Breastfeeding Moms - Best Advice You Got to Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night?

My daycare family uses the book Baby Wise. I was pretty skeptical, but after caring for this baby I am a BIG FAN. This baby was born in November and is already close to sleeping through the night. It's like a miracle. The book is EXCELLENT and easy to read. The family is loaning me the book and I'm reading it. I've got to study up for my next baby. This method really works!

You did not mention how old your baby was. It makes a big diffrence. A baby is not developmently ready to sleep through the night before a year.
In responce to the mothers that recommended the baby wise book I caution you because the AAP does not endorse this method actually quite the opposite. They caution Mothers that it can cause Dehydration and Failure to thrive. Please read this Article!!
http://www.ezzo.info/Aney/aneyaap.htm
I would reccomend the No Cry Sleep Solution it is a wonderful book on how to help your child sleep better for longer!
Many Blessings, K.

Breastfeed every 2.5 hours during the day for as long as the baby wants. My daughter used to breastfeed for 1-1.5 hours every 2.5 hours during the day and was sleeping 8 hours at night by the time she was 6 weeks old. Also, depending on how old the baby is swaddle, swaddle, swaddle. Hope this helps.

I nursed my daughter to sleep until she was about 14 months and dropped her night feeding. I just waited until she was ready.

My husband had me try different "methods" to get her to sleep through and all of them involved screaming and tears. I just didn't think that was right for me and our daughter, so after trying a handful of things he suggested, I simply told him there would be no more "sleep training" whatsoever. It was much easier for me to just get up at night and spend 5 minutes nursing her back to sleep than spending two hours of screaming and crying and in the end trying to soothe a baby that was totally besides herself.

My sister has 4 children, most of them weaned by 6 months and on the bottle. None of them or any other baby I know made it through the night without waking before they were a year old.
The most important advice I received is that with some things it is best to follow your child's lead.

The eat/play/sleep cycle is the best way to go. The baby has time to start digesting their food before laying down, and learns self soothing methods. You don't have to feel obligated to keep it at a 2/3/4 hr. interval if you don't feel comfortable putting the baby on such a strict schedule (although you may be surprised that the baby will most likely do this on their own anyway) The most important part is keeping the order of the cycle. I used this approach on the last 2 of my 4 breastfed kids and wow, what a difference it made!

I have a missionary friend in Uganda that was at her wits end taking care of a severely malnourished orphan (10 mo. old) and she was severely sleep deprived. I had her try this method and he was getting really good full feedings during the day and happily putting himself to sleep at night after just 2 days of trying it. The little guy is just thriving now. I can honestly say there is not one person (breastfeeding or not) that I have ever met that tried this approach that it has not worked for. Just give a shot for a week and see how it goes for you!

Have you read "Babywise" by Gary Ezzo and "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Wiessbluth? I take tips from each of those books and both of my children slept through the night by around 7-8 weeks of age. I exclusively breastfed, too. To sum up what I do: (1)Make sure you newborn's daily activities occur in this order - eat, playtime, sleep. It sounds insignificant, but it helps to regulate their natural body rhythm, as well as teaches them to fall asleep without nursing. This, in turn, enables them to put themselves back to sleep when/if they rouse up a bit during the night. (2) Make sure your baby is getting a full feeding every time...
snack eating = "snack" sleeping. (3) Watch for drowsy signs (eye rubbing, yawning) and put your child to down for naps before becoming fussy and overtired. Put him/her down drowsy, but awake. This will prevent your baby from becoming over-tired. If your baby is not sleeping well during the day, he will not sleep well at night. I hope this helps. Like I said, this is a very brief summary of the main things I do with my little ones. Definitely check out these books, though, to get the complete info. My 9-week old currenly sleeps from 8:30p.m-7:00 a.m. without waking at all, so this stuff really works! :-)

It depends whether you are using a pacifier or not. If you are not using a pacifier, put a mattress in the baby's room, lay down with him/her and plan to buy the book "Mothering your Nursing Toddler" for weaning techniques. Breastfeeding and pacifiers, don't always mix. I didn't use a pacifier with my kids, but I can imagine it would be tremendously easier to get a nursing baby to sleep through the night with one than without one. Good luck!

Sorry, I did not have time to read the other responses. I nursed both my boys until 14 months. I am one of the quilty ones of nursing them to sleep when they were little and nursing them back to sleep during the night. I realized that this was not good for them or me, so I decided to do something different. I would do the things suggested in the book Babywise, and the Supernanny's book. Make a routine. Do the same thing everynight. I would brush teeth, face washed, 2 books, prayers, lights off, lullaby music on. I started out sitting in the rocking chair and I would keep going and laying him back down and say "night-night" time. I would rub his back a little and sit back down. With my first son, I could do the routine and leave him in his crib. He would just talk on the monitor and play with his stuffed anilmal and listen to his music. Eventually he would put himself to sleep. I would also give him a sippy cup of water in his crib. Once he was putting himself to sleep at betime, he woke up much less often. If he did wake up, I would go in and rub his back...but vowed never to take him out of the crib. He would eventually settle back down. Once you take them out, they will want it everytime. I was never the kind who could listen to my kids scream. If it meant sitting beside their crib for a while, I would rather do that. A child who is screaming crying is unable to relax and put themselves to sleep. Sure maybe they may fall asleep from exhaustion..but I always think that is too much stress for such a little person. You will know what works for you. It may take a few weeks. Be patient and it will work. Good Luck!

