When will EBF 7 week old sleep for longer?

[User694]

DS is 7 weeks old today and is EBF. We use the huckleberry app to track his feeds which I find helpful. In a 24 hour period he feeds for anywhere between 3hr45 mins total to 5 hours total.

He is gaining weight very well and has plenty wet and dirty nappies.

He only goes 1.5-2.5 hours from the start of one feed to the start of the next. If we are out and about, he can sometimes go 3 hours between feeds. During the night, the longest he has went between feeds is 2 hours but recently he has been waking up 45 mins - 1 hour after going to sleep

My question is, when is he likely to sleep for longer stretches during the night? Is there anything I can do to encourage longer sleeps at night? Is my only option to try him on a bottle of formula to fill his tummy up for longer?

Honestly it’s different with every baby, and it’s up and down through the first couple of years too. Baby sleep isn’t linear, it doesn’t just keep improving, it changes with development and temperament, and they wake for lots of reasons that aren’t to do with hunger - though breastfeeding is often an easy way to get them back to sleep. My brothers 4 month old (EBF) has slept through the night since 2 weeks. My 18 month old (also breastfed) toddler still hasn’t, and rarely does more than a 4 hour block. You kind of just need to go with the flow. Safe bedsharing helps you get more sleep.

I know it can feel like you’ve been doing this forever, but 7 weeks is still a tiny baby! It should get better soon. My DD2 is 5 months now and still only going 2-3 hours during the day (but 8 at night) - she’s just learned to be way faster, so it’s all much easier. Her big sister was the same. You can always try a bottle of formula if you desperately need a break, but there’s no guarantee it will help him feel full for longer and obviously it can mess up your supply.

Thank you for your replies. There are moments of desperation when I’m so so tired that I think formula will help. But then I think about it properly and worry that it’ll irritate his little tummy as he suffers from bad gas as it is. Then there’s also the fact it could mess up my supply.

There are days when I cope well with the lack of sleep but nights like last night are a struggle when I’m only getting around 3-4 hours total

@BuffaloCauliflower unfortunately baby has reflux so is in a lot of pain flat on his back and is more comfortable in his moses basket which is slightly tilted. We did try the safe bed sharing but he didn’t take to it

My daughter is nearly 4 and reflux still wakes her every 1-2h when her meds aren't controlling it anymore
What treatment are they getting for the reflux? Adequate treatment for the reflux is probably your best bet for improving sleep.
My daughters sleep has been equally bad on ebf, formula, oat milk and nothing as it's not hunger that wakes her up it's pain. Of the four scenarios the one that was worst for sleep was formula as she ended up massively comfort feeding drinking way more formula than was good for her to sooth the reflux causing a massive regression in her reflux. She went from drinking 3-8oz overnight to 20-25oz + and desperate for more. We managed to get her back down to 2-5oz and it vastly improved her sleep, alongside medication adjustments