, and she then proved to me that actually she wasn't hungry.



    I hope you get some sleep soon xx
  • imogen didnt sleep through till 4 months ish and she was bf exclusively.



    her sleeping coincided with the introduction of food at about 20 weeks.
  • my son is now 10 weeks old and for about a week hes been sleeping from about 10pm to 5am (sometimes a bit less) without needing to be fed. i think this is pretty good and dont expect much better until he starts on solids. he usually wakes up once or twice still but i just give him a dummy now rather than actually feeding him. i reckon ill have to do this for several nights though till he realises he doesnt need to wake up. i think sleeping 11h withouth feeding at 3 months is very rare, the most we got was 8h and that was only once. 6-7h is his usual and tbh i consider ths sleeping through as most baby books will tell you. and some babies are just better sleepers than others anyways. id say youre doing fine. xx
  • just to add, he gets last feed around 10 then sleeps till 5ish and then again till 7 or 8. so 11-4 is not too bad.
  • my 10month old dd still wakes in the night, it's only in the last month that it's dropped down to jsutr 1-2 times a night, before that it was pretty much 4+ times a night every night, and she wants feeding each time... personally i think they'll stop night waking and feeding when they're good and ready, each baby is different, my mixfed ds was sleeping through by 6weeks! the best we've had is 10-7, that happened once only, and it was last week! at least it shows she's heading int he direction... i egt annoyed ta the amount of people who tell me to cc or cio, she's getting there, jhst slowly, so need for any 'training'... as far as i can tell from any bf mum i've met, this is perfectly normal x
  • Ah, well ok, my 1st baby was EBF till 14months and she slepth thru from 10 weeks. Now my 2nd baby was FF from 6weeks (due to undiagnosed tongue tie, long story!) but he didn't sleep well at all. To be honest he didn't conistently sleep thru till about 8months when i did cc with him as was tearing my hair out!!

    In view of this i'm not totally convinced that it's the type of feeding you do that effects their sleep but it's just more dependent on the baby themselves!

    I'm sorry, i'm not sure this is much help, and you're not expecting too much, especially after having a baby that slept thru quite early but it may just be in this baby's nature to take longer until they're ready.

    Hope things settle soon and you get more sleep, sleep deprivation is such torture :roll:

  • My ds didn't sleep through when he was exclusively breatfed, mix fed or formula fed lol! I don't think he did until he was almost 3 eek!!



    dd1 started going 10-5 at 5 weeks then 10-6 at 6wks and she was totally breastfed.I think it depends on the baby hun. DD2 is 7wks tomorrow and goes 8-4 then back down to sometime between 6 and 8. I think a solid 11 hours for a totally breastfed baby at 13wks is fairly unusual hun x
  • im glad you posted this as, although i know all babies are different, i wonder what to expect from my exclusively BF baby at 8 weeks. He's 14 pounds 14 and has gained a pound a week since birth so he's doing well! He has his last feed (a much longer one than normal) at 7ish then wakes midnight/1am, 0400 ish and 0700 ish. I think this is pretty good but the long stretch is the first one. People mention dream feeding him when i go to bed to try and get the long stretch more in keeping with my sleep, but to be honest am worried about messing with it all when its going well. I know people in my boat who are feeding 2 hourly still so i count my lucky stars :lol: he still feeds hourly for a bit in the morning and afternoon but usually has a 3 hour stretch at some point. I feel for you as the 2 hourly stretches are hard and i can understand you feeling fed up that this baby still does that. I guess all you can think is it has to lengthen eventually - its hard also when you've formula fed a baby previously. Some people are lucky with breast fed babies but most don't go as long as formula fed ones for longer. I hope you get some sleep soon x
  • y lo is 16 months now, and he didn't consistently sleep through until he was over 6-7 months, although if he woke in the night I just fed him as it was easier, I would feed lying down and just go back to sleep! Hope she starts sleeping through soon x
  • Hmmm...it seems its lots to do with the baby however in the beginning at least babies are fuller longer on formula as its heavier than breast milk.



    We were bf with one formula before bed and my son was sleeping 5 hours from 11-4 and then waking at 7am. We then moved to completely breast feeding and he was feeding all over the place but I suspect we accidentally co-incided with a growth spurt. He was feeding for an hour every 2 hours then every hour and then he basically didn't move from me between 7 and 10.30pm!



    I think he was also trying to increase my supply for the extra feed.
  • DD1 was breastfed until 9mths old and would always wake for at least one feed overnight. With DD2 at present I am woken 3-5 times each night for feeds but she is only 1mth old. They will develop more of a routine to length and timing of feeds as they get older but it will all come down to the individual child, how much food they take in before bedtime and how tired they are.
  • thanx ladies, i am starting to get hassle about weaning as she "should" be sleeping through by now, ggrrrr i know shes just not ready and acctually i doubt it would help,



    i think its a lot to do with feeding being so easy now, i know i could give her a 10 min feed and get her back to sleep of spend hours comforting her, lazy mummy image
  • i jinxed it! for the past 3 nights my son has been waking up again. he went 10-3 for 2 nights and last night woke at 2! although im sure it wasnt hunger as i gave him a dummy and he kept dozing off. took half an hour to sleep again though and then woke again at 3.30, same situation. i gave it at 4 and fed him. in hindsight i might have saved myself eing awake by just feeding him at 2 so not sure what to do. hes 11 weeks now and im hoping its just a blip as apparently at this age they get fussy? x
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