Breastfeeding to sleep, moving to formula

[Baybeemama]

Currently bedsharing/co-sleeping with my 3 month old - have a next to me crib but he’s not keen (don’t think he’s comfy enough plus he’s too heavy to move in and out for feeds throughout the night!). He is exclusively breastfed.

Doing amazingly at his routine - wake 7-8ish, outside walk for an hour, sometimes more at 930ish, wake 11, feeds, goes into his snowsuit /pram drowsy and nods off within a couple minutes even before he’s moving!
Afternoon nap 1-3, fed to sleep. Late short nap 5ish, fed to sleep. Bath & bed starting 7, cluster feeds to sleep, falls asleep around 8.

Obviously he’s still very young, however I plan to wean off breastfeeding at 6 months, introducing formula alongside solids (weaning onto solids from 5ish months if he’s ready). Additionally he’s going to be moved to own cot in own room.

Feeding to sleep is not going to be possible once formula fed / in own cot - what I’d like to know is if any of you have made this transition, how it went and any tips. I should add that he’s not got a dummy, I’ve tried but he’s not interested!

My plan was to get him napping in his cot during the day in the next week, sleep sack, white noise, put down drowsy, maybe introduce a comforter of some sort. I know he knows how to go down awake because he does it each morning going into his pram, even before it’s moving (so I know it’s not the movement). Hoping once naps are mastered, come 6 months, it’ll be fairly easy to get him down in his cot for the night too.

Is there any particular reason why you're wanting to move to formula at 6 months? My boy is 16 months and I still feed to sleep/co sleep etc. It's what works for us and if it's working for you I personally wouldn't change it.

@CaraL9 I wanted to breastfeed for 6 months then go onto formula with the addition of solids, I want my body back, and my evenings back, or part of them at least! Co sleeping also means my husband is in the spare room, which isn’t really the setup I want to stick with! Additionally I think both the little one and I will sleep better in our own space!
Well done for keeping going though!

Personally I would wait to see how sleep is after the four-month regression to make any decisions about how you get the baby to sleep, where he sleeps, etc. You might desperately want the "feed to sleep" tool in your arsenal!

@burritofan oh I’m not planning on making any changes til 6 months, Except maybe attempt naps in his room and I’ve heard of the dreaded 4 month regression sounds...fun!!

Just be aware that just because he’s being fed formula at six months doesn’t mean he will actually sleep all night. Those wonderful things called teeth start poking through, coupled with the need to practice rolling, standing, banging your head against the cot by accident etc, often mean you won’t get much sleep.

I always say this on these threads I gave up bf my eldest in the vain hope she’d sleep better, but she never did. My middle child didn’t sleep well for 2.5 years and he was on formula before 1. My youngest slept through from 9 weeks and bf for over 2 years.

Unfortunately sleep is linked to babies temperament and whatever phase of development they are going through, not what milk they drink.

You can try and get him to sleep on his own without feeding him back to sleep. That might help? Easier said than done I know!

The current ad movies is to drop one feed every two weeks. This gives your body time to adjust and gives baby the time to get used to the increased volume they will need to drink.

So if he's feeding 4 times in the day, and you want to swap these over to formula, you'll need to start about 8 weeks before the 6 months.

When you start, I'd pick one feed and try to swap that one over. If it's the first nap, you could give the bottle and then still put him in his pram and go for the walk.

Have you tried formula/bottles yet? I've been trying to get my little girl to take a bottle of formula for several weeks and have had absolutely no luck. She will be 6 months next week so I'll be starting solids then but feel like I'm going to have to keep BF for up to the year unless she suddenly takes a bottle. I've tried lots of different bottle and formula combinations and she refuses them all. Hope you have better luck! X

Mine were both bottle registers too GiGi so you have my sympathy. Have you tried her with a cup?

There is some good old threads on bottle refusing if you search the MN archive too

@JiltedJohnsJulie babies can be so determined! I have tried a cup once but didn't have any luck but I don't think I tried very hard so will persevere with that a little more. Will search the archives too. Thank you! Hopefully will get there in the end! I'm definitely not wasting any more money on bottles now.