BF babies and sleep

[philbee]

With DD1 I expressed a bottle for DH to give her at 10pm each night to give me more time to rest. I don't think it's going to happen for DD2 as I just can't express enough.

For those of you who only bf, have your LOs changed their sleep patterns? Do they start to sleep longer at night? And when you came to weaning were you able to give them formula in another way or would they not accept it?

I honestly think it depends entirely on the baby. DD1 would take anything, any way. She was bf til 6 months, when I switched to formula. She had occasional bottles of formula before then if I was out (I expressed a lot at the beginning as she was in NICU, but at about 2 months I just switched to formula. She took it from a bottle, cup, spoon, whichever way. He sleep started improving at about 4 months if I remember correctly.

DD2, well... not so much she's still breastfed & refusing bottles occasionally at almost 2. She's allergic to dairy though so that hampered the introduction of formula too. Her sleep is also pretty rotten.

Thanks. DH suggested the occasional (maybe once a week) bottle of formula so that DD could get used to a bottle sometimes. I don't think that would cause problems for my supply as she will often not feed between 8 and 1, but sometimes wakes for an 11pm feed, so it's no different really. But I'm wondering if its worth bothering at all. She had her tongue tie clipped two weeks ago and latch is still not great. I don't want her to prefer the bottle. So far she follows exactly the same sleep pattern as DD1, but don't know if that will continue.

I'm not an expert, but I wouldn't think 1 bottle a week would cause a problem - although I'm willing to be corrected. Maybe give it a couple of weeks to get more established & then try?