Introducing a bottle

[SchofeTee]

Help! This lockdown is stopping me speaking to other mums who are exclusively breastfeeding.

My baby is 12 weeks old and is exclusively breast fed but I'm just not getting enough sleep. He hates sleeping in the day so when it comes to naps there is no routine it is just go with the flow. I go for walks with the carrier and manage to get boob naps here and there. But I can spend ages walking him up and down and getting him to sleep for him to just wake up as soon as I put him down. At night he goes down like a dream after the night time routine. But I seem to get 3.5 hours as the longest stretch.

Night before last he went 5.5 hours for the first stretch and I thought we had turned a corner but tonight we're back to 3.5 hours. So my question is, are there any other mums who persevered with exclusive BF and got their little ones to sleep for longer stretches at night? Should I really consider a bottle of formula at night even though it eliminates their "virgin gut"?

If there's a light at the end of the tunnel i will persevere but if it's like this the entire time I might need a change. I'm a single mum who needs sleep!

I hate to break it to you but 3.5 hours is normal.

My DS was only ever formula fed and never slept more than 2 hours until 6 months.

I think you may be wishfully thinking. Sorry.

At 3 months I would lower your expectations a little bit OP.

My EBF baby woke every 2.5-3 hours until he was just over 6 months old. Things improved a little when solids were introduced but I was still only getting 4-5 hour stretches.

12 weeks is still so young - if you want to EBF then just persevere and push thorough it - feeding to their demands overnight is hard, but essential to keep your milk supply matching to their needs, and it’s knackering but it’s normal

And as has been said - introducing formula isn’t always the magic fix that some people assume it will be.