sleeping through

Emandbabiesx2 · Mar 12, 2008 8:40AM

Hi,

I'm bf and Henry is 11 weeks old on Monday and he is still not sleeping for more than 6 hours at night if I'm lucky! Most nights he goes 4.5 hours and sometimes from 8pm - 2am.Everyone I hear about with babies the same age seems to have sleeping through babies!!!

How long are everyone else's babies sleeping - is it a bf thing - he seems to be perfectly content with the amount he is getting!

Emily xxx

Emalenna · Mar 6, 2008 12:46PM

Bryn is 12wks & bf & rarely goes more than 5 hours - 7 at the most.... he's already better than his brother & sister were though - they didn't sleep through until they were 2.5yrs! Not everyones los sleep through - I feel very lucky that he sleeps for as long as he does.... I really wouldn't worry, I'm sure Henry will settle down soon.
Em x

xxxElxxx · Mar 6, 2008 12:49PM

I think it is a bf thing. From the people I know all the one that bottle feed their lo go for longer at night. I keep lo with us downstairs til we go up to bed. Last night lo went through the night(he had been awake and crying all evening so I think he had exhausted himself!). But that was him having his last feed at close to midnight and waking up at 7. And I don't expect him to do that every night, I'll be happy if I get that once a week. Most of the time he has his last feed at about 10 / 11 pm and then wakes up once in the middle of the night at 2 / 3 / 4 am so it's not too bad. I think there's such pressure to get them through the night and it's what everyone asks you but try not to get too hung up on it.

El x

tas17 · Mar 6, 2008 2:36PM

Jack is 11weeks and bottle feeding he has his last bottle at 7-8 pm then usually sleeps till about 5-6 am. Has done this since he was about 8 weeks!

janemheap · Mar 6, 2008 4:54PM

Hi Emily, my Lily is 12 weeks and i am b/f still. She does exactly the same as your LO - asleep by 8 and wakes usually about 1.30-2 then usually 4.30-5 and 6 or 7. Ive met loads of people with bottle fed babies who dont sleep through and b/f babes that do so i think it just depends. I was considering waking Lily about 11.30 to see if i can get her to go longer after that but havent done yet incase she wakes just as much still! If it makes yu feel better i go to a b/f support club and most babies didnt sleep through until 6-8 months!

Emalenna · Mar 6, 2008 5:02PM

Jane - I've tried waking Bryn up for a feed and I've tried 'dream feeding' (think thats what its called when you feed them when they are still asleep) just before we went to bed to see if it helped him go through the night and it didn't work - in fact he woke up more than normal.... you might want to try it but I thought I would warn you! x

-kia- · Mar 6, 2008 5:05PM

Cole is almost 11 weeks and has been sleeping through from around 6-7 weeks (I forget exactly when). It used to be that he'd sleep from around 10 or 10.30 to around 6.30 or 7.30 but now he is in bed by around 8.45 and wakes between 6.30 and 7.15.

Strangely - he sleeps longer if he's in bed earlier! We just brought his bathtime forwards by about 30 minutes because he was getting grizzly earlier and he still sleeps till the same time.

COle is mostly bottlefed and he's been having formula as the last feed since about 3 or 4 weeks old and his nighttime sleeping improved after that. We also started trying to cluster feed him in the evening from 3 weeks too which helped.

janemheap · Mar 6, 2008 5:22PM

Thanks for the warning Em - thats exactly why i havent tried it yet! I might try cluster feeding in the evening first, i'm guessing that means lots of small feeds?! Actually it might help her be happier in the bath too - i was thinking maybe shes worked out it comes before her feed and she wants to skip the bath part!

-kia- · Mar 6, 2008 6:27PM

Cluster feeding is lots of small feeds - I read it in the baby whisperer book. Basically its doing evening feeds every 2 hours rather than the every 3 hours during hte day... or however far apart the feeds are.

We were gonna try dream feeding but I figure 'let sleeping babies lie'

Pootle_OB · Mar 6, 2008 6:48PM

Philip is same as Cole, when i was bf'ing he was awake every couple of hours, at 4wks introduced a bottle of formula at bed and he slept from midnight till 6, over the next few weeks we bought bedtime forward and now he sleeps 9.30 (bottle at 8.45, but 9.30 by time he's stopped chatting to himself) through till between 5.30 and 7.30 although weekdays i do feed him at 6.30 if he's not awak by then, after which he goes back down for an hour, awake for half hour then asleep for another hour on the school run, but during the day he has 20minutes at 11am and an hour at 3pm, awake the rest of the day.

Agree with kia about letting sleeping babies lie (unless it's a school morning!)

