BF'ing and Sleeping Through the Night...

[RosieS]

I just had a question for all you ladies - how do you get your little one to sleep better while breastfeeding?

My youngest is seven and a half months old. We just started solid foods, but he still is getting up every two hours to nurse overnight. The doctor says he doesn't need it, but it's the only way to get him to go back to sleep!

So do you have any tricks you use to get them to sleep better? All my other ones naturally started stretching out the time (at least, that's the way my sleep deprived mind remembers it.) I'm trying to avoid letting him cry it out, as we have three other young children that need to sleep in our small house.

Any advice?

 

[bekkie]

will be watching this thread closely as I'm in pretty much the exact same situation (no other kids to wake up, but still don't want to make him CIO)

 

[jaybee]

If he is on solids, then can you feed high protein and carbs which help to keep him full over night.
Are you sure he is hungry and not just waking from Habit?, Tobi was habit waking after the three month growth spurt every 45 mins ish. He is exculsivly BF, I now leave him to it for about 5 minutes and quite often he will take himself back to sleep!

 

[mackenzie]

I was JUST going to start a thread asking about sleeping longer at night and I think you may have answered it!! My wee one is 12 weeks today and wakes about every 2-2.5 hours to be fed, and people keep asking me Is she sleeping through yet???? Im getting paranoid that Im doing something wrong. Is this quite normal then? Do you co-sleep, if you dont mind me asking? x

 

[maybebaby3]

hi i had this problem with DD. for a year i had her waking up to 20 times a night and in the end i had to just make the decision to stop bf at night as obviously she was weaned and didnt need the feed. it took a while and some awful nights (but then againmy nights were awful anyway) but she soon learned that there was no boob in the middle of the night and started to sleep better. good luck. my LO is also a bad sleeper. at the moment i am trying to only feed him at 11pm 3am and 6am and trying to pacify him at other times that he wakes giving him his dummy and/or patting him gently whilst shushing him and putting his mobile on.

 

[maybebaby3]

i co sleep half way through the night when i put him in bed for the 3am feed he stays there.

 

[JASMAK]

I just let my babies eat when they want in the night. That is just me.

 

[pinkclaire]

I decided at 6 months I had to do something as James was co-sleeping, poking my eyes out and him waking every 30 mins.

I did the baby sleep system by Wendy someone or other, 3 weeks later James slept 7-6 which is amazing!
It was definately habit for us.

It was a no cry solution as well

 

[Mrs Muffin]

will be watching this thread closely as I'm in pretty much the exact same situation (no other kids to wake up, but still don't want to make him CIO)

Ditto!
Every 3 hours feeding for Darwin, I don't think he's hungry now but he just needs the bf to get back to sleep.

 

[eeyore83]

oh thank goodness I'm not the only one! Callum will be 6 months tomorrow, and he's still waking every 2 hours to feed. I've tried letting him cry a bit to see if he would go back to sleep, tried rocking him, nope, wants the booby. He's been on solids about 3 weeks, that didn't do a thing.

pinkclaire - I'd like more about the baby sleep system you used!!!

 

[PepsiChic]

i emb about 4z for my 8 week old for his bedtime feed, i find a full tummy has him sleeping through! (he doesnt always drink the full 4ozs, but anything 2oz or over seems to work for him)

I do the same thing for his 3pm feed and nap, a 4oz bottle and he naps fo 4 hours.

the reason i did this is because i wasnt sure how much he was getting at the boob for those feeds as hed start to fall asleep quicker on the boob. now i think he wasnt getting enough to eat so would wake hungry!

 

[pinkclaire]

oh thank goodness I'm not the only one! Callum will be 6 months tomorrow, and he's still waking every 2 hours to feed. I've tried letting him cry a bit to see if he would go back to sleep, tried rocking him, nope, wants the booby. He's been on solids about 3 weeks, that didn't do a thing.

pinkclaire - I'd like more about the baby sleep system you used!!!

https://www.babysleepanswers.co.uk/Forum/

This is the web address, I would highly recommend it to anyone! 3 more of my friends with babies have tried it and had the same success. It's really easy to read (like she knows your sleep deprived lol) ask away if you want to know anything else xx

 

[eeyore83]

Just got back from the pediatrician. She said to up his solid intake to breakfast lunch and dinner, at least 2 tablespoons of food at each, and to include some protein with dinner. We'll see how it goes!

 

[lynnikins]

i give him ebm bottles in the evening for his last 2 feeds as since the time we were EP then he started sleeping longer at night and currently he sleeps fine on the 2 bottles but will wake if hes been BF for those 2 feeds and need another to settle

 

[bloodbinds]

Once i stopped feeding Bella to sleep, she started sleeping through the night.

If you feed them to sleep then if they wake up and realise they are not on the boob they will cry to go back onto the boob so they can suck themselves to sleep. It's not for the food, they are using you as a dummy.

So now i don't feed Bella to sleep and she just self-settles so if and when she does wake in the middle of the night, she just goes straight back to sleep, instead of waking me to help her get back to sleep!

 

[pinkclaire]

Once i stopped feeding Bella to sleep, she started sleeping through the night.

If you feed them to sleep then if they wake up and realise they are not on the boob they will cry to go back onto the boob so they can suck themselves to sleep. It's not for the food, they are using you as a dummy.

So now i don't feed Bella to sleep and she just self-settles so if and when she does wake in the middle of the night, she just goes straight back to sleep, instead of waking me to help her get back to sleep!

completely agree thats what we had to correct along with a few other things x

 

[Seraphim]

Sorry to stick a spoke in it - but H still wakes, if she's not hungry she lays back down when I go in and yes - she waits for her bum to be patted
But I still feed her when she wants it - so it's not a catch-all that if you feed them back to sleep they demand it out of habit.