Will using a bottle of formula at night help?

[Sheen4272]

My 11wk old DS has been waking up around 3am for the past 2 weeks, before this it was 10pm - 5am most nights. My husband has suggested a bottle of formula to help her sleep through. I did express and gave her a bottle a couple of nights ago and she did 9pm - 4am but it took 3 days to express! Getting up doesn't bother me but obviously it's tiring and wakes hubby up sometimes. Do BF babies sleep through? I dont want to give up and use a bottle - but IS this giving up???? Very confused!

some bf babies sleep, some do not. same as ff.

have you tried an eletric pump? can you feed lying down - i hardly wake up if she wakes up for a feed.

also make sure you are making day/night distinction

Can you co-sleep?

Once a night at 11wo really isn't unusual, however babies are fed.

sounds like ds might be going through a growth spurt and is needing extra feeds. so long as you feel you are able to produce enough breast milk for him i don't really think a bottle of formula would do too much.

11wks is still early days and sleeping from 10-3 is actually pretty good, let alone 10-5! probably worth setting dh expectations on this point; let him know how lucky he is that you don't mind feeding in the middle of the night and buy him a set of earplugs

ps-don't get too hung up on 'giving up' i bf my ds to 14 months and mid way through gave ds a bottle. there's no one, right way to do these things. keeping lo fed is the important bit!

Have FF both mine, DD woke once a night from start, DS very erratic, last night was every 2 hours, night before was once, so depends on baby.

(Sophiewd - congrats on new baby! )

I think I am getting hung up on what dh is expecting. His older children (from ex) weren't bf so think the constant feeding is a bit of shock to him. I get the feeling he thinks the formula bottle is the answer to everything!

i think men in general either don't quite get or are a little unsettled by the whole breastfeeding thing. bottle, like technology, is easier for them to understand. sorry if that's totally stereotyping, but that's been my experience.

mimsy, I don't think it's men, just the non-bf partner. my (female) dp has also several times suggested switching to bottles, and even now (5mo) has suggested again switching to formula as it would help ds sleep longer. i think not being part of the feeding makes it difficult for them to understand.

to the OP, a friend did introduce formula to help her ds sleep. now he is almost exclusively formula fed (and weaned) and he and my ds (exbf) are still the worst sleepers of all the babies we know. i've just accepted that some babies sleep better than others and i don't think what they're fed makes a difference

Sheen i bf all my dc's
ds slept through at 3
dd1 slept through at 6 weeks
dd2 (6 mths) is getting worse not better i am constantly battling off the 'give her formula' from well intentioned family and friends.

mamachris, i stand corrected - the non-bf partner it is! and agree that some babies are good sleepers and some are crap regardless of breast or bottle. [those parents with the good sleepers just don't know how good they have it!]

FFing did not help my DD sleep through. She was babysat by my Mum for 3 nights when she was 8 months and woke up just as much as she did when I BF her. She did sleep though eventually, but it was a lot older than 11 weeks! Some babies just don't sleep as well as others.
Incidentally, my SIL was trying to put pressure on me through MIL to put DD onto a bottle. It was only a year later that we found out that mixed feeding was a complete disaster for her and she ended up losing her supply. Didn't stop her trying to persuade me to do the same though.

worked for me

Thank you Hunker

i bf'd ds2 for 5 and a half months and then dus to problems, switched over to formula.

When I was bfing he woke roughly every 2 hours. Now that he's formula fed he wakes once or twice.

Incidentally, this is better for me but my dh finds it more of a disruption - when ds2 was bf I would just take him to feed - now that he is bottle fed dh has to hold him whilst I make the bottle.

I agree with the comments here - some babies just don't sleep through and I personally think it's unrealistic to expect a 11 week old to sleep through.

I did try mixed feeding but this led to ds2 refusing the breast.

good luck

Certainly bf babies can sleep through - both mine did approx 7pm to 7am from about 8 / 9 weeks, but all babies are different of course and I think i was very lucky!! I'm not sure that formula per se will help - the thing about giving a bottle (whether expressed or formula) is that your milk supply often tends to be lowest at that time and so sometimes topping up with a bottle can help - but formula itself isn't any more likely to make them sleep through than breastmilk. I really recommend an electric pump if you can get one. I used to express most mornings after the first feed of the day and freeze it so if I ever needed to give a bottle or top up I had some milk available.

Thanks for all your comments, they've been a great help. Ds and I are going to stick to booby!!