MN pole !! if you excusively BFed your DC but then gave formula for the last night feed!!

[3cutedarlings]

did it help your LO to settle for longer?

DS is 22weeks, and is now on 2 (very small) meals a day and BFed. His sleeping is still hit and miss during the night (sounds about right for a 5mth old, i hear you all say ). We do get the odd night where he sleeps through (well from 11 til 6) but the norm is 2 feeds through the night , im knackered and longing for longing for a regular 6 hours undisturbed sleep.

So my fellow MNers if you changed the last feed (dreamfeed) to formula did your baby settle for longer? i suppose another advantage for this would be that DH could do the dream feed and i could at least get an early night. At the moment i wait up as i cant bear the thought of another night feed iyswim.

I have never been a believer that FFed babies settle better than BFed LOs.I also breast fed my 2 girls, DD1 slept through from birth and DD2 was a little bugger til she was almost 2!!! and i looks like DS is also heading in the same direction..................please help me!! before i run away from home .

I agree with dropping the dreamfeed. I used to do it with dd and when I stopped she started sleeping through again. Seems to disrupt thier natural pattern.

hello hunker

I tried dream feeds (breast) and found that my children did better without doing that.

I am a great supporter of catching up on sleep at other times of the day than striving to get a baby to sleep for longer periods at night.

I caught up on sleep by taking my babies into bed. I did not co-sleep as such. I slept while they fed and I put them back in their own beds if I woke up.

Formula does not make babies sleep longer.

Express milk if you want a rest and get DH to give that by bottle.

You can do that easily by hust expressing 1-2 oz on a frequent basis. Soon mounts up in the freezer.

dd used to cluster feed literally non-stop from 5-10 pm every night - when she got fussy I'd have to switch sides every 5-10 mins for a couple of hours (which was a PITA, tbh, but only lasted a few days each time) - I found that psychologically it helped to take a 20 min break and go and have a warm bath - prob made no difference to how much milk dd was getting, but made me feel like I was replenishing my supply, which I think at the time was more important. She'd then sleep 10-7, which was fab - little did we know she'd pack that in at 7 mo...

Hello, Mears!

I didn't dream feed DS1, but I did dream feed DS2, because he definitely slept longer after he'd had a big feed. He didn't used to wake up for it after a while, though I had to wake him up for it to begin with or he just went back to sleep almost instantly.

thanks for all your posts

well night 3 on dropping the dream feed and so its not having much effect, but im still hopeful

tiktok thanks for the info thats just what i was looking for.

mears im all for sleeping when LO sleeps, however i have 2 DDs (6&4) so not possible, but hey there are only 4 weeks of the holidays to go!!!

Habbibu god yes i remember the cluster feeding only to well!! DD1 cluster fed 6-10!! was a PITA but a small price for a full nights sleep. I wish DS would cluster feed ive even tried to make him .

3 cutedarlings - I remember the feeling well. I had 4 under the age of 6. I got very good at powernapping. Also made arrangements with friends from toddler group that we took each others children for an afternoon now and again and got a bit of a rest. Utilsed DH when I could.

Hence why breastfeeding and sleeping at night was a bonus.

This stage does not last long and will be missed when it has passed, believe me