About to give in and give formula tonight...

[Olivetti]

My DD is 15 weeks, and was a fantastic sleeper from about 5 weeks - and from about 8 weeks until 12 weeks she was managing 7pm - 11pm dreamfeed, then 11:30-7am. HOWEVER, she's now regularly waking in the night for a feed - can go 7pm until about 3am without a dreamfeed, dreamfeed makes no difference, she still wakes up at 3am, then again at 6am. I was determined to keep her EBF until 6 months, but I am knackered, have a bad cold, and am thinking of giving her a bottle of formula as a top up at her pre-bedtime feed. I feel really emotional about it, though. Have others introduced formula top-ups, and dows it make any difference to sleeping?

Hi OP, I see you've worked it out, but I just wanted to add that at times of crisis I often find setting yourself a target of one day, two days or a week really helps. It gives you "permission" not to worry about it until then which can often help in itself but also you will probably find that you'll feel so different in a couple of days, especially if you are unwell right now. It sounds like you're doing great. It's quite common to feel beyond knackered at this stage. You're sort of feeling you should be getting in a routine, but in reality the hard work of having a newborn is starting to take its toll. Interfering Wellmeaning family pop up with wonderful advice etc etc.

Your baby sounds amazing, both mine woke at 11pm and 3am and then 6am to about 9 months. It's hard when you're feeling a bit poorly but I suspect some of this maybe related to a growth spurt on your DD's behalf I think they happen at 4 months and 6 months as well as the earlier ones when younger.

Get an early night with a hot water bottle and you'll feel better for it.

Thanks everyone, especially the last two lovely posters. She's fast asleep now, so I am going to do the same. Night, and thanks again.

Oh man, you are seriously lucky OP. Hope you had a good sleep and feel better tomorrow.

I am oh so tempted to say what my 19 week old DS does on the sleep front and engage in a bit of competitive tiredness but I do keep repeating myself to the point where even I am bored of talking about it.

It's not dead selfish - new parenting and sleep deprivation is a shock to the system, esp when you think they've "cracked it" - dd did this to us at 6mo, and it was a horrible shock (though she was awake from about 1-4 every night, which is pretty bloody soul destroying).

ds is 17 months and still wakes up every 3 hours At Least. Doesn't get fed, still wakes up. Grr.

Hope you feel better soon - things always seem grim when you're not well.

I hope you are feeling better. My EFF DD (now 6mo) doesn't reliably sleep from her dream feed at 11am to 7am. Sometimes it is 4.30am, other times 6.30am and last night it was 3am. So I don't think formula is necessarily the answer.