10 week old breastfed baby sleep?!

[KLM19]

Hi, so little fella was a great sleeper up till around 6 weeks always having 4 5 hour stretches at night and a few day naps... now at 10 weeks struggling with 2 hourly feeds day and night... he almost always starts wanting a feed 1.5 hours after the other... does this settle? He would spend 24 hours on the boob if he could! Lol... sleep deprivation is kicking in and so hard!!

Sleep gets better and worse all the time. Try cosleeping and feeding laying down. X

This is normal unfortunately. He was only sleeping more before because his brain was sort of still waking up, after being in the womb for so long. Now he is going to become less sleepy and more demanding.

Embrace it as much as you can. Get as much help as you can. Make serious attempts at him taking a dummy or bottle, especially if you don't have help. There are no prizes for suffering!! I bf until 2.5 years old, tbh if I could go back, I'd mix feed from 6 weeks and at least be able to retain some sanity.

He might be working on a growth spurt. Unfortunately all you can do is follow his lead. Feeding lying down ftw.

@Thatwentbadly I do feed laying down, not keen on co sleeping as I'm told its risky..

@WellQualifiedToRepresentTheLBC unfortunately due to covid I dont have help.. I do express but doesnt make a diffrence at all.. aw gosh the dreaded dummy tried every kind he out right refuses lol... nightmare!!!!

@GirlCalledJames lol he has been on a growing spurt since birth... big lad...

[quote KLM19]@Thatwentbadly I do feed laying down, not keen on co sleeping as I'm told its risky..[/quote]
Safe cosleeping if a full term baby with its breast feeding Mummy does not increase the risks of SIDS. There have been a number of cases of suffocation but these are linked to people not following the safe 7 guidelines.

All perfectly normal. Your little baby is growing and is working at growing your milk supply. This cluster feeding phases does pass and you will eventually produce more milk to satisfy him.

Continue to feed on demand, up your own fluid intake and treat yourself to to porridge or flapjacks (oats are meant to naturally support breast milk production).

Definitely try and catch some sleep when he's sleeping and if you're not keen on co-sleeping, learn how to
Feed while laying on your bed. I used to read or just chill a bit - saves my sanity and my energy.

Sorry - missed that you're already lying down.

Do you have a partner who could do the odd night feed with formula or pumped milk to give you a nights sleep?

@LittleEsme Thanks yes will give oats a try!! And a day nap sounds like a treat!!

@OnlyFoolsnMothers unfortunately he is constant nightshift and works around 14 hours... early evening to mid morning

@Thatwentbadly how do you co sleep? No covers and pillows? I just worry... naturally..

Totally normal I'm afraid OP!

My ‘baby’ is now 15 months old so I do have pillow and a duvet now. I was lucky in that she was born in the summer so we shared a sheet. I’m just doing bedtime but I’ll send some links later.

www.lullabytrust.org.uk/safer-sleep-advice/co-sleeping/

For loads of evidence based info on sleep look here
www.basisonline.org.uk/

@Thatwentbadly Thank you!! Usually would be in bed too but he decided to sleep all day!!! Unusual for him! Long night ahead lol

I co sleep and baby is ebf.
I took the quilt out of my duvet cover and use it like a sleeping bag with nice pjs on. DC (19.5 weeks) is in a grobag.

I wouldn’t get any sleep at all unless we did this.

Some weeks he sleeps loads and others barely anything.

I’ve found oats make deffo up my production.

Currently going through a cluster feeding few days so I’m with you, you’re not alone 😬😭

@WWYD2020 what a clever idea!!! Do you sleep with babe in arms or with him beside you?? Good to know I'm not alone!! It's so easy for others to say give him formula but we have done so well and he is thriving I just dont want to give up for me reasons..

@KLM19 it’s deffo been a winner here, I tried no cover but I hated it and didn’t sleep so this was a good compromise. You could try keeping the room warm, having pjs and not having a cover.

The 7 rules for co sleeping are pretty clear and all make sense and co sleeping can be safe.

He is led down flat next to me, outside of my ‘sleeping bag’, I roll him over when he wakes for food and he feeds on the side then I flop him back onto his back (most of the time) when he’s inevitably fallen asleep on the boob.

I know what you mean with the formula comment, you’re doing fine, your body can provide everything your baby needs. Took me a while to trust it but now I do. The frequent feeds are like them putting their order in for tomorrow.

The only thing that keeps me sane is knowing it doesn’t last.

It's not because you are breastfeeding he is waking up- it's because he is a baby. Formula won't get you more sleep (and might make it worse- e.g. by giving your baby an upset stomach)

There are studies that show that breastfeeding mothers get more sleep on average.

Personally I also found expressing is more net effort than just breastfeeding.

Co-sleeping is what helped me - and even when baby woke up I could just feed him and we would both be straight back to sleep.
There were hard nights though- usually when he woke up too often or when I wasn't sleeping well as well.

@Lalapurple dont intend to give him formula nor did I say I would not sure why you are jumping on that bandwagon? Fully aware of those issues due to my first being intolerant and reflux and colic. That being why I am EBF.

Sorry I phrased that badly - it wasn't you it was directed at- annoys me how people suggest formula helps baby's sleep.
I'm all in favour of people making an informed choice how they feed their babies - but I get really frustrated at the suggestion that breastfeeding somehow causes less sleep and I have friends who have been pressurised to feed formula (when they didn't want to) by family members in the belief you get more sleep.

@WWYD2020 hilarious defo get there orders in!!! Sounds ideal in think I will maybe give it a shot... thank you!!