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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

if I change to bottle feeding , will I get more sleep??

26 replies

lu9months · 11/04/2010 08:59

my DD is 4 months, and is a terrible sleeper. she is demand BF, and feeding 3-3.5 hourly including at night. she is unkeen to take a bottle so I dont get any let up. when she feeds in the night she often feeds for half an hour or more, and then takes another half an hour or more to settle. I find it hard to get back to sleep after this, and I am wrecked. thinking of making the leap to bottle feeding on grounds that 1) she will have to take a bottle if that is all there is on offer and 2) she may feed more quickly, and 3) maybe even go longer between feeds. best of all 4) I could sleep a whole night at the weekend if I get DH to do a night! I am so exhausted I am struggling to look after my other 2 children. advice anyone? how do I make the switch without breasts getting very sore and how do I get her to take a bottle?

OP posts:

cupofcoffee · 11/04/2010 09:11

My ds1 was like this, waking every 2 hours, I can remember how exhausting it is. I have to say though that I tried with him giving him a bottle at night and even using the hungry baby formula but it didn't make a bit of difference for us. He did get better after about 6 months but I know that is no help at present! I'm sure someone will come along with some helpful advice soon.

ArthurPewty · 11/04/2010 09:51

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ArthurPewty · 11/04/2010 09:52

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izzybiz · 11/04/2010 09:57

I FF all 3 of my children, my first was a fantastic sleeper, the next two weren't!

Luck of the draw I say! It will pass, they go through lots of "phases" where they feed more, keep going!

MarthaFarquhar · 11/04/2010 10:02

no
DD was fed formula from about 4 weeks
she was the worst sleeping child ever

weaning at 6mo didn't help either - her wakings were in no way related to what went into her tummy.

ImSoNotTelling · 11/04/2010 10:02

Don't know if it would help as never tried but have been sorely tempted!

They do usually gradually just get better and better with the sleeping by themselves. My DD2 is 9months and had just started going through once or twice a week when she got chicken pox with a cold on top and it all went loopy - but now she is on the mend and she slept through again last night!

Thing is the whole feed every 3 hours thing is normal. But I know (from experience) how it leaves you feeling - I end up quite miserable and low with it TBH. But it's not forever. They generally improve a lot when they start getting some food down them as well - and that's only a few weeks away now.

The other things to do are the usual things - does she nap, can you have a nap then too, does your OH get up with the baby on his days off so you can sleep in, make sure you get early nights etc etc.

I feel your pain though. We have all been there (don't know if that helps!).

ImSoNotTelling · 11/04/2010 10:04

Sorry just seen you have older ones as well so obviously no naps in the day for you!

In that case your OH needs to be getting up with the kids when he's not working so that you can catch up on some sleep, and letting you have a nap in the day while he takes them as well. Other than that I haven't really got any advice, sorry.

Jojay · 11/04/2010 10:04

Can you try co-sleeping?

TakeLovingChances · 11/04/2010 10:10

This is just my experience, so can't say if it'll work for your LO or not.

I bf my DS (6 weeks old) for every feed, except for the last feed before bedtime. This feed is usually around 10-11pm and in the past week I've given him formula for this one.

Now we've started to give formula at this feed he does sleep longer - can go from 10pm-4am, whereas when his last feed was bf he would only go from 10pm-1am approx.

As for your questions: I haven't found my breasts getting sore, except for if he sleeps a little longer, when they do get full and may leak a bit. You could maybe try to express a bit to take the pressure off, plus you can add the expressed milk to any bottle feeds, either on its own or with formula.

How do you get her to take a bottle? I'm not 100% on this. I've heard that it can be harder to get an older baby to take a bottle, but because I started DS with one at 5 weeks he isn't fussy. Hope someone else can help you with that point soon.

All the best

jemjabella · 11/04/2010 10:46

I've no experience of formula feeding myself but I've a friend on facebook who has a LO on formula who is up most of the night, so don't think it actually makes a difference.

Would definitely recommend co-sleeping and feeding lying down, if you're not doing that already.

Claire236 · 11/04/2010 12:04

ds1 slept better when I starting making his last feed formula but ds2 slept better bf so you could struggle to get dd to take a bottle only to find it makes no difference to her sleeping. If your dd has never taken a bottle it will be difficult to get her to take one now. Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles are good for bf babies & has your dh tried giving her a bottle of expressed milk rather than formula as sometimes they take a bottle better from someone other than mum. If you drop one bf for an expressed bottle then you shouldn't suffer too badly unless she sleeps longer in which case you might leak but I wouldn't have thought you'd get particularly sore. Good luck

moaningminniewhingesagain · 11/04/2010 12:39

Am still BF DS at 15m, DD was BF til 3monmths. He has been the (marginally) better sleeper of the two, she was terrible and didn't sleep through til gone 12 months. So IME, it didn't make any difference to the sleep.

