Breast feeding and formula feeding at night

[Lyns22]

Hello! Has anyone tried this? I've been exclusively breastfeeding for 3 months and have heard mixing breast milk and formula for final feed of the night will ensure a longer sleep than my baby's normal 2/3 hour stints.
I want what's best for her obv but feel I'm not giving her enough attention then she's awake as I'm shattered. Hubby is an on call doctor so is working a lot and we're living in a different country to family and friends so I'm completely alone. Any suggestions/ advice welcome!!!

Formula may make her sleep a bit longer as it is harder to digest so she will be like hubby on a sunday afternoon after too much roast dinner. Also your hormones produce milk better in the night(can't get too technical as a bit knackered) and missing out them night feeds will mess with supply. You are also likely to be engorged if she has a really good long sleep so you could be sore for a few days.

How long is she up for on a night feed? With mine I found it was about half an hour. when they were young I changed their nappy first so they could snooze in bed with me and found even though i was waking with them several times a night i wasn't as tired.

Does she sleep in the day so you can get a nap then?

It doesn't last forever if you can ride it out now things will get better

I have heard a lot of people saying they have done this successfully but for me mixed feeding killed my supply!
I never gave formula before bed though, I gave a bottle in the middle of the day, this also made my 2 DS's sleep better at night, for me I prefer when the babies co-sleep and feed 2 hourly over night as this keeps my supply going, milk production is highest at night (so I have read) so the night feeds are important for maintaining supply.
It's up to you, you could always try it and if you feel it was affecting your supply you could always stop it.
Good luck with whatever you decide, but I know night feeds with no help is very hard, it was at those times I used to wish I was bottle feeding!

Have you tried expressing earlier in the day and then offering some of that after the last feed? I used to do that and it really worked in terms of establishing a longer stretch of sleep. That way you won't mess up your supply too.

Do you really want to faff around, making a bottle in the middle of the night? When you can just whip a boob out?

I'm not saying don't do it, but it really will mess with your supply. you produce more prolactin at night, which tells your body to make milk.

Also, formula doesn't make every baby sleep longer, so that's also worth considering.

Agree with Chocolate - IME it's a myth that formula makes them sleep longer and it will mess with your supply as well as being a PITA in the middle of the night.

My DS used to clamour for a bottle last thing then sleep for four hours after both boob and bottle. He now no longer needs that at fifteen weeks and sleeps for five hours. So it can work just to get more milk in.

Thanks for all the advice girls, ill def stick to bf x

I have had great success with adding a bottle of formula every evening. I was dead set against it to start with but the exhaustion of cluster feeding every night for 4 hours took over! My 10 week old dd now has a ready made bottle every evening at around 8pm (no making up bottle faff) and goes through until around 3am and then quick bf (quick i think as i have so much milk) and not up until 8.30ish. Personally I think try it for a few days and see. It hasn't effected my supply at all and she feeds happily off me for all other feeds. The issue is i leak so much overnight but hoping it will stop soon! To be honest she takes the bottle with such enthusiasm I felt bad she was obviously so hungry and it has allowed my dp to take over in the evenings which has given me much needed break resulting in happier baby and mummy.

Clearly it is affecting your supply because you're leaking - at the moment you have too much and when the leaking stops that means your bm supply will have dropped.

OP, all the research agrees that formula makes no difference at all to sleep - if the baby goes longer then they were probably about to start going longer anyway.