is it inevitable that there will be more night wakings if BFing?

[curlyLJ]

The reason I ask is that I have been using this forum for some time now, and it seems that most of the posters who complain of being up lots in the night, or sleep issues all seem to BF?

Most people I know in RL with kids have FF and most 'claim' that their DCs were sleeping through quite early (six months at the latest). which I don't know if it's really true, but there must be something in it...

My DD is EBF (well I have just this week started to introduce some mixed feeding) and used to sleep well (between 2 and 4 months) going from 9pm-5am without waking! It has gone to pot ever since she hit 4 months and we are back to 2 or more night wakings, at least.

Is it really the case that BFing = more night wakings, or is it a myth?

Complete myth. IMO. Mine followed the same pattern. Going through a growth spurt most likely. I started weaning mine (baby rice) between 4 and 5 months and they slept through again - realise the guidelines have changed now. Not long to go though and hopefully you'll see an improvement.

I think it depends entirely on the baby. Plus the fact that sleep patterns tend to change a lot around developmental milestones.

Formula is harder to digest, so can mean babies feel fuller for longer, but if they won't take a whole bottle, they will sleep for less time than a breastfed baby who will take both breasts.

Personally, I don't get the desperate rush for a baby to sleep through the night. As much as it is exhausting, broken sleep is part of what you take on when you have a child.

sirBoob i'm not in a desperate rush to get DD to sleep through the night, after all I expected my nights to be disrupted for some time... It's just that I know she can go for longer stretches or sleep through entirely (as she's done it before) and was just curious based on what I hear from FFing friends/family...

Often, one of the first questions mothers are asked is 'does she sleep through the night?' (or words to that effect) and this seems to be considered such an important thing in the world of motherhood, as well as weight, for most people.

As BF obviously offers not only nutrition, but an amazing source of comfort too, I wondered if that might be the reason for babies to wake more (esp co-sleeping ones where it is right there waiting for them) and I am just interested in what people think.

Because people ask questions - doesn't necessarily mean they are interested in your answer and by sleeping through - it means a period of 5 hours such as 11-4 or 12-5.

Why should a baby be judged 'good' based on the amount of sleep at night? Why should the mother be considered 'good' if her baby sleeps?

No it is not inevitable that there are more night wakings at all. My new dc4 is almost 2 weeks old ebf and sleeping between 4 and 5 hours at a go overnight. Bf or otherwise babies when they are very little need to wake and eat often.

I have also had the same experience with my other dcs but they do sleep in bed with me for the first few weeks which makes things a lot easier imho.

In my experience, based on rl and what I read on here, then as a group, yes, ff babies do tend to sleep through earlier than bfed ones.

However there are plenty of bfed babies who do sleep through and plenty of ff ones who don't so it's far from foolproof.

I think often people who ask about whether babies sleep through or not, are simply making conversation. After all, babies don't do much more than eat or sleep so conversations tend to revolve around those two subjects.

Having 2 kids myself, both of whom were bfed, now they are older it seems such a short time that they were waking in the night, though it didn't feel like that at the time! The benefits of bfing stay with them forever, so the extra few weeks or months of night wakings were a small price to pay.

don't know. mine are all BF and sleep/slept fine.

my three weeker woke once last night, bless her.

i don't think there is any evidence to show FF babies do sleep any better.

there is, on the other hand, evidence that a BF baby given a FF before sleep sleeps less well by 45 mins average - someone linked to it a while back...

Myth ime.

Among my friends there is a mix of ffers and bfers and it comes down to the baby.

There is little you can do about it, sadly!

Btw, 4 mths is classic sleep regression for most babies. Ds 1 was ffed and he started waking lots again at that stage. Still to get there with ds2...

Mine were both bf and slept through early on.

I didn't mean you specifically OP :) I meant people in general.

I've seen plenty of ffers on here complaining that their 4 month old has stopped sleeping through the night too.

Have a look here It will tell you about sleep and there is a little too on hitting 4 months.

I know I've said this before on here, I was ff and didn't sleep till 4 and my sister was bf and slept through from 6 weeks. It entirely depends on the child.

I know bf babies that have slept through from 2 weeks.

She is most likely hungry/growth spurt and you are nearly ready to wean. 4-5 months seems to be a classic time for this, whether FF or BF. By that age, mine were both FF, but still reached that awkward stage and we moved onto weaning around 5 months or so.

Ds was exclusively bf and slept better (still waking and feeding and going back to sleep) but better than dd who was mixed then ff.

Don't think it makes any difference. A lot of the time I think babies that sleep 'through' are left to settle themselves a bit - and you are less likely to do that with bf perhaps? (wild assumption there )

Agree there is a well-talked-about 4mths-ish 'regression' (I gave up thinking about it with the second tbh and just went with the flow)

I probably should have said in my original post that DD is now 6 monnths (well she will be in a few days) and so I thought we were out of the 4 month sleep regression thingy. She did get better around the 5 months mark and slept Ok for about 2 weeks, before it all started again... is there a 6 month regression too?

