If you breastfed, how long until you got a decent nights sleep?

[Melittlebee]

My baby is only a week old and I'm breastfeeding but the tiredness is painful!
I'm getting about 4 hours sleep and that's broken so not a full stretch.
He's feeding well so no problems there.

My question is how long was it until you started getting better nights sleep? I'm not sure I've got what it takes to do this 3 months let alone 6.

DS woke every 2-3 hours until he was almost 1 then slept right through. It's exhausting. Hang in there!

Both EBF.

DS is 7 years old and still wakes most nights

DD slept through from 8 weeks.

Totally different personalities!

Six months. Though I agree with Fusion if I had to do it again I'd do one formula feed at night because the lack of sleep had a big negative affect on my mental health and ability to engage with my baby.

If you don't want to do that, make sure at least you get as much rest as you can at weekends (at least one lie-in for instance).

First time I got a full night sleep was when he was 4.5. Not linked to breastfeeding though as he'd nightweaned at 3. Just a shit sleeper. But I'd adapted to the shit sleep by then (long before then) so it's not as horrific as it sounds.

14 months in and still waiting he slept better from about 8 weeks, think we got some 3 hour stretches unbroken from there.

My first was FF and slept 12 hours from 4 weeks, she did not prepare me for this!

I have 8mo twins. DD is ebf, DS will happily take a bottle. DD is by far the better sleeper. Imo it's a personality thing. DS was born crying and on waking his instinct is always to whimper. DD was born quietly looking around and wakes up the same way, which seems to mean that she easily links sleep cycles.

Both ebf. DS now 2.4 has done some 9pm to 7 am stretches maybe every couple of weeks since about 18 months, usually up at least once, not unusually 3 times overnight. DD slept 5 hours+ since she came home from hospital, is now 11 weeks and did 10 hours last night - amazing! Admittedly I’m awaiting the 4 month sleep regression but same cot, same bedding, same room temperature, same lighting, same feeding - just different children. He’s a delight in the daytime at 2, maybe she’ll be a horror by then or at 15 or maybe she’ll be up 12 times tonight. Children are just totally unpredictable.
People kept telling me that not needing sleep meant my eldest would be really clever - that seems to be true so far!

Both EBF:

DC1 was sleeping 7-7 by 16 weeks
DC2 didn't sleep all night until 5 YEARS (but BF stopped at 1 yr so can't blame that!)

I was having what I'd say was a decent enough amount of sleep by 6 weeks or so with each of mine. Probably 7 hours between 9pm and 7am of actually being asleep, broken up into chunks of 2-3 hours.

What helped me.through the early weeks was handing baby to DH when he got home (5/6pm) and grabbing an hour or so nap while he held the baby. Helped me feel less desperate come 1am when I STILL hadn't been to sleep yet.

I breastfed each DC until 2 and sleeping through took a long time - but I was very lazy and did bugger all to speed up the process as I was more than coping. Probably 18 months for me to be able to stay up til 11pm and reliably wake up refreshed. Maybe aged 4 or so for a 11pm-7am chunk and even then one or other child often wakes for a cuddle around 3am.

Mine is 14 months and still up every 1-2 hours. Things that some say they did that they conclude made their baby sleep well, such as trying to shush first, good bedtime routine etc. - I do it all and it's made no difference. Some babies are just bad sleepers! Hopefully you have a good one :) congratulations!

As soon as I started co sleeping properly. Maybe a couple of weeks old ish? I still had to wake to feed him but it was half asleep and I knew I didn't need to stay awake, and then I felt fine in the day. The only days I ever felt knackered were the days where he'd been up all night teething/ill/unsettled.

Oh yes! Even though I was waking up a lot to feed, once I started co-sleeping it was infinitely more bearable than getting up and down to lift him out of a moses basket or side-car crib. Much easier to drop off and he woke up less when he was touching me.

I didn't get more than 2 hours at a time for 18 months, and barely any naps.
Dd is an only child. I just couldn't do it again.

Mine woke up every 45 mins or so for a good year. At age 2 he was still waking every couple of hours. Age 3 he started to sleep for much longer blocks.

Your baby is a tiny tiny newborn and just getting used to being in the world. You are still in 'have been hit by a bus' mode (as I used to call it) All the emotions, hormones, your body is recovering but also doing something completely new (making milk) so you're bound to be utterly shattered and then broken sleep on too.

Your baby will settle, you will settle. Have you got any support? Someone to hold the baby in the day while you have a sleep?

Congratulations on your new baby