When did your breastfed baby......

[babynumbertwo]

Sleep through the night?!

I'm going back to work when baby is 5 months old and would really like him to be sleeping through by then (obviously!!). Is this realistic at all?
My daughter slept through at just over 4 months but I was mixed feeding her and also started weaning around the same time. This time, if all goes to plan, I don't intend to wean until 6 months and will hopefully just be exclusively breastfeeding. I don't co sleep so I hope this will help to establish a routine but I'm guessing it will take him longer to go through the night.

 

[Sherlock]

My LO started sleeping through around 4 months old. He is normally pretty good now but on and off we have a bad week or two, usually when he is teething.

Breastfed babies are usually able to start sleeping longer at night from about 12 weeks old. 6 hours or so that can gradually become a bit more as they grow. By this age they are able to fill up more in the daytime and are adjusting to day and nighttime patterns.

I personally felt that when LO was 16 weeks to keep on feeding LO through the night for comfort was not something I wanted to do unless as a last resort. Often I would find he would settle again if I gave him a chance and did not see to him myself. It could sometimes take half an hour or so, even longer but he wasn't screaming for a feed or upset, just awake. OH had a few nights where he changed nappy or settled LO again and things were fine. LO started sleeping 8 hours for a few weeks till teething then kicked in.

Atm we are on a bedtime feed at 7pm, usually he'll fall asleep on my boob in our bed, then we move him into his cot. He sometimes wakes at around 11pm and OH sees to him them. He doesn't look for a feed and we just make it boring for him and once he starts yawning again he goes into his cot. Usually out like a light then in 5 minutes. If he doesn't wake around 11pm he often wakes at 3-4am and sometimes will fall back to sleep, other times he rolls around in his cot and is wide awake. If he is awake longer than half an hour then I feed him as he really starts to get hungry. He goes to sleep straight after this and then wakes between 6-7am.

 

[LisaJ1986]

We finally got a few hours at night from 8 months!!! It lasted one week then Christmas, teething and now a virus has buggered it up!

 

[NICCI]

jack sleeps from about 11 till 3, then up at 5 then 7
but im hoping it gets better when i start weaning!!

 

[Squiglet]

Around 10 months here

But don't think your bf'd baby would sleep better if it was bottle fed. Lil miss has been exclusively bf'd and slept through before she reached a year old... Tia who was moved onto formula at 9 months didn't sleep through until 3 years old...either you have a sleeper or you don't imo Sleeping through really doesn't depend on food by the time they get past 6 months.

 

[keli]

Coopers nowhere near sleeping through the night.. last night was a breakthrough as he only woke twice for a feed. I was reading some info on kellymom.com and it says that sleeping through is a milestone like everything else and that babies will eventually do this but at there own pace just like dropping off to sleep by themselves.( as i was alittle worried that Cooper only falls asleep on the boob) You can force the issue by CC or similar but i personally won't use those methods. FWIW i've read babies tend to wake up more when weaning something to do with digestion.

 

[Charlie:-)]

Maia slept through from 3 months old to the day but I think that has a lot to do with her going into her own room, which was purely by accident BTW but we must have been disturbing her as much as she disturbed us.

 

[mummykay]

12mths

never again lol

 

[valentine]

I was really really lucky - 10-12 hours at about 7 weeks old - exclusively breastfed - she slept through from then until 4 months then woke roughly once a night from 4 months to 7 months (I started weaning at 6 months).

Valentine Xxx

 

[beanie]

Seren - 13 months (and she was topped up with formula for the first 2 months)

Cally slept through at a few months old but then started waking again at 5 months and has never slept through since. It was twice a night but following being ill it has increased. I know she will eventually do it though.

 

[-Kelly-]

Oliver used to wake up once in the night from birth, slept through for about a week and then since he was 5/6 months wakes up loads.. he's exclusively breastfed and was weaned at nearly 6 months. I think it totally depends on the baby rather than anything we can do as parents.

