Six week check, doctor concerned about our lack of sleep - suggests formula grrr

[maltatheterrible]

At DDs 6 week check yesterday the doctor asked how she was sleeping, i advised that she goes down at approx 10:30, sleeps til 2pm, has a 40 minute feed and then sleeps til 5am when she wakes right up and won't go back down.
He looked really concerned and said that if we don't get 4 hours continuos sleep (required to reach "deep sleep" state) we will end up in the funny farm. He suggested giving her a bottle of formula last thing to see if she'll sleep longer.
I really don't wnt to do this, yes we are tired but I think DH and i are coping, DD is exclusively breastfed and putting on weight really well.
Reading other threads people seem to cope (sort of!) on less sleep than this, shall I just ignore his concerns and wait for her to get better on her own? (going to put this in Sleep and Breastfeeding sections for best feedback)

Doctor knows nothing about sleeping in babies - they would be lucky to have discussed it at all at medical school (depending on his age).

There are two of you - I am presuming that only one of you gets up at 5am and stays up.

She is normal, normal, normal and you should keep breastfeeding if that is what you want.

Sounds normal to me, don't give a bottle if you don't want to. As long as you and DH feel like you're coping, this is the most important thing. Sounds like you're doing really well

Ignore him. My ds2 never sleeps that long and is 11 weeks now, he also feeds much more often during the night and I'm ok (just about lol). I'm also exclusively breastfeeding.

what an idiot!

total idiot!

stupid, stupid man

bet he's never had a child

you sound like you're getting loads of sleep comparitively

I recieved similar advice (and ignored it).

Like you say, people cope. Although it seems to last forever, it is just a small amount of time in the scheme of things.

Enjoy your baby!!

I had a similar thing with my ds. At the time, BFing was the most important thing I could do for him so I decided to ignore the advice of the GP & HV. Looking back, I was glad I stuck to my guns.

Have you heard of cluster feeding? It's a Baby Whisperer thing & you can find it on the website. Basically, you try & squeeze extra feeds in during the early evening in the hope that you can fill them up a bit more. Also, I did a dreamfeed with my dd & it meant I got 4hrs sleep initially instead of being woken up by her after 2hrs.

formula doesn't make any difference to sleeping IME ... when i switched from breast to bottle DS fed and woke just the same as ever. I would agree with cluster feeding in the evening - i still offer DS a split feed before bed now (feed, bath, feed and bed). Good luck and keep going with the BF if that is what you want

Definitely stoke your baby up in the evening - I did this without any prompting, just seemed the obvious thing to do, and when I told my HV about it she was fine about it. And I always kept my baby in bed with me so that when she woke up to feed in the night I didn't have to get out of bed. Basically we got plenty of sleep right from the beginning with that system and my baby always put on weight.

Try talking to your HV rather than the doctor - they actually have training in baby sleeping and feeding.

The doctor is an idiot. She will sort her sleeping out eventually - she's only 6 weeks, so it may take some time, but you find ways of coping.
This 'formula as panacea' culture among so many health professionals really p*sses me off. (Can you tell I've been on the receiving end? )

have posted on other thread malta, but basically said the same as others here!

Cluster feeding is something babies do naturally, it's not really a baby whisperer thing . My ds2 does this at the moment and then will go for 3 hours or so before waking for another feed in the evening, he's starting to go a little longer all the time though. During the day he feeds a lot but ds1 was the same so I expected it.

dear all, thanks for responses/back up, i have been asleep on the settee catching up from last night - agree doctor is an idiot.
she does cluster feed in the evening, i will try cramming some more into her though

ps re-reading the term "exclusively breastfeeding" i have decided that sounds like feeding her at Champneys whilst sipping Bolly and having my nails done...if only!

It makes me so that it is such a lottery the advice you get.

Ds fed every 3 hours round the clock virtually until about 8 weeks when he dropped a night feed. So that was 8 weeks with no more than 2 hrs consecutive sleep and yet I'm still pretty sane . I catnapped as much as possible and that really helped.

your LO is doing very well at 6 weeks.!!!! ignore the Dr.

My daughter is 4.5months old if I had heard all the advice she would have been FF by week 2. Feed on demand it will get better. My daughter seemed to cluster feed all evening and then slept 6-9 hours suddenly at 6 weeks. Now she has naturally spaced out her feeds (don't listen to those that tell you to feed every 3-4 hours) but now she only goes 4/5 hours at a stretch at night. I have lots of friends with similar aged babies that are FF and don't sleep and have never slept through the night. Keep going, its tough at the beginning but it does get better. I don't think I really enyoed BFing until she was 12 weeks, now I am going to keep going to a year hopefully. Babies sleep patterns seem a complete mystery. If you are using a dummy, I would suggest stop using one, as BF babies can use up their sucking time on the dummy rather than the breast. Good luck.

What an ass! you and your baby are doing great. TBH I'm lucky if I get 4 hours straight through now and DD2 is now 1!! I've been living in a state of broken sleep for so many years now (DD1 was not sleeping when DD2 born..) that if I get something crazy like 5 hours sleep straight through I feel amazing, like I've had a full 10 hours or something. Good luck and well done for trusting your own instinct.

"we don't get 4 hours continuos sleep "

shows you how much he knows about sleep.

babies and adults have completely different sleep patterns. light,deep and rem sleep patterns are simply not the same.

what an ignoramus. in the business he is in, he should know this.

Agree with the others, her sleeping pattern sounds completely normal.
They grow and develop so much in the early weeks and they're all so different - you're doing well even to have a semblance of a routine!
She will settle into a better pattern for you at some point, so don't stress.
You will get more sleep eventually plus your body somehow gets used to the broken sleep.
I remember when DS first slept through I either used to wake up anyway at 2am or when I woke in the morning I was so zonked with 'extra' sleep that I wasn't sure whehter I'd got up or not in the night!

Research I've read says that your body ajusts to your sleeping pattern so that you go to the deeper stages of sleep sooner than you would normally, you'll be having more quality sleep, just less of it. Not a reason to ff...