Would second letting someone else give an expressed dreamfeed now and then so you can get an early night sometimes though? It's quite depressing knowing you will be woken in a couple of hours so just getting a few hours kip in one go might be nice. Having said that, I didn't bother as I hated expressing and would just feed instead because it was less faff!

Sassyfrassy · 11/04/2010 13:11

I doubt you'd get more sleep and likely you'd have a very upset baby. Both my children were dreadful sleepers as babies (good as gold now though) and what saved me was cosleeping and feeding lying down. That way you can at least doze while baby is feeding.

whittywan · 11/04/2010 21:41

I second (or third) Jojay and Sassy. My DS (almost 4 months)also feeds at least every 3 hours. The ONLY way I am surviving is by co-sleeping. That way when he needs to feed all I have to do is pop my boob in his mouth and doze while he feeds. When he is done he just rolls off and goes back to sleep.

He starts the night off in his cot (half-seven) I dream feed him again at 11pm and put him back in the cot and then when he wakes at around 1H30 I bring him into bed with us. Before I started doing this I would have virtually no sleep after his one-thirty feed as I would spend all my time feeding/settling/feeding in a vicious downwards spiral! Have as look at this if you're considering it.

finefatmama · 07/05/2010 00:33

you only get more sleep if someone else gets up, goes to make the bottle and comes back to feed the baby and the baby takes the bottle willingly.

ktwiltshire · 07/05/2010 19:50

you say that if you switch to FF the baby would have no choice but to take the bottle, well what about the option of only offering expressed milk from a bottle at night time?

in my experience it doesnt make them sleep any longer, every baby is different. then again im lucky, i had my kids through from 10-6 at 6 weeks, first was BF, the second FF, well not so much luck, but hard work and strict routine lol!!

Loopymumsy · 07/05/2010 20:46

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bumbums · 07/05/2010 21:31

Have you considered co-sleeping with her? Then you could feed horizontal and dozing in your own bed. Might be a good short tern solution till she starts sleeping better.

MonkeyChicken · 07/05/2010 23:33

I ebf my DD1 till she was 5 months, then swapped to formula as I ran into loads of problems witrh bf. Once on the formula her sleep didn't improve until she was over 7 months and I found waking up to make a bottle A LOT more tiring than waking to BF. BF was knackering but at least I never had to wake up as much as you need to to make a bottle.

AmandaCooper · 08/05/2010 08:34

silly question, Whittywan: when it says "no blankets" does it mean no bedding at all except the fitted sheet you're lying on, or does it just mean no blankets?

MissusRabbit · 08/05/2010 17:19

Co-sleeping wouldn't help me as my kids squeal loike pigs in thier sleep when they are babies

I would have thought 3.5 hours between feeds was actually good going .

I get DH to do the bedtime bottle of formula, not for longer sleeping of baby but so i can get an early night and miss out one feed of the day. It makes a massive difference if even once a week you know you can get to bed around 8 or 9pm and get a good few hours in.

mumtotwoboys · 08/05/2010 22:00

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6255205/Why-breast-milk-helps-babies-sleep-at-night.htm l

Breastmilk contains the equivilent of sleeping pills at night.
If you used formula your baby wouldnt get this so could be even more awake!

My socultion is co-sleeping to get a full night's sleep

mumtotwoboys · 08/05/2010 22:04

maybe don't feed for a good few ours before bedtime then give a great big feed at say 10pm to knock him out (and tickle him awake till he's taken it all)
Then baby will have a full stomach just as if he'd had a bottle anyway

HeadFairy · 08/05/2010 22:16

My dd is 4 months old and is also feeding 2 or three times a night and also taking ages to settle after a feed. She woke up at 10.30pm last night for a feed and was awake until 1am. I fed her to sleep then, and she was awake at 4am again, and then again at 5, but I gave her just one side and brought her in to bed with us to get her to settle more quickly so I could get back to sleep. I really struggle to feed lying down because I've got really big boobs and I just can't get it right.

Anyway, what I was going to say was, can you manage to get some childcare for your other 2 dcs? That is kind of the only way I can cope with it. ds goes to a childminder on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I catch up on my sleep then, plus the weekends when dh gets up with ds and I sleep for another couple of hours with dd. Other than that, like you I am shattered.

I was tempted to try a bottle of formula before bed too, but I read another thread where that theory was shot down too.

mumtotwoboys · 08/05/2010 22:19

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6255205/Why-breast-milk-helps-babies-sleep-at-night.html

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