Getting My 3 1/2 Month Old to Take a Bottle and Sleep More at Night:)

Bottle feeding isn't necessarily going to make your son sleep longer at night. It depends.

No, you haven't missed your window to get him to take a bottle, but you are going to have more luck getting him to transition to a bottle if someone other than you gives it to him. Have there be 1 bottle each day that dad gives (or whoever) of your expressed milk. Make sure he's hungry when you offer. Make sure you are NO WHERE to be found, so you guys don't cave to the crying and initial refusal and give in.... teaching him that he doesn't have to take a bottle.
Unless he has feeding issues (like real, actual feeding issues) he WILL take a bottle, if YOU transition it correctly and if it's a priority for your family.

How long is he sleeping now at night now? Are his night feedings "full" feedings or is he using you for a pacifier and comfort instead of getting back to sleep another way? Eating "a lot" can be quantity (which indicates hunger), or it can be small amounts but many times..... which is behavioral as opposed to hungry.

Does he use a pacifier?

Typically at 3 months (I think) you should be feeding at 10:30 or 11pm and then again around 4:30 or 5am. But 6 hours is the longest stretch you could expect. Not sure what he's doing now.....

You can stop offering him ANY food between 10:30 and 4. Monitor what he's eating throughout the day to make sure he's getting enough and make sure you talk with your ped to make sure it's ok for his height/weight.

Good Luck.

To get him to take a bottle, preferably someone else needs to do it when you're not around (dad, day caregiver, etc.). Are you giving him pumped breastmilk or formula? I'm assuming breastmilk. The temperature difference could be throwing him off -- best is to heat the bottle (or bag if you put it in freezer bags) in a pot of warm/hot water, or run it under a warm faucet. One other caution, my friend successfully got her son to take a bottle of freshly pumped milk from her, however then all the milk she pumped and froze for someone to give him when she wasn't around he wouldn't take. Temperature, flavor difference, we're not sure.

For sleeping at night try 1) "stuffing" him during the day. Increase the # of feedings so he really gets filled up during the day and then hopefully he will be less likely to wake during the night because he's reached his calorie intake for the day (i.e. feed him every 2.5 hrs if necessary). 2) wait a little longer before going in to him during the night. meaning, if he wakes at 2am, wait until 2:15am before you go to him (or go to him, but wait until 2:15am before you feed him. Again, see if your spouse (if present) can go in and comfort him instead of you, as he'll smell you and want to feed. 3) shorten your nightly feedings. Meaning, if you feed him on both sides during a night feeding, reduce it to only feeding him on one side (may "hurt" you as you might become engorged until your body/supply adjusts), or only feed him for say 15 minutes if you normally feed for 25 minutes.

A few ideas to try out! Best of luck!

I highly recommend trying to Playtex nursers with the brown nipple. It is super soft so it will be more like you and you can push the drop in just a bit to give him a taste of your milk so he knows why this different nipple is in his mouth.

Breastfed babies will very often night nurse/feed way longer than a formula fed infant. But not always. Depends on the baby. Both mine were EBF. My son learned how to sleep 10-13 hours per night at about 7 months. My daughter was over a year before she slept thru the night every night.

You can start helping baby learn to sleep-yes, babies have to be taught, they don't know how-by having a routine that you follow to the tee at night so baby learns what to expect and what is expected. But at this age you can't expect more than a 5-6 hour stretch. And even then many, many BF babies at this age don't do that. Breastmilk is a perfect food that is easily broken down so they process it very effectively and need to eat more often. And that's perfectly normal. Hard for mama but good for baby. And don't try to withhold nursings at night right now. He's just too little for that. Plus, how would you like to be told you can't eat when you are starving!?

It does seem foreign to them, but keep trying! My daughter was about 3 months old when we introduced the bottle as a sometimes thing, and my son was a bit older than that. They both ended up being able to take a bottle. Squeeze a little of the milk onto their lips to show them what it is. Try a couple types of bottles/nipples also. My daughter ended up liking the Nuk bottles at first, then once she was used to the idea we went to Avent bottles. For my son it was the good 'ol classic Gerber bottles. If you are trying to feed the baby pumped breastmilk only put a little in there to start off with so you don't waste it. Good luck :)

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It does seem foreign to them, but keep trying! My daughter was about 3 months old when we introduced the bottle as a sometimes thing, and my son was a bit older than that. They both ended up being able to take a bottle. Squeeze a little of the milk onto their lips to show them what it is. Try a couple types of bottles/nipples also. My daughter ended up liking the Nuk bottles at first, then once she was used to the idea we went to Avent bottles. For my son it was the good 'ol classic Gerber bottles. If you are trying to feed the baby pumped breastmilk only put a little in there to start off with so you don't waste it. Good luck :)

No idea on how to get him to take a bottle. I also exclusively breastfeed and have never done bottles. My 7 month old is finally down to only 1 feeding a night. So you are not alone with lack of sleep. Good luck.