Topping up with formula in evenings?

Inlove28 wrote: Would love to hear your views

I'm pretty sure you'll get those

At 10 weeks, waking every 4 hours for a sleep is completely normal. It's what babies are designed to do - it helps them get the nutrients that need and helps keep your supply at the level they need (and then the cycle continues). If you ask on here how many BF 10 weekers wake during the night, I'm sure you'll find quite a different result to your coffee group!

I would not be switching my 10 weeker to a FF so we would sleep more if there was no other indication for it . Your baby doesn't necessarily need to sleep more - it's just doing what it should be doing at this stage. FF is no guarantee that you/they will sleep better.   

ETA: introducing the bottle can affect BF. If you do it, choose the type of bottle and teat carefully - get one that mimics the flow of the breast cos you don't want the baby preferring the bottle (which is what happened here).

I also think that, at the end of the day, only you know your particular circumstances and only you can make the decisions you need to for your family. So please don't feel I'm slamming you. I did introduce a night FF at 12 weeks becuase my son had had heart surgery, I was a mess physically and emotionally, he needed to put on weight and I did need some sleep. I don't regret that and it was right for us. But it did have implications for BFing, and I regret it from that angle.

I would encourage you to continue as you are for a bit longer - once bubs hits about 3-4 months, you may well find they start sleeping a bit longer (not through the night necessarily, but longer) and it will make a difference.

Edited by Flissty

Flissty wrote: Inlove28 wrote: Would love to hear your views I'm pretty sure you'll get those At 10 weeks, waking every 4 hours for a sleep is completely normal. It's what babies are designed to do - it helps them get the nutrients that need and helps keep your supply at the level they need (and then the cycle continues). If you ask on here how many BF 10 weekers wake during the night, I'm sure you'll find quite a different result to your coffee group! I would not be switching my 10 weeker to a FF so we would sleep more if there was no other indication for it . Your baby doesn't necessarily need to sleep more - it's just doing what it should be doing at this stage. FF is no guarantee that you/they will sleep better.    ETA: introducing the bottle can affect BF. If you do it, choose the type of bottle and teat carefully - get one that mimics the flow of the breast cos you don't want the baby preferring the bottle (which is what happened here). I also think that, at the end of the day, only you know your particular circumstances and only you can make the decisions you need to for your family. So please don't feel I'm slamming you. I did introduce a night FF at 12 weeks becuase my son had had heart surgery, I was a mess physically and emotionally, he needed to put on weight and I did need some sleep. I don't regret that and it was right for us. But it did have implications for BFing, and I regret it from that angle. I would encourage you to continue as you are for a bit longer - once bubs hits about 3-4 months, you may well find they start sleeping a bit longer (not through the night necessarily, but longer) and it will make a difference.

What she said.

For ME, formula did NOTHING for DS1 and his sleep. He was on 'top ups' at 4 weeks, fully ff in the day by 5 months and prematurely weaned from bf altogether at 9 months which was NOT my intention when we started them. They were started because he apparently didn't weigh enough, but it is just who he is. He was waking every 3-4 hours overnight for food until he was 11 months, even when he was on 3 solid meals a day and we did CC with him (which is something I would never do again) and wish we hadn't done but you live and learn I guess.

I would have loved 4 or more hour stretches of sleep at 10 weeks with DS2. LOL He was ebf for 7 months, he was on average a 3 hourly feeder, except during growth spurts when it could be every hour. I was soooooooo He did 3 weeks of 10+ hours at night at 7 months, all on my milk I might add, then stopped again and didn't "sleep through' consistently until he was 13 months old and that was with him being gently night weaned at 11 months.

I never BF so can't help with that but must say that formula doesn't always make them sleep longer.

DS1 never slept thru thenight consistently until about 14 months and that was with full time formula.

I so feel your pain! I'm in exactly the same position - right down to being the only one in my coffee group not getting a decent nights sleep.

When I came to bed crying cos I was so exhausted at about 2am last night, DH suggested the same thing, but I'm not going to go there. I want to BF DD until she's at least 12-18mths so I don't want to start interfering with BF now.

I'm just battling through, telling myself that although it feels like it now, it won' t be forever, and one of these days she'll let me sleep

My current strategy is to make a huge effort to get the day sleeps sorted in the hope that it might help the night sleeps. I've discovered these tired signs people talk about really are key. If I get it right, it takes a few minutes to get DD to sleep - if I get it wrong...

So when I'm really struggling, I make the mission of the day to really nail the day sleeps and to hell with everything else. DH can deal with dinner and the farm jobs and washing... and anything else can wait.

I'll let you know if it works once I've actually acheived it consistently for a while

Esme is almost 4 months and last night she woke at 11, 2, 3, 5.30 which admittedly was a bad night. Atm her nights are usually feed between 1-2 and 4-6. She goes down between 7-8. So you are definately not alone being up in the early hours!

Her day sleeps are shocking and generally last only 45mins so we are working on that at the moment too.

Before adding in a FF I would try getting more into her during the day and/or topping her up at night with some EBM

One last thing- 10 hours is pretty amazing at night with a few wake ups for food.

We had a FF feed before bed from around 8 weeks and she still woke for feeds in the night until 5.5 months. While it seems like forever this will pass (the night waking).

I tried FF at night for DD and it did nothing, so went back to BF and before long she was sleeping through, I have no idea why she slept through but think it might have had something to do with me kind of starting a bit of a routine in regards to our days starting at 7amish and ending at 7pmish, that was the one change that seemed to make a difference but then again it could of been completely unrelated to the sleeping through.

Do what feels right for you and if you want to try FF every second night then go for it, she is your baby and if it does not make any difference you know that you tried it.

And just so you know, I remember hearing the NZ baby whisperer saying that the whole "coffee group" culture can create unrealistic expectations, and that just because someone says their baby is sleeping through it does not necessarily mean that they are.

Well, H was having formula top ups since day 1 so I can't say that it made him sleep through. But what did work was the introduction of a consistent bed time routine and a dreamfeed at about 9 weeks.

At first the dream feed (which DH gives him) was EBM, then EMB and formula, and then just formula as he started drinking more and more and I stopped expressing during the day.

As soon as he started having dream feed he started sleeping from 10.30am to 4am, and then at about 13 weeks started sleeping through about half the nights.

Good luck! We are going to head down that track shortly too if Esme doesn't start sleeping better again. (She was doing 7-9hours in a row and now we are lucky to get 3!)

The last feed of the day being FF worked for me and didn't affect my BF'ing. J was sleeping through about 7-9 hours from 12 weeks.