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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Poll - if your breastfed baby slept though the night at an early age....

114 replies

pupuce · 09/04/2006 20:13

First let's qualify sleeping through : at least 7 to 9 hours non stop (so from 10/11PM to 6/7AM)... and let's qualify an early age... anything below 10 weeks....
Did you:
co-sleep (baby in same room but not in your bed)
co-bed (baby in your bed)
co-sleep/co-bed later in the night
let baby sleep in his/her room from days old
fed lying down
fed sitting up

Am quite curious.... have a few thoughts on this now that I work with some many postnatal mums.
Thank you!

Thanks

OP posts:
Tatties · 09/04/2006 22:10
Envy This thread resembles my life with ds in no way whatsoever!
colditz · 09/04/2006 22:12

Interested to know if birthweight makes any difference - my mum has a theory that bigger babies sleep more, and for longer.

milward · 09/04/2006 22:15

have bf all my kids & found that they needed very little sleep - nothing to do with bf just that they were awake & active most of the time :)

Gem13 · 09/04/2006 22:16

DS slept through from 7 weeks (might have been 9) 7-7. In his cot next to my bed. Always fed sitting up.

I thought I was a fab breastfeeding mother then had DD...

DD didn't consistently sleep through (1 all nighter followed by two nights with one waking, 2 good nights then a night waking once, etc.) until she was 17 months old. In cot next to my bed, always fed sitting up...

Both went into their own rooms at 5 months.

morningpaper · 09/04/2006 22:18
Envy
Amelily · 09/04/2006 22:32

Dd1 slept through from about 10months, Dd2 has just started to sleep from 7pm to between 5.30 and 6.00pm with no dream feed. Actually found dd2 slept better after I gave up dream feed. Dd2 is much bigger than 1, think this may make a difference.

serenity · 09/04/2006 22:33

DS1 and 2 didn't sleep through until 18 months

DD slept through the night from about 4 weeks (8/9pm until 7/8am, with a dream feed at about 11?)

Until 4 weeks we would co-bed from when she woke up for a feed if we were already in bed (her moses basket was right next to our bed), I'd feed lying down if she was already in our bed. The dream feed would be sitting up.

Once she started sleeping through there was no need to bring her in with us, so it was just the sitting up dream feed and back in the basket.

However, it all went t*ts up at 4 months, when DSs had obviously been whispering in her ear and she didn't sleep through again until the magic 18mths.

CaptainDippy · 09/04/2006 22:36

Interesting one - Both of my DD's slept through (7 - 7) from an early age. ....

DD1 was 8lb when born, solely BF for almost a year and slept in the cot next to our bed til she was 1yr. She was swaddled at night from an early age and then slept on her tummy from 6 months. She slept through from 7 til 7 from about 9 weekish.

DD2 was 5lb when born, spent a week in SCBU and then came home. She was solely BF for about two months (lots of issues with feeding) and slept in a cot next to our bed for 4 months. She was also swaddled at night until she was 6 months and then slept on her tummy. She slept 7 til 7 from about 5 weeks, but when she was about 4 months, she started waking again - we tried controlled crying for a month and it eventually worked (good thing too cos I think DH and I were nearly at breaking point after thinking we'd got out night's sleep back again!!!)

Really hope the next one is as good at night!!

Mmmmmmmmmm ........

ladyoracle · 09/04/2006 22:38

Pupuce, any chance you could correlate and present your findings before may 25th. DD3 is due on that date, and any help in avoiding feeding every 2 hours for 6 months, (thus saving my sanity, general health and wellbeing, and that of my family) would be greatly appreciated.

No pressure Grin

Clary · 09/04/2006 22:38

DD (baby no 2) slept from 7pm to 6am at 9 wks.
She was in our room (moved her to her own room at 4months) but in her moses basket all night.
Fed sitting up.
Did this the same for all 3 but DS1 woke till he was 7mo and ds2 was 3mo when he slept 7pm-6am.
10pm-6am none of them ever did as never did dreamfeed, so their last feed to go was usually 3-4am-ish.

Chandra · 09/04/2006 22:42

Ds started to sleep through when we settle a routine which involved trying to calculate how much milk he was drinking, the longer he feed (and once weaning started) the longer he slept. But 7-9 hrs were way after 10 weeks

We co slept/co bed in the early days, I fed lying down. DS went to his own room (but carefully monitored) when he was a few weeks old, then I fed him sitting up.

I think saying bottle feed babies sleep through sooner is a myth. Maybe it's just that mums of bottlefeed baby can insist on baby to finish the bottle while it is a bit difficult to calculate how much milk a breastfed baby has had.

lahdeedah · 09/04/2006 23:23

My DD was fully breastfed and slept in a cot next to our bed. She slept through from 10pm-ish until 7am-ish from around 8 or 9 weeks old. I put this down to the fact that she is big - 99th centile - and so could manage longer without food?? I generally fed sitting up, on the sofa or in bed, propped up with lots of pillows.

