Feeding and sleep

[LJSY]

My little one is 9 weeks old, we are really struggling to get her down at night, she is still getting up around 3 times a night for feeds which I know is normal for her age but the inital trying to get her down is sometimes taking up to 4 hours!
She is breast fed and I keep being told if I give her a formula feed before bed then she should go down easier? Does anyone have any advice on this? I really don’t want to stop breastfeeding but really feeling the struggle at night!! Could formula also increase her wind? As she does get bad wind.
Thanks xx

Have you heard of cluster feeding? It happens between 5pm and 9pm on average with most newborns. Maybe the reason why she is not going down for hours. What time do you try and get her down in the evenings?
Mine used to cluster feed between 5pm and 7pm. I used to stay on the sofa and just swap her over to the other boob! Bedtime was then 8pm.....
Formula makes no difference I found.
It does get easier, trust me. I'm still breastfeeding at 11 months. It will be like second nature....

Hi thanks for your advice. Yes she does tend to cluster feed usually from about 7pm!
She just seems to get super fussy and overtired and refused to be put down to sleep, it’s eventually around 11pm but last night it was 1am :( When does it usually start to get easier? X

Oh the cluster feeding is awful but it does pass. I didn't start putting LO to bed before me until he was about 5 months old as he just wanted to feed constantly.

I never tried it but it's apparently a myth that formula fed babies sleep better. If you like your sleep, I would stick with the breastfeeding, it's 100% easier to pop baby on the boob than have to deal with the screaming while you go get a bottle ready.

My DS is now 12 weeks and he was very unsettled in an evening. I started giving him a bottle of formula in an evening, sometimes he went to sleep faster and other times he didn’t. I think it might have just be coincidence as he has gone back to being exclusively breastfed and he settles quicker now than he ever has. Cluster feeding is very common in the evenings, also google ‘witching hour’ as this is what happened to my DS and he just wouldn’t settle. He has nearly grown out of it now though at 12 weeks. My DS is also quite windy and yes I found that drinking from a bottle made it worse. I honestly think that formula fed babies sleeping better is a bit of a myth - might be different if they are 100% formula fed but my DS has slept through on two occasions and he’d only had breastmilk in the day and evening when it happened. On the occasions that he had formula I actually found he slept worse and woke more often, probably due to having more wind. I guess every baby is different!

Thanks! That makes me feel better that things are getting better for you at 12 weeks.. gives me some hope! What time does your witching hour tend to be? Can it last for longer than an hour 😆 My LO tends to be super irritated and cluster feeding from around 7-10 usually.
I suppose babies just go down when they go down..

Also totally agree about the convenience of BF as can’t imagine doing bottles at 2am!!! :(

I think it got easier from 3 months... the cluster feeding eased and she would go to bed at 7pm....still two wake ups a night but generally a lot easier! Well I say easier...it's naps now that are the issue!!! Ha!! The fun of babies! X

Thanks, hopefully not got very long to wait until things get a bit bettet then! Mine won’t nap either, nightmare!! 😄 x

Bottle won’t make any difference. This is just what they do.
It’s early days to have a proper bedtime, it will come soon though.
Google purple hour or witching hour.

I could have written your post with BF DC1. DC2 was mixed fed until 10 months and is now exclusively bottle fed (she's 11 months). She was up 3 times last night. As much as I tried to get DC1 to take a bottle he never would, and based on his sibling, it would have made no difference to his sleeping. Plank yourself on the sofa and let her feed. Subtitles on the TV are good as you can watch stuff whilst she keeps feeding. You can start doing 2 successive feeds / bath / extra feed and see if she goes to sleep, so you're starting on a bedtime routine but you may just have to ride it out.

Thanks everyone, good to know it’s normal and that things should change soon!