To ask if it's possible to have a good sleeper that's breastfed?

[CoalCraft]

Hi, sorry if this question comes across as ignorant. I always intended to breastfeed DD but for a variety of reasons we never got hang of it, so instead she was fed exclusively on pumped milk in a bottle for four months, then we transitioned to formula when I couldn't take pumping anymore. So basically she's always been bottle-fed, though what's in the bottle has changed over the months. She's also always been a decent night sleeper. She's nearly a year now.

We're now thinking about dc2 and plan to start TTC soon. I am 100% committed to ensuring dc2 gets breast milk for at least as long as DD did, even if it means going back on the pumps.

But there's one thing that's making me reluctant to try direct breastfeeding, at least beyond the "fourth trimester" stage, a d that's that every time I read about a poor sleeper on here, a baby 6+ months old that wakes every hour, it always seems to be a breastfed baby wanting boob. The early stages where DD needed feeding every 2-4 hours nearly killed me and even now I find the night wakings tough, even though she sleeps through about half the time and is generally pretty good. DH does more than his fair share at night, too - think I just have a low tolerance for sleep deprivation!

So are breastfed babies more likely to be poor sleepers? I don't mean in the newborn stage as of course all newborns need regular feeding through the night, but later? Does anyone have a breastfed baby that sleeps well? I'm fully aware that there are bottle fed babies that are poor sleepers!

Sorry for the long preamble to this post, it was mostly in the hopes of not sounding goady. This is a sincere question and not meant to trigger a bf Vs FF fight.

Mine did, all fully breastfed but also had dummies. I think the dummies really helped with the sleeping.

DD1 first slept through at 6 weeks. By 8 weeks she slept through every single night. She was breastfed.

Yes DS did 7 hours at 10 weeks exclusively breastfed.

3 good sleepers, all breastfed.

Yes! DC1 was fully formula fed from 3 months and only started sleeping longer stretches around 18 months. DC2 was fully breastfed until 1 and slept through at 4 weeks! I used to be woken up by DC1 in an absolute panic about the baby!

3 bf babies. 2 were not great sleepers the third slept for England!!!

The difference as far as I can see.....my first I didn't get into a good routine early enough. I think he had reflux (this is looking back at it).

My daughter has her own needs and still doesn't sleep well so I don't think much would have helped.

Baby 3 we didn't have any visitors for the first few weeks. We let baby sleep as much as he wanted. I swaddled him. He was in quite a good routine (because of the school run)....if he slept a lot in the mornings I never rushed the nap to fit in an activity (like I would with the others). He is still a good sleeper. Could just be his nature too.....

I bf both of my dc. They were both good sleepers, particularly my eldest. If I remember correctly (because he's now 12!), at about 8-10 weeks, I'd feed him at about 11pm ish and he'd then go through to about 5am. He napped well too (although none of this may be down to being bf or not!).

I'm in a group of six from nct and five are breastfed. All terrible sleepers. The FF baby sleeps wonderfully.

I exclusively breastfed my 3 boys. The middle one was a excellent sleeper from 5 weeks when he managed 10.30pm to 5 am and we never looked back. The main differences I noted were he was born overdue and larger than the other two and took longer feeds with then longer gaps from the start and he was a thumb sucker! I could have had 10 of him as a baby/toddler….so content. The other two, not so much

My breastfed baby slept through from around 4 months. Even when she was waking it was never more than 2 times. We did have the odd really bad night but it was only once or twice.

Following with interest. My daughter was a bottle refuser and a pretty bad sleeper (not as bad as some I read about here, but multiple night wakes until she was about 14 months old).

Second baby due any day now and I'm committed to breastfeeding but will be introducing a bottle a day from the get-go. Anecdotally, the best/worst sleepers I know were formula/breastfed respectively, but that's obviously not a universal experience. Personally, I just want the option of giving baby a bottle so that I can escape for a night when the sleep deprivation gets too much. Lack of sleep was 100% the cause of my PND, and I'll do anything I can to avoid it again.

