When did your EBF baby sleep through the night?

[Onlymydogunderstandsme]

Just wondered when EBF babies tend to go through the night, I'm getting a lot of people telling me it will take a lot longer than FF babies? DS is only 6 weeks old so not expecting him to do it yet but just wondered? Also when do they tend to start to get in to some kind of routine?

BeatriceBean know what you mean. We're at 6 months and I'm back at work (from home but still tiring) and would love a night's sleep. But looking at the thread makes me realise we could be doing worse, you poor things! My HV this week said it's normal at 6 months but come back if still needing to feed twice or 3 times a night at 8 months.

Dd was about 20 mths when she reliably slept through (7.30 - 7.30) at night. She did it before that but it was only sometimes when younger.

DS is 9 mths and his general pattern since about 5 mths has been to wake up just once for a quick feed then go straight back to sleep. However he has slept through the night (7.30 - 8ish!) the last four nights - so I am hopeful! He had slept through 3 or 4 times previously but those times were one offs.

Worth mentioning as well that experts think frequent waking helps to protect against SIDS. This is a good article.

Don't worry too much, they do it in their own time. You'll probably get a lot of people asking you 'is he sleeping through yet?'. It's one of those question people ask to make polite conversation (along with the possibly the stupidest question ever, 'is he a good baby?'). Night-waking is only a problem if it's a problem for you. You DM, next-door neighbour, HV etc are not the ones being woken up.

Definitely a problem for me - I'm exhausted!!!

Thank for replies. DS has now started going to bed about 9 and waking at 2 and then 5 so getting some kind of routine now which is good! Still a way off from going through the night but not expecting miracles he's only 7 weeks and I enjoy the cuddled at night!

DD is 10 weeks and for past 8 nights has started sleeping through from between 7:30-8 until 7ish. She is EBF and we do a dream feed at about 10:45. Can wholly recommend dream feed if you aren't already. If she wakes in night it's because her arms have escaped her swaddle and are flying around freaking her out so I just need to reswaddle her then straight back to sleep for me. She's a thumb sucker though and I have to leave her hand poking out so she can suck her thumb back to sleep!

Wow that's fantastic Inly! That's fantastic - if you slept then you could get 8 hours sleep with just one wake! (Trying not to be envious ;) ) Let's hope he keeps it up!

When I night weaned at 11 months ( went back to working nights at 12). Carried on BF till 19 months.

DD slept through 7pm-6am when she started walking at 11.5 months.

I tend to think that BF or FF is just one of many factors that may influence sleep. DS was EBF until 5.5 months. By that point he was sleeping 5 or so hours at a time on a good night. He was then mix fed for a fair while longer but he started to sleep 8 hours at 6.5 months and 12 hours just a week or so later - coinciding with weaning (specifically introducing protein) and starting to crawl. DD however, was EBF for just 4 months and at this point was still waking ever 2-3 hours for a feed during the night. It was doing my head in so I switched to exclusive formula feeding thinking it would improve things. She carried on waking every 2-3 hours for another 2.5 months! Suddenly dropped several feeds in the course of a week and by 7 months old was sleeping 12 hours. I have a good friend who has 2 children who were both EBF for 6 months and both slept 8 hours through at approximately 8 weeks and 12 hours through at approximately 6 months. Now my babies are both teenies (9th centile) and hers are big (95th centile) so that could be a factor. Plus also she strictly followed 'she who must not be named', whereas I didn't. So a whole host of things that could be relevant.

11-6:30 at about 9 weeks. 7-6:3/7 from 16 weeks.
Don't forget daytime naps: morning is a reasonably short nap, 2.5 hrs after lunch with a little one early evening (they drop this quite quickly)

Oh I should admit: I followed Gina Ford for naps and feeding times (obviously offering milk if DS cried and it wasn't a wet / dirty nappy)
He was on the small side, just below 25th cdntile.
Hth

Dd (ebf) slept through from 20wks. Ds (mix fed) slept through from 16wks.

Never had any regression. Well not until c.3yo when it all went to pot!!!

I had 2 fantastic sleepers who were ebf, and one mediocre one.

dd1 used to sleep through the night regularly, 10 hrs at 4 weeks., but she did so quite a bit before that too. She always slept brilliantly. she first slept a 10 hr night at 1.5 days old. I didn't know they could.
dd2 didn't really sleep through til we got tough with her at 6 months.
dd3 slept through about 9 hrs a night from 6 weeks.

I was the envy of the NCT class.
Good sleepers does lead to more babies, IMO. Hence 3 in quick succession. Poor sleepers are a better contraceptive.

11 months and counting...

But I have friends with ff babies just the same, and some with bf babies who have slept through from a very early age - they are all so different!