Would supplementing with formula help my 4 month old sleep better?

[Anonymous]

Another new FTM here. My baby is 3 months old and is still waking up 3-4 times a night. Actually, last night he woke up at 11pm and 3am (and then woke up for good at 7am), so that's only twice. But he was also woke up around 5 other times during the night and I had put him back to sleep. I am sooooo tired. I'm counting down the weeks until I can sleep train.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another new FTM here. My baby is 3 months old and is still waking up 3-4 times a night. Actually, last night he woke up at 11pm and 3am (and then woke up for good at 7am), so that's only twice. But he was also woke up around 5 other times during the night and I had put him back to sleep. I am sooooo tired. I'm counting down the weeks until I can sleep train.

PP here. And, my baby doesn't take bottles, so DH can't even help out at night. I think I might have a nervous breakdown soon.

[Anonymous]

Mom of two EBF infants here. We started sleep training with both when they were were 4 months AND 12 lbs. It took a few nights of tears but night feedings went from every 2 hours to one lovely feed before mom's bedtime and one feeding around 3/4/5 am. I had plenty of milk and was ready to BURST by 3-5 a.m., but it worked so well for our babies, who started sleeping really well and continued to grow at a great pace. They were getting plenty of milk - didn't need the nighttime snacks, but DID need the sleep. Wow did it change their dispositions - tired and cranky to much happier. AND STILL WELL FED, AND VERY BONDED AND ATTACHED AND LOVING AND HAPPY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another new FTM here. My baby is 3 months old and is still waking up 3-4 times a night. Actually, last night he woke up at 11pm and 3am (and then woke up for good at 7am), so that's only twice. But he was also woke up around 5 other times during the night and I had put him back to sleep. I am sooooo tired. I'm counting down the weeks until I can sleep train.

PP here. And, my baby doesn't take bottles, so DH can't even help out at night. I think I might have a nervous breakdown soon.

This is the way I felt for about a month before we started to sleep train. I could not continue in such an exhausted state. I instantly became a much better mom once our child slept longer at night - there is a world of difference between grabbing 1-2 hours of sleep and four or five glorious, uninterrupted hours. My husband also didn't help with night time feeding - he tried to, but it turned out to be not helpful because I would be awake and extremely agitated because the baby would cry while husband got the bottle (pumped breast milk) ready, and I could never sleep until baby was back asleep. So I did all the night feedings. Sleep training saved my sanity and let me be a better parent. (I posted previously re: my 2 kids, training at 4 mos/12lbs.)

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks so much for these thoughts and ideas. I think I will more seriously try sleep training... I'm starting with the Sleep Lady's book since I can't handle CIO- although if this continues for much longer I may have to resort to that. Also I am going to more seriously try to get DH to do one of the feedings- it's been hard for the same reasons PPs mentioned.

Also it helps just to know I'm not the only one with this problem - I was getting so sick of people telling me how their 6 week old is already sleeping 12 hours a night!

[Anonymous]

Op have you considered pumping first? YOu can still EBF that way and it will give you a break. I do however agree with a pP that suggested starting to cut out the night feedings gradually. I think that might be easier when giving a bottle as opposed to nursing less (we did that and found that to work better).