I guess I just need to run with it. DH thinks I over-analyse and that I need to learn to go with the flow a bit more... but it's not him up and down a zillion times a night, is it? I just always think there must be something I am doing/not doing - but I guess that's wrong and it's just babies being babies

I think your DH is right

Yes, there is a 6 month regression when they start to wean
then the bit where they learn to sit up
then the bit where they start crawling

oh, then the teething

and the separation anxiety... and the standing... and when they get a cold... you get my point

and

hence why i gave up with ds. Yes, go with the flow. But your dh needs to either do some of the night-stuff if he can OR he needs to LOOK AFTER YOU - make you tea, let you lie-in, etc etc.

thanks adair that makes me feel a whole lot better!

DH does look after me, he will often get up with miniCurly in the morning at weekends to let me have a lie-in. He does get up at 5am during the week tho, so he needs some rest at the weekends too.

It's just a shame men can't breastfeed isn't it?

DD was fine at four months, but hit 5 and went bonkers. Went from going 7-4am to waking at 11, 1.30, 3.00, 5.30... It coincided with 2 teeth coming through and her desparate attempts to crawl in the day. Once she cracked crawling, she's gone back to doing her long stretch till about 4am again.

I think it's sleep regression and developmental impacts rather than BF/FF. DD was fully BF until 4 months then mixed fed, started weaning 2 weeks ago. None of this has impacted her sleep.

As for 'sleeping through' - how long is a piece of string? 12-5, 7-7, 11-6? Plus it's seen as such a badge of honour, bizarrely, I think a lot of people just lie. I'm 31 and pre-DD I didn't sleep through the night

OP I don't know any FF babies. But all the babies I know (same age as DD - 6 months) are still waking for night feeds. Apart from one, who sleeps in her own room. My DD slept 'through' (10pm to 5am) at about three months and stopped at four months too, and she's got steadily worse since then. Now she can wake anything up to 5 times a night. Personally I do think it is for comfort as much as feeding, and may also now be habitual. She's in with us though so it is much easier to feed her than try to settle her any other way!

In a couple of months time, we are moving her to her own room, and I'm hoping that she'll wake less then... because I am very, very tired.

(we went with the dh looking after me bit too, your dh sounds lovely. Make sure you tell him what you need him to do for you.)

Good luck, it's hard. It all settles down after about a year IMVHO. We will be doing it all again (third time round) in January... your brain conveniently lets you forget this bit .

Anecdotally through my friends, it seemed to be the case - they all bottle fed and their babies slept through within a couple of months, I breast fed and was up every two hours until seven months, when we night weaned.

But I am fully aware that anecdotal evidence is worthless and meaningless!

DS2 has done 8pm-4am the a feed and back to sleep since 8wks,

It isn't inevitable.

FF babies might sleep for longer, but according to one study (no i don't have a link) BF mothers sleep on average 39 minutes longer than their FF counterparts. (something like that - it might be 47 minutes - don't recall exactly but def under an hour between them).

curlyLJ, anecdotally, my friends who FF their babies find their babies sleep for longer stretches at night than friends who BF their babies.

Add to that the number of BF-ers I know, and know about, who do a bedtime formula feed, specifically to get the baby to sleep longer, and I'd say yes, it seems like formula often (obviously not always) does = more sleep.

And I've assumed this is down to the artificial feeling of fullness formula gives a baby, and the longer time it takes to digest.

Of course, the BIG sleep issue with BF-ing is that you can't share feeding duties, unlike FF-ing. Only the mum with the boobs can do it - so yes, if you have a new baby that feeds every 2-3 hours or so (or more...), then that's almost certainly going to mean one very tired mum.

[My 8 week DS is EBF, and my DP does a night time EBM feed to give me a couple of hours of sleep, and it's a lifesaver for me.]

As SirBoobalot says, we do seem to be desperate to get small babies sleeping through the night. I would LOVE mine too, of course I would - however, the painful truth is that in this instance, what's good for grown ups isn't necessarily good for babies! Dammit.

A small baby needs to feed little but often, not in several big 'meals' - and this means waking often. There is evidence that babies who sleep more lightly, and wake more often are less at risk of SIDS (and the connection between BF-ing and reduced risk of SIDS may be partly due to the way BF babies wake and feed). So, yep, more sleep would be lovely, but my feeling is that it's just not what babies DO, on the whole, and it's not fair or in fact healthy to expect them to have the same sleep patterns as adults. Double dammit.

Anecdotally my BF baby did 10pm-7am from 9 weeks and I know several other friends whose babies have done the same so I think to some extent it does just depend on the baby (i.e. you may not see much improvement by switching to formula). I also imagine it's quicker and easier to do a breastfeed in the middle of the night than a bottle feed though of course it does mean you can't share them.