Breastfeeding schedule & impact on sleep!

[1234Becca]

Up until now I have fed on demand but I’ve just realized/heard a little about how spreading out feeds could make my LO last longer overnight?

My girl is 17w & we had some issues feeding (screaming at boob - I think mainly down to me trying to feed her when she wasn’t actually hungry) so have been led by her and never had a schedule at all! But interested in trying this.

In the day we average about every 2 hours for small feeds, and while nights aren’t a disaster (she’s done 5 hours before, often does 4 but more recently 3ish) I would love to nail 5 hours more often.

Has anyone actively tried to space
Out feeds? Do you just let them cry to get used to the timing?

Is mastering this the key to having a BF baby that sleeps through?

Thanks :)

I’ve breastfed (well still currently feeding the youngest) 3 children. In my personal opinion, trying to space out feeds will only cause more stress, particularly at this young age. You’ll not only have a baby who is awake, they’ll also be screaming the house down.

If I were you, I would hold out until you have started to introduce solids and the. You might find greater spaces come naturally (although not always the case!).

I completely understand the frustration of breastfeeding. I think it’s not discussed enough. But, you are doing great and so is your baby and it’s all very normal and natural in terms of feeding/sleeping.

Have you established a dummy?

A dummy would allow you to know instantly if baby history wants to comfort suck, or is hungry

If baby just wants to comfort suck

I don't think it's down to bf ing. My ff baby was a much worse sleeper than my bf baby.

I used to do set feeds every 2.5 hours, I’d feed when they woke from a nap and make sure they had both sides.
I’d feed before that if they were hungry but generally if they’d had a good feed both sides, a play and then a nap they would go 2.5 hours. I’d always feed no later than 3 hours in the day.

Then night times I did two feeds, bottle at 10-11pm and a night feed around 3-4am. Gradually from about 6 months the 3am feed got pushed to 6-7am, and I dropped the 10/11pm feed around 9 months once they were on 3 meals a day.

I expect your baby is going through the 4 month sleep regression - a developmental phase that many babies go through when they are about 16 weeks which can knock sleep out if wack. My son def had it, my daughter not so much. Biggest lesson for me with bf babies and sleep is that it doesn't get better on a continuous line of improvement, it's very back and forth. I found this into the second year 2 as I bf month mine beyond a year.

From memory the 16 week regression can last a while but does eventually improve. I recall some advising me that the baby actually needs more milk to help with the development, hence demands for feeds increase. I'm not sure if this was the reason, but I never managed to space out feeds. I think I half tried with my son before realising it made it worse, he'd get more upset in the night and thus take longer to get back to sleep. So my advice would be hang on in there and continue to feed on demand.

Sorry some awful phone typos there, hopefully you get the gist!

5 hours is a very long gap between feeds at 17 weeks, especially for a breast feed baby.

Some people say spacing feeds out helps. Others say feeding more in the day (especially the evening) gives them more calories and they need less at night.

I wouldn't want my baby crying for milk in the day. I might try to distract them first e.g. go for a walk, massage etc, but if that doesn't work I would feed.

I'm personally not convinced the spacing it out is worth it, and will just cause more stress.

@Luckystar1yeah, I don’t want to cause more stress :/ thank you

Op the most stressful time of my ds's first year was when I took Tracy Hogg's advice (the baby whisper) that if you feed a baby when they first wake up any criesfor next 3 hours can't be hunger related. Completely not true and causes misery and short naps. Trust me it isn't worth it! Once they're properly eating food, not just tasting it, which over here wasn't really til 10 months then they will feed a bit less in the day. At night you'll get periods where they wake more and wake less. I don't think hunger has as much to do with why they wake once they're out of the newborn phase. Doesn't stop a breastfeed getting them back to sleep though.

Best advice I've got is to think of rhythm of the day which leads to a routine.

Have the 'first feed' of the day at the same time each day. We used 7am. They had a feed and we're dressed for the day and we were up then.

We found that their rhythm was about 3 hourly so after a while they settled into feeds at 7,10,1,3,7,10 and then once or twice overnight. I could start to predict feeds to these times which helped loads. Naps started to follow this pattern too as we'd go for a walk at 9 which meant a sleep and go for a nap at home after the 1pm feed.