Breastfed babies sleeping through...?

[DaisyRose]

Hiya,

I'm far too lazy to bottle feed...

I like that Me too!!! Plus we've saved a fortune!!!

I've fed all my girls and I must admit, Ruby has been the best so far with the night sleeping. She'll usually sleep from 11-12 to 7-7.30 now but occaisonally wakes at 4-5. She slept in our bed until she was only having one feed in the night which I must say, enabled me to have a decent nights sleep!!

My 2nd was a nightmare - I fed her once or twice into the night until well after her 1st birthday; my first wasn't as bad but woke more than Ruby does.

The only difference really with my girls was their size - Ruby was over a pound bigger than Daisy and a pound and a half bigger than Rosie at birth. Rosie was slightly early and pretty small - she only took small feeds and had lots of problems with her tummy in the early days. I think it may be because of Ruby's size, the fact that she was late (so more developed I guess) and she definitely took bigger feeds early on. It really does depend on the child, there's no hard or fast rule, you've got to do whatever works for you.

All the best,

 

[girlygirl]

My daughter slept through at 10 weeks and is exclusivly breastfed. So it is possible. She hasnt been as good when i started weaning her but i think its cause she comfort feeds and wants me to settle her back to sleep again. But hey, weve started leaving her to moan and settle herself back to sleep and she is ok again.
She is 7months on 3 breast feeds a day and 3 solids and she goes 10pm - 7.30am. with only 2 half hour naps a day.

But if she still woke in the night, id rather have that than give her formula any day. Boobie milk is the best for baby and you. Its so worth continuing.

 

[andreag]

My BF fed baby was sleeping through at 10 weeks, and never looked back. A friend of mine bf until 5 months and hers wasn't sleeping through - moving to formula/weaning made no difference. Another friend was bf and her baby slept through from about 2 weeks. Its more about the baby than the method - the advantage of bfing is that it is so much easier to do in the night.

 

[valentine]

It is possible hun
My baby slept through from a few weeks old and she is exclusively breastfed. It lasted until just before she was four months when she decided to wake again throughout the night, but i put that down to a growth spurt. Well that continued up until last night when she slept through from 7.30pm til 7am I am it wasnt a one off and that she will do the same again. She is still exclusively breastfed.

I have to say i have come up against alot of people who said when she started to sleep through that it shouldnt be possible and that if a baby sleeps through that young on breastmilk that the mother must ignore them when they wake
Well i am sorry that is a load of crap i never ignored my baby she just slept through. She ate well in the day and her weight gain has been fab so i have never been worried.

Yes breastmilk is easily absorbed compared to formula but at a certain age anyway a baby can go through without a feed.

Honestly hun if the lack of sleep is getting on top of you make sure you cat nap with the LO in the day. It makes the world of difference. I couldnt do it in the early days but when she started waking in the night again i made myself have a nap when she did. It helped me cope better with the night awakenings.
Or maybe co sleep if you can, so its much easier to pop her on for a feed.

I absolutely agree with all of this - what you have heard is claptrap, in my opinion!

My DD ws always exclusively breastfed and slept through from 7pm to 7am ish from 6.5 weeks. I never ever worried as she fed well during the day and was very happy and contented, I just followed her lead and my instincts.

She started waking again at 4 months and I ignored all calls to wean her onto solids as I felt it was a prolonged growth spurt. She continued waking once or twice a night from 4 months to 7 months and then slept through 12/13/14 hours from 7 months to date - she hasn't woken overnight for 7 months now - a miracle!

5/6 hours is great guns for Isaac's age and I'd like to bet he'll start extending that a bit now, little by little. Maybe try and put him to bed a bit earlier each week and see if you can help him with this. We tried dreamfeeding (EBM from a bottle) at around this age but she wasn't fussed and happy to go without it so we dropped this idea, started a bedtime routine - nappy off time, bath, baby massage, boob, bed for 7pm at 6 weeks and sleeping through the night followed very quickly.

Good luck!

Valentine Xxx

 

[mummykay]

took me a yr til I got a full nights sleep again we co slept when I was breastfeedin so it was broken sleep, few hrs here and there

i think it all depends on the baby tbh, dont follow txtbooks

 

[kellysomer]

Morgan was BF and slept 13 hours straight every night since he was 10 weeks.

Isla was bottlefed and slept 12 hours straight since 6 weeks old.

Its down to the child not the food. I have been lucky, i;m quiting while i;m ahead, no #3 for me!

 

[trixipaws]

i BF for 8 months, millie slept thru from 12am-8am from about 3 or 4 weeks old with just one BF at 5am-ish.

at 4 months millie became a nitemare at nite! she started waking every hour!

this only stopped at 8 months- it did co-incide with me stopping BF (she'd already been weaned onto solids by then which alone hadnt helped) but it also co-incided with her first tooth cutting and moving our of our bedroom into her nursery

 

[purplebluered]

Just read this thread oops!

Isaac now sleeps 7:30 till 10:30, bottle of expressed milk then sleeps from 11 till 7

He started doing this at 4 weeks (not long after I started this thread!)

Now if I can get him to nap in the day then we're sorted

 

[purplebluered]

Oh and how do you dreamfeed exactly?

 

[kellysomer]

Dreamfeed = pick the baby up without waking it, feed it asleep and put it back to bed without waking, excellent way of getting baby used to sleeping for longer periods as they dont actually wake.

 

[purplebluered]

Hmmm would only work if you didn't wake baby up...obviously! Might try it, but really highly doubt it will work with mine...plus I'm not the gentlest of handlers, esp in the dark

 

[littlepip]

I think it just depends on the baby by the looks of it, Ryan is formula fed and he sleeps from about 8.30-7.15am without waking

 

[happy-chick]

Ellie sleeps 8pm - 6am has a quick feed then goes back to sleep until 8am, she's breastfed

 

[LisaJ1986]

I'm still getting up 2 or 3 times a night at 6 months breastfeeding. Although it is an improvement from the constant screaming and demanding to be in my bed that i had a month ago.

 

[Terrie]

ffion is bf and ff and i say it makes no difference! sometimes she;ll wake up once.. sometimes 5-6 times, no matter which i give her