I hate you people. Haha!

Another difference with breastfeeding is it releases hormones to get baby and you back to sleep. So it can mean better sleep for you even if you're having more wake ups.

Out of my friendship group we have a FF baby, an EBF baby, an expressed bottle fed baby and a combi fed baby. The EBF baby is the best sleeper out of the four.

Sorry to be that mum. DS 4m EBF, no dummy. Has slept through though not regularly. Usually wakes up only once (sometimes twice) in the night. I consider him a good sleeper but I think it’s luck to be honest.

Your second might get the hang of breastfeeding a lot easier (mine was the other way around and I pumped with my second). Don't put too much pressure on you please, it's very stressful to pump when you have a toddler at home and a baby.

My first was an AWFUL sleeper BUT my neighbours child is breastfed and she uses the haaka + pumps once a day and gives baby a bottle of breastmilk 7-9oz and he sleeps from 8-4 and he's 3 months which is pretty amazing I would say.

Mine is 6 months and forumula fed and wakes once a night which I think is amazing.

Mine was breast fed and was a great at night. He did require a lot of feeding in the day though,
I also worked throughout pregnancy and 2 weeks after birth so we had a solid routine. ( I am a good sleeper too)

Two ebf until 6 months, one 75th and one 25th centile and both started off well with sleep but got worse with 4 month sleep regression to hourly wake ups for breast feed.
Both only improved when I started combi feeding with formula bottle at bedtime and dreamfeed at 6 months, night wakings reduced to 2 instead of 5+. Dummy also helped with self settling at 6 months (refused it before then as preferred to use me).
Sleep infinitely better now at 10 months after completely night weaning.

In my experience no but that’s just with my DC, bottle fed = incredible sleeper , breast fed = 10 months before she slept through. It varies so much though

My dd was ebf until 6 months too and she has always been a brilliant sleeper. She used to wake up once per night until she was about 8 weeks, then she slept through. She's not far off 4 now and continues to be a great sleeper so I'm not convinced it was to do with feeding, think it's just how she is!

Two breastfed babies ds1 wasn't good for a few weeks but slept through 8-7 from 10 weeks.
2nd Ds slept from 12-6 from birth, but still woke up once a night till about 10 months.
I think it's down to baby but I was also strict with routine I would always feed in he dark and put them straight back in the crib. I would try rocking and shushing before feeding and I never let them feed more than 3 hours apart, I didn't want to be a human dummy 😂

Yes, Dd woke once a night for the first 3 weeks, then slept through after that. She did feed a lot in the daytime though. I think it depends on the baby too, as they are all different.Breastfeeding is more exhausting for the baby too than bottle feeding.
Sometimes I think it's the luck of the draw. Good luck.

In my experience it's the FF babies that sleep better than bf but you might be lucky.

Mine was bf but initially was supplemented with formula, probably for about six weeks until we’d established bf - she was a great sleeper. Had the usual developmental regressions. Think she was about eight months before she consistently slept through.

OP, I honestly believe that sleep has more to do with the child’s personality than the way they’re fed. That said, formula is denser and does fill them up more so they’re less likely to wake. But you could have fed my baby son ready brek (or a similarly dense substance) and I reckon he would still have awoken.

Our sleep consultant said she sees roughly two boys for every girl, so that’s an interesting stat.

Both mine were EBF bottle refusers. DS1 was a reasonable night sleeper for 6-7 months (woke once or twice, had a feed, straight back to sleep) but poor at daytime naps. Then he had some kind of regression and started waking every 2 hours overnight, (though strangely got better at daytime naps around the same time) which went on for almost a year and nearly broke me.

DS2 has always been a good sleeper - by ~10-12 weeks was sleeping through, and though he did have a brief regression at a similar age to DS1, it only lasted a few weeks and then he was back to sleeping through.