I AGREE WITH VAL! I BREASTFED AND WORKED AT THE SAME TIME AND I WOULD PUMP AND FEED NONSTOP DURING THE DAY. IT WAS ALOT OF WORK BUT MY SON SLEPT THRU THE NITE REALLY EARLY! GOOD LUCK

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Yikes, my son is 13 months old, still breastfeeding and still wakes up once or twice a night! Unfortunately I think the only method that works 100% of the time is patience.
Good luck, and hang in there momma. You're doing your baby such a service by breastfeeding!

I agree that a baby less than a year is very likely not ready to sleep through the night (unless they're doing a good amount of solids). Neither of my kids slept through the night until after their 2st birthday, and my son (at 3.5) still wakes up and ends-up in our bed most nights.

But, an infant's stomach is small, and depending on the amount of breastmilk, the consistency (is yours more like cream or skim milk), and when the last feeding occurred, your baby may need nighttime feedings.

What I found most helpful for me was to have the babies in the bed with me and to nurse on my side while being able to rest next to the baby. As a working Mom, I could afford to not get the sleep, and I had no problems with either kid falling asleep immediately after feeding.

I bf my son, who is now almost 10 months old. He is sleeping throught the night. Here is what I did.
I implemented the weisbluth method when he was 5 month sold to eliminate him getting up 3-4 times a noight. We were down to just once, which I was ok with. Then last month, I decided to wean him off that time too. When he woke up, I went into his room with a paci and just held him until he fell asleep. He did not cry, but it took him awhile to fall back asleep. I did this for 3 nights, and by night 4, he was not getting up and sleeping 12 hours!
I am a teacher, so he gets pumped bm bottles during the day and a good amount of solids. I really think that we just got lucky with my son. He is very easy going and a great sleeper. Good luck and send me a message if you want more info.

I'm with Jessica on the BabyWise advice! I used that book and it worked wonders for me and my baby. My daughter slept through the night (8 hours) at 5 weeks old, and gained weight like a champ. I have a number of girlfriends who used the BabyWise method with their little ones, and it worked well for all of us. The main idea is structuring your baby's day so that the eat/play/sleep cycle is fairly predictable for both of you. It helps your milk supply, and baby always knows what's happening next, which keeps baby much, much happier than if you just feed them at random intervals every time they cry. The book is a quick read and is easy to understand and implement.

Good luck! =)

Honestly, my breastfed babies didn't sleep throught the night until they stopped nursing and started sleeping in their own rooms - at about 18 months. Wish I had some better advice for you. But I couldn't ever figure out how to do that myself - so I just kept getting up and nursing them until they grew out of it. This worked okay (not ideal, but liveable) for me - but it isnt for everyone.

I have a 7 week old, and I've spent the last week pondering this question. I read tons of books with my first, and it didn't matter, she still woke up until I weaned her.

I honestly think it has more to do with the kid than with the method --though parenting philosophy will for sure impact this. My 7 week old is sleeping much better than my daughter ever did and I have done nothing differently. I thought about putting him on a strict schedule and not doing demand feeding, but 7 weeks is just so young, and I really do believe in the 4th trimester. We have a schedule, but he does like to nibble in between feeds, and I'm OK with that. If he needs to be comforted and he wants my boob, so be it. I also thought of doing the putting him down almost awake from the get go --using the baby whisperer method-- but it strikes me as totally ignoring the 4th trimester. Most methods that are really strict in schedule seem to ignore the 4th trimester.

In any case, a few things I do plan on doing differently: around the 12 week growth spurt, I am going to be very careful about responding too quickly to the off-schedule night wakings. Babies usually get into a rhythm of waking at the same time every night, so when they start waking at other times, it's a good sign that they are having a growth spurt. My plan is to feed him when he wakes, but if he shows no real interest in food and doesn't do a full feeding, the next night I'm going to try to ignore it and see if my hubby can just get him back to sleep, so we don't cultivate habits.

I'm also practicing putting him to sleep by patting him so that I have at least two methods of helping him to self-sooth enough to fall asleep. That way I can not feed him at off wakings. I have also moved him into his own room so that I will only respond when he really needs it.

I have no idea if it will work or not, but I honestly am just going to listen to my gut and go from there. If my baby isn't sleeping 8 hours anytime soon, I'm not going to worry about it. They are only babies for such a short period, and soon they will be off to college. I had thought I wanted sleep, but when I really thought about it, I want my newborn to sleep on my chest from time to time. I want to comfort him in that way. It seems right to me---at least for the first 11 weeks. I also don't think it's normal or natural for them to sleep 8 hours at an early age, I think they can be conditioned to do that, but it isn't normal --thus why most babies don't do it.