7mth old, breastfed baby, typical sleep patterns

[yeknomyeknom]

Hi, I have a 7mth old breastfed baby (been doing baby led weaning since 6mths). I'm keen to find out from similar mums, what their baby's sleep patterns and arrangements are. Just to see if maybe I should be changing it up a bit. Where does your baby sleep at night? How do you put them down? How often do they wake? Do you feed them in the night? How does your husband contribute? Thanks.

[Pickle]

A 7 months my baby was sleeping in her own room, fed at 7pm (bedtime), then a dream feed at my bedtime (typically 11pm or so). She used to be awake when I put her to bed, and would then sleep through from her dream feed until 7:30am. I did the same with all 3 kids and at that stage they were all going right through the night with no extra milk.

Daytime at 7 months she would feed at breakfast time, mid morning, mid afternoon, and bedtime.

P x

[Pickle]

... husband contributed by doing bath time when he was home in time, and he did (and still does) most of the child and baby related stuff apart from providing milk in the weekends.

[GinaG3]

If you and your baby are happy with the way things are I'd be inclined to stick with it. Everyones answers are going to be different here, mine are completely on the different end of the scale to most peoples. At 7 months my nights consisted of up to 6-7 wake ups for feeding a night. We co-slept from birth to 20 months full-time then until now 4 years 4 months 'part-time'. My daughter fell asleep strictly AT THE BREAST ONLY, it was then a military exercise to roll away from her and out of the bed before sneaking across the creaky floorboards without being heard. Back in within 1 hour for another feed. This went on until she stopped feeding at 24 months, although night feeds tailed off to just 2 a night at 20 months. My partner helped with a bit of playing here and there while I cooked or had a bath but I did all the bathing, wake ups, pacing, nappies, basically everything else. This was the root of many arguments in our house for months on end as I was understandably completely exhausted with a child that just never settled or stopped feeding.

I'd still do it again in a heartbeat though.

[Bellenden Belle]

Six/ seven months - Baby Belle was in his own room. Went down at 7pm, slept until dream feed at 10pm, but usually woke at 4am for a feed.

We dropped the dream feed very soon after this time, however the 4am wake remained until around nine months.

Other half always shared the duties - including getting out of bed and fetching Baby Belle in the early hours from his room so I could feed him in our bed (we swung wildly between co-sleeping from 4am onwards and keeping him in his own room).

[Pickle]

Yes, we (I) stopped the dream feed very shortly after this age too, when she was fully established on solids during the day.

Worth mentioning that daytime at that age she was having a small nap at 9am and a longer 2 hour one after lunch which she continues to have now (17 months), and my other kids kept having until they were 4 (son) and 2.7 (daughter).

[craigy]

Own room, never dream fed, breast fed. Big feed at 7 and into bed. First one slept through from about 2 months, second one was just beginning to sleep through at this time. Always put them down awake. Husband did bedtime if in and still does, I did all night feeding obviously as breast fed.

[klove]

I'm really curious as to everyone's answers as our son, 6 months, is such a poor sleeper. Own room, asleep by 7pm, up at 6am. Breastfeeds every three hours to the dot... its knackering! Husband's been brilliant and is 'on duty' from four, tries to settle him when he wakes up inevitably at 5 for a feed and then gets up with him at 6 and gives him a bottle at 7 (he won't accept bottle from me at all). I then get about 3 1/2 hours unbroken sleep, blissful. My main problem is feeding him to sleep but it's such a hard habit to break and I'm not sure how you prevent it.

[crystal7]

My experience with both children was similar to yours Klove! Bed at 7, then up 2-4 times per night. Up for the day between 6 and 7. I just used to bring them into bed with me after the first feed. Daughter wasn't eating much at this age, son ate loads and wasn't very interested in the milk just the cuddles. Unfortunately he still prefers to sleep In 'mummydaddy bed' at 20 months but I think that's probably down to his personality rather than my night time parenting (or that's what I choose to believe!)

[Saffron]

Around this age lots of people insisted that moving Little Saff to her own room would make her sleep through the night. My gut said No, but I was getting a lot of pressure to stop cosleeping. So we moved her.

They were wrong. Disaster. Made her worse. Went back to cosleeping (me in her room then). So much better even though we still had a lot of night wakings. Changing feeds, dropping feeds, changing daytime routines never made any difference and were a waste of psychological and physical energy.

Do what works for you. Don't listen to anything but your gut. Xx

[Sonners]

Hi Klove I remember you from the Winter Babies meet ups when we were pregnant!

My daughter is nearly 6 months and feeds around 6pm for bedtime, and again at 10 or 11 then 2 or 3 and then 5 or 6. Sometimes she might sleep until 7 if I'm lucky! But recently I've been getting her in with me from about 3am to try and get some more sleep. I'd like to move her into her own room but won't be doing so until she is waking less at night (or outgorws the bednest..). She goes down quite easily at night, and is starting to self-settle better during the night time wakings. We had a slightly awful time from 4 months until recently where she'd be up for an hour and half after the 2/3am feed but thankfully we seem to be past that now. My husband helps where he can - the saving grace for me has been him entertaining her for an hour from 6am most days before he gets ready for work so I can get a bit more sleep. On the weekends he will also do part of the night shift so I can go longer than 3 hours. Will your little one take a bottle of expressed milk?

From talking to other at the Winter Babies meet ups, lots of the babies are still waking a fair amount although some are sleeping through (lucky buggers!).

We still meet at the Bread of Life cafe on a Monday at 11am so come along if you fancy it. The sleep deprivation is horrible but I find hanging out with others in similar boats and talking about it helps!

[alieh]

My second kept up the every 3 hour feeds overnight until closer to 12 months unfortunately (very similar timing to Sonners). He always settled quickly after the feed though, which I preferred to my older son's pattern who dropped night feeds early but then might be up for hours in the middle of the night!

My husband would take them anytime after the 5 am (ish) feed so I could sleep until 7 or 7:30. This saved me. Other people prefer to go to bed early, but I have trouble sleeping in the evening so preferred him to help in the early morning (and he is more of a morning person than me anyway).

I couldn't be bothered to do anything to push him to drop any feeds and eventually he very quickly dropped down to about 2 feeds at night, then maybe just a few weeks later down to 1, and then he stopped waking suddenly (this was at 14 months I'm afraid but he's barely woken at night since and is now a totally brilliant sleeper!).

Bottles at night never worked for us. I always found it quicker and easier to just BF at night. But wish we had managed to crack the night bottles!