Some of the babies at massage and post natal are older than Philip and not yet sleeping through and they are a mixture of breast and bottle, one friend of ours with a 17month old has never had him sleep through the night, always wakes at least once around 2-3am.

-kia- · Mar 7, 2008 5:18AM

Should not have been smug! 5am this morning!!! 2 hours worth of feeding him and him dozing and then waking when i put him in his basket and finally at around 7 he fell asleep! Managed to sleep for 45 minutes after that then nap off and on for another hour (thats me not him!) - probably a good job he fell back asleep cause i'm sure it would have been bad if I;d fallen asleep holding a bottle up!

I guess this proves that the cluster feeding does work cause we stuffed it up last night!

Emandbabiesx2 · Mar 7, 2008 6:57AM

Thanks for your help everyone - I don't feel so bad now I know he's not the only one who doesn't sleep through!! He went from 8 - 1 last night then til 4.30 then 7.30. Think the 4.30 one was due to Daddy not putting on his nappy right and weeing all up his back though!! Bless him!!

IFindHope · Mar 7, 2008 7:41AM

aaw emily! ryan always manages a well aimed wee at least one night a week..thats what oh says tho like u i no he aint put nappy on right!
thats a bloody good sleep, well done henry!
xx

mamapink · Mar 7, 2008 8:01AM

Hi Brendan is bottle fed and is 9 weeks old and he has only just starting taking 5fl oz per feed and sleeping for 4 hours between feeds at night and 3-4 hours during the day. I don't put him down in his moses basket until 9pm and then give him a dream feed at 11pm when we go to bed. That way he will wake at 3am for a feed and then not until 7am for a feed which is when my oh gets up for work anyway!
I found if I put him down too early he would wake more often for feeds and usually wake up at 3 or 4am wanting to be wide awake and entertained!
Some mornings he does wake up a bit earlier (between 5-6am) but if I give him his dummy he usually goes back to sleep.
I am pretty happy with the 4 hours he is doing after weeks of him only going 2.5 to 3 hours which was shattering!

L xx

jillycat-42312 · Mar 7, 2008 10:43AM

hi
Marcus isn't sleeping through either and he is breast feed too. He has managed on 2 rare occassions to sleep for 6 hours. One of which was the night of the earthquake so who knows the house rocking may have rocked him off to sleep!

I cluster feed him to stock him up for the night. I haven't dared try a dream feed if he has gone to sleep at 9pm as scared he wouldn't go to sleep again.

Normally he managed between 4-5.30 hours of sleep. from about 10-11pm to 3-4am and then wakes up for the day about 6.30-7.30 only managing a 2-3 hour sleep when he goes back down and that's him for the day wanting to be entertained.

Jillycat

sarah1-46796 · Mar 7, 2008 3:27PM

Holly has 5oz at each bottle and is will be 10 wks on monday. She has a feed at 7pm and sleeps until 3am (if we are lucky) then again at 6am when she wants to get up. Each feeding session takes atleast an hour due to her playing with the bottle and taking a long time to wind. We also tried wake and dream feeding at 11pm but it makes her much worse! 1am, 3am and 5am! So we leave her well alone at 11pm now! lesson learned!
Good luck. would love to know how you get on x

Emandbabiesx2 · Mar 7, 2008 3:59PM

So it seems that it's not down to whether you breast feed or bottle feed - it just depends on the individual baby!! I suppose they're so different in every way that they're bound to have their own sleeping routine!!!

-kia- · Mar 7, 2008 4:22PM

Sarah - have you tried the next size up teat for your lo's bottle? Cole has been having size 2 teats for almost 2 weeks now and he messes around a lot less since I changed them. Just a suggestion..hope you don't mind

Pootle_OB · Mar 7, 2008 6:48PM

Was about to suggest the same as kia!! Swapped philip onto size 2 teats about 3wks ago after a trial with variflow teast (which tommee tippee do do but only avaliable in larger boots stores if you are using tt ctn bottles) he also messes about a lot less and feed takes about 20 mins instead of an hour, unless he has comic head on him when he starts smiling and laughing for no reason and spits the bottle out! Then it takes a bit longer.

My little porker has 4 7oz bottles and 1 8oz bottle, thought maybe i was over feeding him but hv said today that they should have roughly 2.5oz for every pound of body weight, well as he is 14lb he should have 35oz & i'm giving him 36oz a day so not too much over the top!

Emandbabiesx2 · Mar 8, 2008 5:54AM

Just tolet you allknow Henry slept from 8 - 12 then 6 - 9 last night!! So got a lie in and a 6 hour stretch!! Only problem was that stupid mummy woke up at 3 ready to feed him!! Dammit!! xxx

-kia- · Mar 8, 2008 6:46AM

Well done Henry!!! Bet you feel so much better!

sleeping through

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