Should I introduce a bottle at bedtime?

[Photographs]

DS is 10 mths and has only been breastfed. We're doing BLW and he's getting on very well with three meals + snacks. He feeds probably 3 times a day, with a couple of 'snacky' feeds if we are home. If we are out, and he's distracted, then he will sometimes just have two good feeds.

Recently his night feed has been very short. He doesn't seem at all bothered, however, he's waking 7 times+ a night for feeds.

I'm knackered. We have two other young DC and it's not fair, they are being woken (sleeping lightly at the mo as under the weather) and I am grumpy all day.

I'm wondering if he just can't be bothered at bedtime (too tired) and perhaps a bottle of formula with a fast teat might fill him?

What do you think?

You have my sympathy!

How long has the waking been going on for? Could it be that he's going through a challenging time, like teething, or a developmental stage (there is a growth spurt at around 9-10 months)? It might be a bit of a phase. And if there is an underlying cause, formula won't necessarily help address that.

Are you feeding lying down? Is he sleeping in your bed, your room, or elsewhere? If you were able to keep him in your room it might keep disruption to a minimum.

He's never gone through - usually 2 or 3 feeds a night. I didn't know about grow spurt, so maybe that's it.

I'm just so desperate for a good nights sleep!

He goes down in his cot (in our room) to sleep no problem (goes down awake about half hour after last feed). When he wakes he comes into bed with me, if I wake and he's fast off I put him back into his cot, if not he wakes me and just helps himself to boob! Sometimes he wakes when in bad with me, but doesn't want feeding so I put him into his cot with dummy and he settles. He's never awake for long, settles quite easily.

He's also waking at 5.30am in the morning and won't go back to sleep, but this won't be an issue after Sunday

Does sound as though it could be a phase if previously he's slept through with 2-3 feeds rather than 7. 2-3 feeds a night sounds quite normal, babies don't tend to sleep through the night when they're exclusively breastfed because 2-4 in the morning is the time when the hormone that engages in milk production, prolactin is at its highest level. Formula fed babies are more likely to go through because their digestive systems are working overtime trying to digest something they can't process.

I guess only you can decide whether night feeds are acceptable or not. My personal opinion is that co-sleeping helps a lot, perhaps give it a go , you've nothing to lose if he does a bit of it anyway, at least you won't have to keep getting up, and see if this very frequent phase passes.

I meant to say 'frequent feeding phase'.

Thank you. I'm was really determined not to give any formula, but when you're sleep deprived your mind gets blurred I suppose!

We co-sleep on and off. If it were my way it'd be all the time, but he likes his cot sometimes. I was very disappointed when he was newborn and I discovered he could fall asleep on his own, and that he liked his Moses basket! (I put him in it to see to one of the others, came back to find him fast off! He's been the same ever since- bedtimes have been a breeze!)

No advice, but just to say I could have written your post almost word for word when DD was a similar age. We tried the formula at bedtime route, which didn't help - she didn't want to take a bottle, I felt dreadfully guilty about giving her formula, and it didn't help her sleep any better anyway. Not to say it may work for you though. But like everything, it was a phase, and things got better over time. She is now 18m and generally sleeps though, and has done for a good few months now - hang on in there.

Reading these they could have been written by me. My DS is refusing formula as I thought of giving him a bottle to help him sleep longer so back to boob at bedtime.
Agog1, I found that really interesting about milk production in the early hours, DS seems to wake on the hour between 2 and 5am just wanting 'snacks' but normally end up co-sleeping as I loose the will to live by 4am and realsie I am trying to put him in crib with my eyes shut. Nice to know there is a reason behind it. Guess I ill keep doing what I'm doing and hope it improves.