Hellobee Boards

Our son is EBF and has done long stretches lots of times (3-4 hours isn't uncommon, but he's done 6 a few and even 8 once!). That said, he's also had nights where he's been up every 2 hours. It definitely isn't a linear progression. He's nearly 15 weeks.

My son is 11 weeks old and 100% formula fed. He's been sleeping for 9-10 hour stretches at night for about 3 weeks now. It's glorious- I think we get more sleep now than we did before he was born!

DD is ebf & will normally have a first long stretch when she goes down.... Sometimes 9pm-3am or she'll wake to dream feed at 11ish go back down till 3-4am. After that it's a crapshoot though... Sometimes she'll sleep till 6:30-7ish, but usually she's pretty restless & wakes every 1.5-2 hours.

I really should make my bedtime earlier so I could get more sleep, but that hasn't happened yet.

DS is 15 weeks but around 6 weeks he was doing 4-6 hour stretches then 2-3 and another 2-3. The best night was when he did 6 hours then another 5! He is EBF.

I understand your temptation to try formula but with our experience it hasn't made a difference. We have been giving DS a bedtime bottle (mainly to encourage him to take a bottle) every night for the past 5 weeks. Sometimes it's formula depending on how much pumped milk I have. He now does 8-10 hour stretches between eating regardless of what he is drinking (and even sometimes how much!).

At 6 weeks LO is probably hungry with each nightwaking. If you are noticing that LO isn't nursing that well at every waking You can try to soothe LO (e.g. Offer a paci, shush, etc) back to sleep instead of nursing right away. That's how we've gotten longer stretches out of DS.

DS is 10 weeks old and EBF...his sleep schedule is usually 9-3, then 330-530 (at which point I pull him into bed with me and he doesn't nurse, just snuggles) and 530-730 which is when we get up. A few times he's skipped the 330 feeding but my boobs were SO engorged when he got up it wasn't even worth it, lol.

At 6 weeks LO slept a 6 hour stretch for me! It was her mother's day present to me. She was EBF.

@regberadaisy: I KNOW!!!!! trust me I'm as surprised as you are. She went to bed at 9pm and was up at 4:15!!!
She fell asleep at 8:30 today, I think she might wake up to nurse 1 more time and we will see if it will be another repeat.

but my son, at 6 weeks slept 8 hours straight. So maybe the fact that I have big babies (90 percentile) sorta has an effect ?

I have been blessed with a great sleeper, he is EBF and slept from 10-3 for his first few weeks then 9-4/5 for a while and currently, he's sleeping 8pm-6am and is 3 1/2 months.

Sometimes he'll stir in the middle of the night but if I put the paci in his mouth, he'll go right to sleep!

Hope your LO becomes a great sleeper and lets you get some rest.

My baby is 7 weeks old and is exclusively breastfed and can sleep 4.5 hour stretches at night I have to wake her up to eat. But she only sleeps this well if we place her on her belly which I know isnt recommended but it works for us for now.

LO is 18 weeks now but she started sleeping through the night (830-7) on the day she turned 2 months old. She's EBF and I was shocked because I always though EBF babies woke up to feed for longer than formula babies. She continued to sleep through the night other than a few random days until last week when she started waking up at 430 to nurse. It was around 4 months and think it might be a growth spurt, cause once she's full she falls right back asleep until 630-7 when she is up for the day.

I'm not sure how she learned it, but I nursed her on demand around the clock and she slowly jut started stretching out night sleep. I kept the home well lit during the day and only turned ok dim lights at night for feelings in an effort to help her learn day from night. Now that I've gone back to work, I make sure she gets her fill of pumped milk during the day so she's not hungry at night.

I read that once babies are 10 pounds, they are able to sleep through, but it doesn't mean they will...says the mom whose 25 pound 18 month old still wakes up at night!

Babycenter has a tool where you can enter your baby's stats and get the percentiles.

@Mrsbells: why do you wake her up? if she's hungry won't she wake up by herself?

I was only getting the occasional 4 hour stretch (not even necessarily at night!) up until about 2 weeks ago. Now, at 12 weeks, he sleeps a good 5-6 hour stretch every night, and it has made a world of difference!

DS gets his last bottle around 7, and is asleep by 7:30/8 pretty much every night. Around 5-6 weeks, I think, I started dream feeding him a 4 oz bottle at about 9, before I go to bed. At first, he would still wake up at 10 or 11; at about 9 weeks, I started just soothing him back to sleep during that waking, instead of feeding him. Now he's sleeping through until 2 or 3 am, without getting up. I'm hoping to push that back to 4 am (wen he naturally gets restless, anyway) and then, I'll start slowly weaning him from his dream feed. I'm hoping that he'll be sleeping from 7/8 pm to 4 am by 4 months without waking or needing to be fed.