 

[abcd1234]

I class through the night as her getting up after 7am, so 11pm-7am classes as through the night for me (just to be clear lol)

She started this at 2 weeks, and was regularly sleeping through from 2 months to 4 months, from 4 to 5 months she didnt sleep through at all, she then started sleeping more i.e. 9:30-8am and is currently sleeping all funny hours and causing me hell!!

In short, she's unpredictable, however, i've been bk at uni since she was 3 months and despite being tired i've managed on the little sleep she allows at times.

 

[jellyfish]

Still waiting, and it's going to be a long wait . Currently waking 3-4 times on a good night!!

 

[Minxy]

Can't answer your question but would like to back up Squig's point. Stanley was a bottle baby and crap sleeper, still is

It's optimistic to expect any 5 month old to be sleeping through CONSISTENTLY in my opinion. As with almost everything in parenting, it's two steps forward, one step back!

But good luck, let us know how you get on x

 

[Lynsey]

Nathaniel is 11 weeks and has slept through twice this week (9pm - 6.45am) - can't believe it! I am not expecting it to last though He is breastfed but does has a bottle of formula for his last feed where he takes 7oz. Over the last two weeks an average night is 9pm bottle and then he wakes for a feed around 4:30am.

 

[babynumbertwo]

Thank you ladies, I guess we'll just have to wait and see but it's good to hear your experiences. I think we're quite lucky at the minute - he feeds whenever during the day but night time is fairly fixed - 11pm, 3am and up at 5am. He's still young so I do think he wakes because he's hungry rather than for comfort. He always has a good feed. Fingers crossed he stays in a routine (though from the sounds of it this might be wishful thinking!)

 

[Strangeness]

Tamzin slept through after around 8-10 weeks can't remember exactly. She's been sleeping from 9pm-8am (sometimes 9am) for a good few weeks now before that it was about 10pm-7am. My son was bottlefed though and was an awful sleeper and still is at times!

 

[siany]

Lottie still wakes up at 11pm/ 3am and then up for the day as 6.30am-7am.

Tamzin slept through after around 8-10 weeks can't remember exactly. She's been sleeping from 9pm-8am (sometimes 9am) for a good few weeks now before that it was about 10pm-7am. My son was bottlefed though and was an awful sleeper and still is at times!

It is good to read this. My mother insists that if I introduced formular (with crushed farleys in the bottle ) Lottie would sleep through the night. My sisters LO is mixed fed and has formular in the evening and is now sleeping for 7 hour stretches as 6 weeks old. This has increased the pressure to add formular to Lotties diet or start weaning early (i am waiting until 6 months). I am getting used to her sleep pattern now and am no longer obsessed with her sleeping through the night. I did get really concerned at one point, read every book, tried different methods etc, now I think bugger it she will do it when she is ready. Threads like this are really helpful in increasing my understanding that babies work to their own timetables and are all different.

 

[Quill]

Elijah used to sleep 5-7 hours (roughly 12-7) but then he hit the 4 month growth spurt

So now, while he goes down earlier (hooray for free time in the evening! ) he gets up more. We tend to put him down around 8:30-9pm (I breastfeed him to sleep). He usually wakes up anytime between 12-2 (on occasion earlier or later), and then again between 5-7. Usually the latter time is him being grumpy about gas pains or something.

I hope it gets better soon, I'm jealous of those of you who have good sleepers! I would kill for 8 hours STRAIGHT

 

[purple13]

mine still hasn't slept through the night.

i think he might have done once... but i woke up at 5am with his bum next to my face and he'd done the most almightly poo. so i had to wake him and change him - the smell was just tooooo bad not to...

it doesn't matter whether babies are bf or ff, (although there is a tendency for ff babies to sleep more at night because formula isn't digested as well as breast milk, so it sits in their stomachs for longer, making them feel full for longer) - its all just down to the individual baby.

weaning didn't make a jot of difference to connor - it actually made him worse for a while. and every time his sleep pattern gets better, then teething/colds are guaranteed to muck it up again