how well does your 8 wk old sleep?

[Chloris33]

Would love to pool info on sleep / bedtime routine re. feedingat approx 8 weeks. I BF on demand. We have a last feed on breast at 10pm in the dark after a bath. He sleeps 3-4 hours then 2-3 hour stretches after that. Babies of my NCT group friends all go a lot longer than that, and they all seem to get loaded up with big feeds - formula top up or dream feeds. Wondering if this is really the answer? How long does your baby go for and what's your bedtime feeding routine? Thanks!

My DS is 9 weeks and we also EBF on demand. Since 6 weeks his routine is nappy change, pjs, sleeping bag and feed (he has both sides every feed except during the day) starting at 6pm (lights off and tv sound down) and then usually falls asleep on me after feed by around 7.15pm (give or take 15mins ish on all times). As a result bath time (3x per week) is approx 5.30/6ish. He then gets put down in his Moses basket and will currently sleep till anytime between 2.30-4.30 where he then wants another feed (he only ever takes one side only as he always falls back to sleep!) . I take him upstairs with me to his crib when I go to bed around 10/10.30. 99% of the time he stays asleep. If he wakes he gets fed again but that rarely happens. After the 2/4am feed he then goes back to sleep and wakes for the day between 6-7.30am depending on what time his night feed is. He has not wanted a 10pm-ish feed for weeks. We have never dream fed or topped up formula

I will stress I think I've got lucky with his sleep pattern, your pattern is more what I was expecting to be honest! We have never forced this pattern/routine - he had naturally fallen into it himself. As his pattern inevitably changes we will change start of pj, nappy change etc to go alongside this

I don't think there is anything wrong with what you're doing. It is so easy to compare yourself to everyone else, which is why I never ask lolol

(Moses basket is downstairs in front room with us)

Oops pressed enter too soon - the people I know who top up with formula have not always had babies who sleep longer, it just means that they themselves can as their DHs can do a feed!

Ours was basically the same as you, 3.5-4, sometimes 5 hours then between 1 and 3.
BUT we've just changed our bedtime from 10pm to 7:30pm and its all gone wrong!

She is 8 weeks tomorrow

Mine is 8 weeks, we have a good routine at 6 of bath, feed (bottle), story then in his cot to sleep but he only sleeps 2_3 hours before wanting a feed. I'm just about to post on here about cranial oestopathy as he has had blocked nose/sinuses since birth which I'm thinking must make it hard for him to feed. h. I'm.lucky in that he's such a good boy but the 2/3 hour feeds are killing me as on my own.

This is rather depressing! My 10 week dd won't go down to sleep until 1am most nights! Then sleeps for anything from 2 to 4 hours. Once had 6 hours.The earliest I have ever got her to have a prolonged sleep in cot or Moses basket (which she's grown out of now) is 11! She is ebf and has very fussy evenings where she wants to feed very regularly, sometimes clustering. Maybe she should have grown out of this by now?!

My 6 w old goes down around midnight though this varies. Then sleeps approx 4 hours, wakes for feed, and then a further 2-3 hours.

I thought that was okay but then DH nieces, the only other DC in family, are nightmare sleepers, so anything looks good by comparison!

Don't forget everything can and will change over the next few months. The roles may even be reversed with your NCT friends.
At 8 weeks my DD would cluster feed all evening with a last feed at midnight. She would then sleep until 8am. It was nothing we did (no formula, no dream feed). By 3 months she was sleeping through.
Then at 4 mths on the dot she hit the sleep regression and I was breast feeding 2 hourly night and day. At 6 months things have only just started to improve in the last few days since going in her own room. I expect it will all change again when she is teething.
What I am trying to say is don't despair, all things are temporary (although some people are just really bloody lucky with sleep).

I would also recommend reading 'The no cry sleep solution'. Not necessarily with a view to trying to change sleep patterns. It is really useful for understanding baby sleep patterns. There is a good chapter on babies under 4 months. Also is really reassuring that the pattern you describe is really normal and sleeping through is the exception rather than the norm.

At 8 weeks it was last breastfeed about 9pm then sleep (both of us) until midnight if lucky, 11:30 not uncommon.

Then feeds every 2.5-3 hours and up for the day about 6:30am.

That 9-12 sleep was my only chance for a 3 hour stretch and that carried on until about 4 months then sleep regression effed everything and we were awake every other hour.

My 8 week old often cluster feeds all evening most nights until about 11pm ish. Then I attempt to get him in his bed, the longest he's done is 2.5 hours but it's normally an hour at the most.
I then cosleep for the rest of the night so I get plenty of sleep as I usually just wake 2 or 3 times to latch him on, no idea of the times or how long he feeds though! We get up at 7.30am in the week to get ready for school but he will sleep longer if left, today it was 9.15am.
He much prefers sleeping on his stomach and will sleep better like that but I can't bring myself to do it at night (he does in the day when I can keep an eye on him).
My older children didn't start with a 7.30pm bedtime until older, I let them bring their bedtime forwards naturally and DC1 was 13 weeks, DC2 was 5 months and DC3 was 10 months. They were all over 1 before they slept through but have been fab sleepers since.

Meant to say he's fully breastfed.

A lot of babies that can tank up will do a good stretch of sleep at that age but in reality infants beyond newborn babies wake up for so many reasons and being hungry isn't the only one.

It's really common for babies to drop night feeds then start again during During growth spurts and regressions.

I coped much better when I decided he would probably sttn by the time he went to school. Lowering my expectations of ds really

Our EBF 7 week old has just started going upstairs to sleep at 7 (asleep by 8). Wakes for a feed at 10.30/11, wakes again at 2/3 then at 4/5, then sleeps to 7/7.30. Three days in and it seems to be sticking; no bath & story as yet. He resettles each time within 45mins which includes feed time.