Do breastfeed babies ever sleep through?

[Princesspowersparkle]

Just curious really- my LO is 11 weeks old and still wakes up 2 or 3 times a night for food. Do breastfed babies ever sleep right through? x

Right, clandestine, I am now going to have to hunt you down along with the midwife who told me confidently that DS would sleep through early because of his size (10lb 5.5oz at birth)...

DS was doing 11 till 5 at 2 weeks and gradually added some time on either end till he was doing 8 till 6 at 6 weeks.

DD now 17 weeks was doing 7:30 till 5:30 at 10 weeks. She now does 8 till 7, roughly.

sorry

My exclusively bf DD slept through (about 8 hours) at about 4 weeks 5 nights out of 7 (yes, I know, very fortunate and what a godsend it was!)This continued until she was about 10 weeks when she started to wake once a night due to our putting her to bed much earlier (8pm instead of 11pm). At 4 months she started waking up twice a night and this carried on until she was 6 months. I was struggling at this point as I could n't seem to get back to sleep between wake ups. she eventually slept through at 8 months. Since then I can count the number of times she has woken up on one hand. She was 2 a couple of months ago.

I guess what I'm trying to say is it is all a bit of a lottery really. You think you have cracked it and then a couple of weeks down the line lo starts waking again and everything changes.

Friends that introduced formula to try to improve baby's sleep had mixed results. My SIL switched to formula when her dd was 3 months in the hope it would improve the sleeping but it made bugger all difference. My niece is still a bad sleeper at 16months.

I know it sounds silly but try to enjoy the night feeds. In many ways it's a lovely time.

the bigger babies sleep better thing is rubbish sadly. Mine were both 98 percentile and although they slept for longer chunks initially didn't sleep through till 6 months and with ds2 7 months and waiting. I know so teeny babies that slept through from 5-11 weeks though. And I know at least 5 ff babies who were sleeping badly at 2 years plus.

god i wish I could get used to it, I moan about it every day.

11 wks and you want him to sleep through?

ds1 slept through at 2 yrs old
dd slept through at 7 wks but due to low weight gain (heart condition) I had to wake her to feed her

ds2 is 6mths and sleeps through from 10-7 most nights

Mine did from two weeks . Too soon though, so for a few weeks I had to wake him to feed him. But effectively from c.7 weeks, he was sleeping from 11 to 6.30, and not much later, he was sleeping from 8 to 6.30.

In the first year, we had about 1 sleepless and two disturbed nights after the initial month. We know we were very lucky.

All babies are different.

At 7, he is still an excellent sleeper.

Oh well - I guess I was just lucky

They are now both junior school aged and have always been fantastic sleepers. I'd always put it down to being bigger than their peers but obviously it was their superb parenting luck

dd 1st slept through at 17 days old
and has regularly slept though since 6 weeks 10-30-11pm till 7-8am she is now 14 weeks and has done this from 6-14 weeks

felt a bit bad the 1st time she slept through as we where told to not let her go longer than 4 hours max
but fell asleep at 11pm didnt wake up till 7am ish
thought it waas prob a good sign dd would be a good sleeper

My ds slept through at 7 months! (Slept through meaning 11 - 7ish).
My dd slept through at 8 weeks. Both BF.
Did express and give dd bottle feed late at night tho which I think made all the difference. However my ds decided to wake nearly every night so never really got the full benefit - lol!

its funny how one persons idea of sleeping through can be so different
alot of people i know dont count it unless its 12 hours
but i count a normal adults 8 hours as sleeping through
depends on your point of view i guess

It's a bit bizarre how the bf and sleeping-through-the-night debates have become so interlinked. As far as I can tell trying to 'explain' babies is like trying to find a cure for the common cold. IME, ds (still bf) didn't 'sleep through the night' until he was around a year old. Wake-ups had dropped off from, say, 4 or 5 down to 1 per night and the only - very few - times dh fed him Aptamil late in the evening made absolutely no difference at all. Jolly good, I thought, perhaps he just wants his mum.

I think at 11wks 2 or 3 times is not so bad and certainly not unusual. Hope you can keep it up, Princess.

robinredbreast - my hv described advised me that 'sleeping through' to the medical profession actually meant about 6 hours - ie, not my idea of a full night's sleep but a substantial period of time for a baby!

My two year old DS has only just started sleeping through. My 9 week old DD slept thru for the first time last night, from 9.30pm to 6.30am this morning, up until now she was waking once during the night for a feed between 3 and 4 am, so whether its a one off l await to see.
However l am concerned, we have had some problems with the feeding, 2 mastitus bouts and antibiotics and now a course of fluconazole (after a battle with the GP) for thrush in the breast which has hurt like hell for the last 9 weeks - all of which l am sure inhibits the production and flow of milk. Her weight gain hasn't been great, but l am trying not to get hung up about it, plenty of wet and dirty nappies and a good night sleeper says to me she is ok.
Question is should you wake them for a night feed ? or try to increase the feeds during the day and take advantage of the sleep yourself( as l have up until now) ??

walnut i totally agree
think its a bit unreasonable to expect a small baby to sleep from 7pm till 7am

My BF baby started sleeping from about 2.5 months from 7.30 - 6ish. I understand that is really really lucky though.

It is lucky, but also I think we should try to remember that it's so normal for them to wake up and even - dare I say - quite nice to have that middle-of-the-night time looking after them (or have I just got a very bad memory?) I still maintain that it's modern life that prevents us enjoying this really special time.

lizzie i totally agree if anyones lucky that the baby does that its fab
just som people i know actually expect it !!!

Yup, exactly.

I used to wake him up for a dreamfeed in the middle of the night and it was very sweet, he was like a little doormouse.

Not anymore. At 8 months the luck has worn off and he wakes up regularly at various intervals during the night. Wish I'd never encouraged the use of a dummy, now he wakes up when it falls out and starts screaming if he can't find it - take heed!

Doormouse - lol! What a good description.

haylo
im certainly no expert about bf [only been bf my dd for 14 weeks]
but i think id go for more feeds in the day
but that is just my guess

Two of my friends exclusively breastfed their babies, and both slept through by about 4 months. So it's more than possible! And my (ff) baby wasn't anywhere near sleeping through at 11 weeks - by 13 weeks she was, if you could class 11pm - 5am as sleeping through, which I don't!