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

[lu9months]

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?

Co-sleeping really is a lifesaver. You can breastfeed and sleep at the same time, you can't bottlefeed and sleep at the same time and since it seems that type of milk doesn't always have an effect on how long they sleep, it seems to me that the only advantage of bottlefeeding at night is ability to share feeding with your partner.

If you really don't want to co-sleep and your partner is willing to help out, you could get him to bring your DD to you, you latch her on lying down and feed while dozing still, when she is finished and has come off, he takes her and resettles her back in the cot. You will still be disturbed slightly but only about as much as you would when she woke anyway, and breastfeeding not only helps the baby to go back to sleep, it releases hormones which make you sleepy too.

I used a 3-sided cot when co-sleeping so DS still had his own space and if I was worried I was too tired or had drunk alcohol or anything like that I just made sure he was well within the boundary of the cot, and I couldn't possibly roll onto him. He couldn't fall out either. He has just gone into his own bed aged 18 months, but could probably have gone just as easily 6-9 months ago, I just felt I should keep him with me as we moved house and I wanted to keep the security for him.