Encouraging sleeping through -advice please

[snowydrops]

DD2 is 9 weeks, she's been a great sleeper from day one. Apart from in hospital she has only ever woken once a night except on a rare occasion. Initially she was EBF and now I combination feed, but always from a bottle (expressed). Her daily intake is currently:

100ml/ 3oz(maximum, often less) at 7.30-8am ish breast milk

150ml (sometimes only takes 120ml) breast milk at 10.30am

150ml - breast milk at 1.30pm

150ml (sometimes more like 120ml) breast milk at 4.30/5pm

150-220ml formula/breast milk mix at 7.30pm

Attempt a dream feed at 10.30pm which usually only results in her taking 50-70ml of formula

150ml formula at 3.30am

I really want to encourage her sleeping through or at least waking earlier in the night so that I get a good solid 6 hours afterwards. I've tried leaving out the feed at 10.30pm but then she wakes at 2.30am and then again at 5.30am

Any tips? DH usually does the feed at 10.30pm and I kind of still want him involved because otherwise it's all on me...

She's 9 weeks old. Way too early to try and encourage sleeping through. She either does it naturally or not at this age.

Sorry OP I agree with above, she's much too young to even consider her sleeping through, either she will or she won't (my dd slept 8 hours from 12 weeks and my ds only started sleeping 8 hours at 10 months!!), there's no way to trtrain her she has lots of growth spurts and teething etc to get through.

I was hoping to follow for tips but my dd is 7months old! Imo 9weeks is too early and just waking once at that age is fab! (Wish my dd would only wake once ...)

Who has led you to believe that expecting a 6 hour block of sleep is realistic for a 9 week old Was your DD1 such a champion sleeper that this is a shock?

You are very, very lucky if she only wakes once. All you can do is encourage plenty of feeds in the day, keep up a dreamfeed at night if it helps, and cross your fingers.

If they do it at this age, it's because that's how they are built. Not anything you can engineer.

Agree with the above. It's not healthy for such small babies to sleep deeply for hours on end.

I think DS1 was almost two (years, OP, not months) before he achieved a six hour block of sleep. DS2 has yet to consistently reach half that mythical time span at the age of nine months.

OP - just to give you hope - DD2 is 9.5 weeks and has just (last 2 nights) started sleeping to 5am from her 11pm bottle (she also takes only 50ml at this time). Was sleeping to 3.30am before that. So I'd say, hang in there, it may be just about to happen.

(I won't mention DD1, who didn't sleep 6 hours between feeds for months, and still wakes most nights for some reason at age 2.5...)

Sorry OPthey either do it on their own or don't.

DD1 was going 9pm till 7am at 6weeks
DD2 hasn't gone more than 3hours between feeds and is 5months!

Oh wow what a reaction! DD1 slept 'through' from 11-6am from 3 months so I don't think it's so crazy....obviously we had months of teething and growth spurts where she would wake several times (fine) but in general she was a long sleeper and big time day feeder.

I know that at this age DD2 needs approximately 900ml of formula if she's completely formula fed and she gets that (and usually more but it's half breastmilk) so saying I shouldn't be allowing her to sleep deeply at this age seems harsh, if she wants to sleep then it's fine (as both HV and midwife have told me) as long as she's gaining weight and thriving which she is. She doesn't sleep so much in the day so I suppose makes up for it at night currently.

I'm really not complaining about her waking once a night, I think we are really very lucky I just wondered if anyone had thoughts on whether to drop the 10.30pm attempted dream feed really as that's the feed she really doesn't seem bothered by. Anyway we will just see how things go...

You can't judge what one baby will do by another though. You were very, very lucky with your first child. Very. Maybe you will be again, but you can't create it at this age.

And let's be honest, you were complaining about her waking once a night. You want to get 'a good solid 6 hours' after her one wake. Taht's fine, but it's not realistic at this age unless it comes naturally.

Fair enough! You're right I'm dreaming of those 6 hours...! I'm back to work in 4 weeks but really she's totally great so I'm not complaining. At the moment I feed her in the night and then have to express so it generally takes about an hour and a quarter but I guess I can drop the expressing at some point, I'm just trying to keep my supply up for now.

the only thing you can try is upping the volumes of milk during the day. Perhaps 1oz (approx 30ml) per feed. May work, may not, but that is the only suggestion I can think of!

A 50ml dreamfeed doesn't seem worth the effort.

Fingers crossed you get that longer stretch soon.

This is a very interesting read about babies sleep development:

www.isisonline.org.uk/how_babies_sleep/normal_sleep_development/

In the article it says that sleeping through is classed as a 5hr chunk, with most babies not sleeping all night (10 pm till 6am) until much nearer to 1yr old.

If it's going back to work you are worried about, maybe think about getting to bed early? You could get to bed at 10 and you'd still have 5.5 hours before a 3.30 wake. Plus another couple of hours after the feed.

If you wanted even more sleep you could go to bed even earlier.

I know it's a pain losing some evening, but it's not forever.

I think you need to go with the flow for a while yet. My son is 21 months and has only just given up night feeds and sleeps through as a rare treat. Count yourself Extremely lucky

Yes I will drop the 11pm express when back to work and go to bed earlier, hoping by then it won't make a massive difference to supply as I've read that it's the nighttime feed that increases prolactin and keeps your supply up so I'll try to keep that one going as long as possible.