Bfing and sleeping through the night- your experiences

[cep]

My ds1 was bottlefed and started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. I have managed to exclusively breastfeed ds2 which i am really chuffed about as we had a very difficult start, he is 10 wks tomorrow and still wakes every 3-4 hrs. I'm not expecting him to be sleeping through yet but i just wondered as this is all new territory for me now, what other bfing mums experiences were of when their lo's have started sleeping through the night. I read somewhere that breastfed babies tend to sleep lighter, ds2 does wake up a lot easier than ds1 did at this age has anyone else noticed a difference?

DS is 10 months, BF and has never slept through the night. When he's had formula, when I've been at work in the evenings, its made no difference.

There's no way of knowing, but its likely that your DC would be the same if he was ff.

I have no comparison as such, all of mine are EBF, however...

Dd1 slept through from about 6weeks old, she's now six years and I can count on one hand how many times she has ever woken on a night since...

DS first slept through at 4 weeks (he was a 10lb+ baby and fed really well from the start) however at about 7months started waking 1...2..3...4...5 times a night for a feed/cuddle and now at 4 years he's up nearly every night, a few times

Dd2 didn't sleep through until she was about 11months but now sleeps through every night reliably... She is 2 and a half

So no pattern there! Just depends on the baby I suppose :)

DD1 was 12m when nightweaned (4 wakings a night), didn't make a difference, just meant DH did it not me!

DD2 was 16m and did it herself. Just didn't wake up one night, has had night feeds more recently but she has had arthritis and was in a lot of pain at the time so I didn't mind at all.

DD3 is mostly nightweaned herself (6 out of 7 nights I'd say she doesn't wake for a feed) and is 2.3y.

Bfing babies do sleep lighter but that is a good thing, being more rousable is one of the reasons bf babies are statistically less likely to have SIDS (doesn't mean they can't have SIDS just less likely too).

ds1 was sleeping through by 6 months, but was mixed fed by then

ds2 slept through at about 2.5

ds3 slept through at about 2

BUT, I would like to add that ALL of them wake relatively often during the night. DS1 less so now that he is 6 but he still has phases of night wakings.
The other 2 wake up several times a week and creep into my bed

Thanks ladies. We've gone through phases with ds1 he slept through as i said from 6 weeks until teething, then once he got used to teething (a few months) slept through again until a really bad phase within 2nd yr, now he sleeps through most nights but gets the odd night every 2-3 weeks where he'll wake up for some strange reason in the early hours (any time) and will just play for the rest of the night in his room.

With ds2 now i've got his bedtime routine pretty much sorted i'll wake him again when i go to bed for a supper feed, he'll wake me once during the night approx 4 hours after supper feed and then 3-4 hours after that, so not too bad. I have to admit though the idea of still being woken up in several months time is a bit daunting. truthsweet poor dd2 with arthritis.

It's ok(ish) now she's in remission from the JIA - she just has Hyper Mobility Syndrome though it is getting better too

You do get used to it strangely. DD1 was nightweaned so I could get pg (turned out I already was!) so the then constant trips to the toilet at night meant no more sleep than before, DD2 STTN when I was a few months pg - again with the trips to the toilet and DD3 is the youngest so over the last nearly 7 years we have had little unbroken sleep. I'm fine though

I also think it depends on the baby

DD1 Bottle and breast, slept through (10-8) at 4 weeks.
DS1 EBF and didnt sleep through until 20ish weeks
DD2 EBF 8 weeks.
DD4 EBF 4 days - seriously I was a bit sad not to have the cosy night feeds, she 18 mths now and occaionaly wakes for some milk as shes too busy creating havoc during the day to eat enough.

All the girls were 10lber's which depends who you listen to means they should have been feeding loads or rarely .
All 4 of them are really heavy sleepers, which they get from me I LOVE my bed!

Hi cep :)

DS slept through 11-7 from 10 weeks but only intermittently until 7mo when we dropped the dreamfeed and he slept 7-7

DD slept through 11-7 from 4 weeks and is EBF (although now, at 10 weeks has started waking now between 5-6am)

So IME it depends on the baby, not the method of feeding

truthsweet fx things keep improving for her.

dilligaf81 i am actually seriously jealous right now.

hi terrys good to "see" you. hows everything going? ok i'm going to sound really petty if i say HA! to her waking a bit earlier aren't I?

Oh gosh I want to swap with any of you I think!

Cep - waking every 3-4 hours seems completely normal to me (and in fact I think most bf mums would be a bit envious). If it means only being woken once or twice in the night, feeding, and then going back to sleep that is amazing.

I came onto the thread to look as my baby (5 weeks) is going at most 2 hours, and often feeding and then grizzling and I was wondering idly if formula would help. I really can't sustain this! I've had about 4 hours maximum total sleep for about a week now.

Terry - you must be doing something right if both yours slept through 11-7 from a young age.... what's the secret?!

DD is 18 weeks and EBF and still wakes at least twice a night

I only have one and she's EBF and 9mo now. She started sleeping through the night, 10-6/7 from 11-12 weeks. This continues till around 6mo. Now she wakes up anywhere between 1 to 3 times a night. But not all of them from hunger. Like last night, for one of the wakings, she won't even latch at all. She just wanted a cuddle. But then she's now in a nursery since I'm back at work. So she has a lot of snuffles and also she's teething. She wakes up and night and coughs, and cries. I just feel so sorry for her.