Anyway she did this for a couple of months then it all went pear-shaped at 4 months, when she began waking for a feed two or three times a night. Things improved when we moved her into her own room at 7 months old and now at 12 months she is a very good sleeper.

dramaqueen72 · 09/04/2006 23:34

um.. dd3 is now over three months and has pretty much slept thro for awhile now. well My version of sleeps thro....she does often stir about crack of dawn and I feed her next to me, but I'm so asleep and so she it almost doesnt count!
she is
my fourth baby and the first one to even THINK about sleeping, at all, never mind thro the night....
she sleeps in a bedside cot, which is level with our bed, she does often end up actually IN our bed tooGrin
she prefers to feed lying down.

gomez · 10/04/2006 01:59

DD1 - not 'early' by your criteria but around 12 weeks after she was moved into her own room, in her cot. She would sleep from around 9pm to 6am. 9lbs 9oz at birth. Always fed sitting up and never slept with us.

DD2 - in a crib in our room slept, around 8.00pm to 5.30am from about 4 weeks and TBH used to sleep from 111.00pm ish through 'til 5.30/6.00am from around 1 week. She was always fed sitting up and again never slept with us.
She was 10lbs 10oz at birth.

I could never get the hang of feeding lying down so I think this stopped us getting into a snacking type routine during the night or the Girls getting warm and comfy and dozing off before they had filled their boots! Also meant I had two super full boobs in the morning so could express one off and feed the other and so built up a really good supply of expressed milk - which was mostly never used and ended up being rescued from the back of the freezer months later and ditched!

It did mean however that they fed like demons during the day to get enough feeds ins. Lots of cluster feeding from 5.00pm ish onwards.

clop · 10/04/2006 06:55

DD slept 9 hrs regularly from 6-15 weeks (then she got ill and it all went pear-shaped Angry). It was a mix of co-sleeping and sleeping in her own carrycot next to my bed.

But my two boys were awful sleepers, and they were also a mix of co-sleeping (when I couldn't avoid it), cot next to me, cot in next room.

Fed lying down (religiously).

tootiredtotalk · 10/04/2006 07:18

my dd who is nearly one slept thru the night from 9pm til 7am from 6 weeks and was bottle fed.

jane313 · 10/04/2006 07:24

surely tootiretottalk, you should have another nickname if she slept that long?

edam · 10/04/2006 07:34

I think ds was about eight weeks old when he slept through. There was a stage before then when it was twice a night, which was do-able as dh used to do one feed and me the other.

tootiredtotalk · 10/04/2006 07:40

yes if i was doin MN back then it would of been brightandbreezy, but now what with working fulltime and looking after little one i think my name is appropriate.

Enid · 10/04/2006 08:17

dd1 slept through from 6/7 weeks (fully bf) Smile

Did you:
co-sleep (baby in same room but not in your bed) NO
co-bed (baby in your bed) DID FOR THE FIRST 6 WEEKS BUT SHE STARTED SLEEPING THROUGH WHEN PUT IN HER COT IN OWN ROOM
co-sleep/co-bed later in the night VERY OCCASIONALLY
let baby sleep in his/her room from days old YES, FOR NAPS
fed lying down AT NIGHT FOR FIRST 6 WEEKS
fed sitting up YES MAINLY

Enid · 10/04/2006 08:19

I THOUGHT I did the same for dd2 but she didnt sleep through the night until she was about 6 months Angry

Pollyanna · 10/04/2006 08:24

all of mine (4) were sleeping through before 10 weeks. All were fully breastfed, and all slept in the same room as me (but not the same bed) for at least 6 months. I fed sitting up. [smug emoticon]

dd3 stopped sleeping through though at about 4/5 months (and hasn't slept well since).

Auntymandy · 10/04/2006 08:37

all different!
All 5 breastfed. Ds1 sleppt 12 hours a night from 10 weeks
DD and DS2 about 14 weeks
Ds 3 cant remember but was abit older I think and DS4 was over a year!

lazycow · 10/04/2006 10:51

Co-sleep - yesbut not in my bed from birth to 2 months but then in his own room. Then from 3 months to about 7 months co-bed later in the night as he slept so badly.

From 8 months on most nights in his own room but in my bed if ill - really distressed or I am knackered.

I fed sitting up until he was about 4 months old as he choked otherwise. After that we managed to master the lying down feeds sometimes but not always.

first time he slept from 10/11am to 6/7am he was 7 months old but he only did it once then never again. At 11 months he finally slept 7pm - 5am - again just the once. Then gradually more nights were undisturbed.

Now at 16 months he seems to select 2-3 nights at random and sleep from 7.30pm-5.30am without waking. The rest of the week - anything goes !!

Very confused generally. I just did whatever I could to get through really.

lazycow · 10/04/2006 10:53

oh he nearly always slept in his own room for naps if I could get him to take one but we also had periods where he slept in a sling on me.

Mmmm - we pretty much did anything. The only thing he almost never did until over 12 months old was sleep longer than 30 minutes when outside (i.e in pram in car etc.)