Breastfed baby night feeding - experience wanted!

[linka81]

Hello! I’d be interested to hear from Mums who breastfed past 6 months about what sort of frequency of night feeding you saw from your little one around 6 months onwards. Extra details on whether you’re bedsharing, room sharing or in separate rooms would also be v interesting.

Also curious to hear from anyone who transitioned to formula in the 6-12 month period and what affect that had, if any, on night feeding.

Thank you in advance!

 

[dwhite081705]

@linka81 Two babies, both breastfed and bedsharing. Night feeds really didn’t change much from 4 months on. Every 2-3 hours. It’s still like that with my second who is 16 months, and it was like that with my daughter until we weaned at 2. Occasionally longer stretches but not very often.

Solids didn’t seem to impact this very much, as night nursing seems to be very much for comfort. There’s maybe one feed that I feel any significant milk is being consumed.

 

[linka81]

@dwhite081705 Thank you very much for sharing your experience! I’m day weaning soon as I’ll be back at work, and am curious what to expect if my supply doesn’t hold for night feeds. If you don’t mind sharing, what was the transition like when you first weaned? Were your babies confused or waking up looking to nurse?

 

[dwhite081705]

@linka81 I weaned over a month slowly cutting feeds, just because of how obsessed with nursing my daughter was. So by the end she wasn’t looking for the boob anymore.

I am not sure what your supply will look like. I know some babies do reverse cycling where they don’t nurse during the day and then want to nurse all night so your supply might be ok as long as you aren’t nightweaning at the same time.

 

[bn123]

@dwhite081705 I second all of this. My first weaned when his brother was born, and my second just weaned (a month before he turns 2). We bedshare and snuggle to sleep, including naps. He's old enough that I'm not concerned about milk intake though.

 

[michaela89]

@bn123 Honestly it’s so refreshing to see replies like this. I’ve only just found this sub and it’s glorious.

 

[riley88]

@linka81 My guy is almost 9mo and has had only breast milk since he decided bottles are gross at 3.5mo. He easts a solid meal 2-3x a day and has baby snacks like puffs or mum mum crackers. He is crawling and cruising furniture so there's no concerns using up all his energy. He sleeps in his own room in the crib and has since 5mo. We have not sleep trained specifically, but he does go into his crib drowsy but awake most nights. He's a champ napper with 2 1.5hr naps a day.

He has always ate 3x per night. Rarely 2, occasionally 4. But almost always 3x.

 

[linka81]

@riley88 Thank you for sharing! Congrats on your champion napper and well done for still managing 3 night feeds.

 

[brione]

@linka81 My baby is 10 months old, we bedshare and he wakes up every 1-2 hours, rarely he'll do a longer stretch, often he'll nurse more frequently especially in the morning between 4 and 6. Usually I'll nurse and he'll quickly resettle, sometimes not. Lately sometimes he'll wake up and move around and not want to nurse, and will pretty quickly fall back asleep on his own.

 

[linka81]

@brione Thanks for sharing! My baby rarely goes longer than an hour other than the first stretch of sleep so it’s interesting to hear from someone else with similar.

 

[brione]

@linka81 Yup! And since maybe 7 months he's been up a LOT. It's only recently slowed down. But his sleep has been all over the map. One night he only woke up twice, for a couple weeks he was waking up close to 5am, some days he still does that though maybe once a week instead of every day. There's no consistency. I just roll with it all. Though once he's a year old I'm strongly considering night weaning!

 

[katrina2017]

@brione This is almost exact for us. Especially more frequent between 4-6am. Thankfully he only did a week of 5 am starts because that was liking me

 

[cutin]

@linka81 Stayed pretty frequent until they night weaned, which was around 2 years old. I bedshared pretty much until then as well. It kind of bounced between hourly to 2-3 hourly to 4-5 hour stretches with no kind of pattern or sense to it, I learned to go with the flow after a while It was also difficult to know whether we had actually been awake because I was bedsharing and by that stage feeding half asleep is second nature.

Currently feeding my third who is 10 months old and he sleeps the best of them so far. Only wakes 1-2 times a night to nurse and doesn't even always want that, often he just wants to nuzzle into (mine or my husband's) armpit.

It is normal for babies to wake up throughout the first year and beyond, some of the breastfeeding specialists or AP focused sleep specialists have done informal surveys on this. Anecdotally, formula is said to decrease night wakings but surveys seem to suggest that it only decreases parental perception of night wakings, as in they wake up the same but when you're asked to report how much they woke, formula feeding parents report fewer wake ups. That doesn't mean they slept through them. They just report fewer. It's weird because you'd think that you'd remember getting up and giving a bottle.

I wonder whether the difference isn't so much what they're being fed but the parents' motivation to make changes. I never did anything big to night wean because the night feeds weren't really an issue for me. Now with number 3, that's different, night feeds are no big deal, but co-sleeping is beginning to be a safety issue because he wakes up and silently explores the room, which my others did not do. So we are currently transitioning to a cot.

 

[j4c0b]

@linka81 Little one is almost 10 months and wakes once a night, where I feed her back to sleep. She is in her own room though.

She then usually wakes around 5:30-6am when I bring her to bed with me. She feeds and we snooze for an hour or so.

 

[nukkaplz]

@linka81 Bedshared and exclusively breastfed from day one. Baby is now 18 months old and still sleeps with me and breastfeeds through the night. I don’t know how many times because I don’t fully wake up, but I think at least every 3-4 hours. I don’t see her stopping anytime soon. I don’t mind it and I love being close to her. I do wish I could sneak away for some naps though and occasionally do some things without her waking up. Occasionally, I can leave for twenty minutes or so, but usually she wakes up right away. Anyway, that’s off topic.

 

[flipacoin]

@nukkaplz I know this is an old post but are you still doing the same thing several months later? You perfectly described my daughter (7months).

 

[nukkaplz]

@flipacoin Just got on Reddit and saw this comment. And, yes, still doing the same thing with a 2.5 year old. Honestly, I treasure it, and will be sad when breastfeeding and sleeping cuddles end someday. She’s currently sleeping on me for a nap with a boob in her mouth.

 

[flyingmaguro]

@linka81 We switched to separate rooms shortly after 6 months. Feeds then were maybe a few times a night. We hit a bad patch where is was around 5 times a night. At that point I stopped feeding to sleep (at bedtime, would still feed to sleep during night) and instead fed pre bath. The nighttime feeds reduced but I couldn't tell you when she dropped them completely. I remember rocking to sleep at wake ups pre midnight, then after a week pre 1, then pre 2 etc. And then eventually she just stopped needing me in the night. Pretty sure she was definitely done night feeding by 18 months, but could have been sooner.

 

[linka81]

@flyingmaguro Thank you, that’s really interesting! Feeding pre-bath is a very good idea for reducing the feed to sleep association.

 

[imystery]

@linka81 I nursed my twins until just after their 1st birthday. They didn’t sleep through the night until they weaned. They were in cribs in their own room, and after about 4 months old they generally woke at 11 & 3 to nurse overnight (I say generally because sometimes it was much more than that).