Should I try and fix what isnt exactly broken? please may I have some advice..

[GYo]

Hello

My DD is nearly 14wks (where did that go!!?) and is exclusively BF. She is a great feeder now and we feed approx at these times:

7am
10am
1pm
3.30pm
6pm
3am

She goes down to bed at 7pm and will sleep solidly until 3am. I know this is fab and its the bit thats not really broken.

My question is around the night feed. Since she is clearly capable of doing a long sleep should I try and move her feeds to encourage to take the long stretch over the "core night" ie so I dont do the 3am feed? Or just leave her til she is ready to sleep through 7-7?

I tried a 10.30pm dream feed but admittedly only once as it didnt work (she woke chatting at 2am, then for feed at 4am which put the next day out) and since we were on holiday at the time I didnt perservere.

Was thinking I'd probably need to change her feeds to 4hrly and do 7, 11, 3, 7, 11 (dream) but so afraid of screwing her up and having sleepless nights again I'd thought I'd seek advice here!.

TIA

I would change nothing. Babies will change things for themselves when they developmentally need to do so.

Babies are biologically programmed to wake up during the night and feeding at night is important to them.

The only thing I would 'change' is to feed her lying down in bed with me at that time and whether or not I'd put her back in her cot is debatable.

I think that she's doing amazingly and I personally wouldn't risk what's working well.

I dropped DD's dream feed as it didn't seem to make any difference

Do you have a problem with feeding more often than 4 hours, or do you just think you should?

I wouldn't. I agree about taking her into bed for the night feed so you get more sleep, but if she's settled into a pattern that suits her I wouldn't try and change it. She will change as she grows and as you've already noticed the time whizzes by anyway. She is going to be at Secondary school before you can blink!

I'd change nothing.

Thanks.
Im happy to continue feeding 3hrly and dont mind the 3am feed hugely.

She still sleeps with me in a crib by the bed (DH is with us sometimes depending on his week)but she is shortly going to go to her room as the crib is too small for her now. I guess getting up with her at 3am will be hard when she is in another room.

I will then probably feed her in the spare room so could stay with her in bed there.

We've not really ever done the co-sleeping thing though oddly we did it last night as she woke up at 1am think due to heat and then again at 4. So I did a lying down feed at 4 and that went on for 2hrs as we both slept on and off. It was lovely

Would starting a co-sleeping thing for part of the night at this stage undo her being an ace independent sleeper? She goes down awake at 7 and doesnt make a sound (unless she is distressed - very rare but if hot, cold, wet etc) she takes herself off to sleep in 20mins or so.

Is a BF baby likely to do 7-7 at some stage?

My dd2 does 9-7am ish (5 months yesterday). I agree with the others that you shouldn't change a thing. Be prepared for things to change though as dd1 was a brilliant sleeper until she hit 6 months then she never slept through again until she was about 2!

As for the 7-7, I don't think it's dependent on breastfeeding, some children are better sleepers than others!

I don't think co-sleeping will make any difference to whether she goes down on her own but you might find that as she gets older and becomes more aware you have more difficulty getting her to go to sleep on her own. I wouldn't worry about this though. dd1 fed to sleep until 18 months but decided for herself that she didn't want to feed to sleep anymore.

Sounds like you're doing great.

When dd moved into her own room I put a single mattress in there so I could be comfortable while feeding. It gives me the option to dream feed her lying down which I do later in the night as she settles less well then.

If she's up early I can also play with her while lying down in bed