Sleeping through... Or lack of...

[kay126]

LO is 14 weeks now and has never slept through... EVER.

The most he has done is 6/7 hours.

His Routine at the moment is that between 5.30-6pm he has a 6oz bottle, he then stays awake and has another 6oz bottle at 8-8.30pm ish then he falls asleep but wakes between 10-10.30pm for a 5oz bottle he falls asleep straight away (I always put him down awake for naps and bedtime and he gets himself off to sleep).

However, he can wake up anything between 1 to 3 times a night. He never wakes up screaming and bawling, and hes not hungry when he wakes up but he most of the time has his eyes shut just whining and crying in his sleep, we get up pop his dummy in then 5 mins later hes whining again, like a puppy i swear! it can take an hour for him to settle again and then 2 hours later he will be doing the same thing again.

I know hes not hungry because he doesnt properly wake up and is never bawling, ive tried feeding him but he only sucks because he thinks its his dummy and will never take more than a few mouthfuls of milk and when he wakes up for breakfast between half 7 and 8am he will quite happily sit in his bouncer playing for half hour while i potter about and get everything ready, if he was hungry and waking due to hunger he wouldnt do this.

I just dont know what to do I know every LO is different but his baby cousin whose 10 days older sleeps 6.30pm til 6.30am without waking once and then Donovan is still waking up every couple of hours!

First of all I want him to crack sleeping 10.30pm til 7.30am without waking, then I'll tackle getting him to bed after his 8-8.30 bottle but I just dont know what to do or how to go about it :'-(

 

[Squeakz]

josh is 5 months and only starting to sleep through consistently. We feed him through the day which means he normally has a bottle at about 4-5 of 7fl 0z and then we give him some solids at about 6.30 7 with a little milk and then at 11 dream feed him and last ngiht he slept until 8.15.

A couple of weeks ago he started waking every hour just for his dummy etc but it was because he ws coming down with something. Has he always done this - ie waking up frequwntly during the night?? If not he might be getting a cold or something. ...

Is he warm enough?? if yo uwere to elave him without the dummy would he settle himself again?!?!

Sorry if its not much help, i know it soudns frustrating and not helpful at all, but the girls on here told me he'll do it in his own time..... irritating i realise but truthful.

Could it be a growth spurt. Even now josh will sometimes wake up a few times in the night for a dummy which is irritating....

Sprry its not overly helpful!!

Sophie xxx

 

[kay126]

He has for the last 4 weeks not been having a bottle between half ten and half seven but he has always woken frequently, he always used to kick his blankets off so thought that was the problem so got a sleeping bag but its made bo difference... he could be getting chicken pox but only for the last week would that affect him he's always woken up in the night I just don't know whether to start leaving him whine in the night and maybe he will break the habit?

 

[Squeakz]

he might break the habit but its whther you can listen to him whineing and put up with it?? apparently the incubuation period of chickenpox is 15-20 days so it could be affecting him......you could try letting him resettle himself if you can handle it. other wie im not sure what to suggest. we always put a blanket over J s sleeping bag....it migh just be something he has to grow out of.....potentially if it is chicken pox though when he breaks out he may start to get better with it..........Hope things pick up hun, i know it can be hard and irritating1! x

 

[Lacey's Mummy]

Charley's 19 weeks and has never slept through! The longest he's gone is 8 hours but he normally wakes twice. The past few days he's woken up at 4am, has a whole bottle then goes back down until 7. I then give him a bottle at 7.30 cos he's moaning for his bottle but only takes 2/3oz's so I know he doesn't need the 4am bottle so I gave him his dummy instead last night and he went straight back to sleep until 6.45!
Your LO could be cold, teething, unwell due to why he's waking. It could also be the start of the 4 month sleep regression!

 

[kay126]

I know every LO is different it can be just so hard to not compare sometimes, seeing other babys sleep through at 4 weeks makes me wonder where im going wrong... maybe things will improve when I start weaning

 

[Squeakz]

honestly josh only started trying to about a week and a bit ago (hes 5months old yesterday) and its only the last few ddays he is starting to do it without waking.........hold on xx

 

[kay126]

I will, i think ill just try and chill out and itll happen when hes ready...

 

[Squeakz]

it sounds like he could be getting there! when josh first started he would wake up a few times a night as he would for his feeds and we presumed it was cos his body clock was set to wake up then!

 

[StValentine]

I think the baby who sleeps 11-12 hours straight when so young is the exception not the norm. Sorry to tell you this hun, but apparently the definition of sleeping through the night is an uninterrupted 6hrs. Jess is 13wks and has only managed 7hrs about 3 times. 11hrs will happen eventually! Im told that they get better once they"re on solids x

 

[Amy_J]

my lo doesnt sleep through! he did. and now no. =( the 6 or 7 hours that ur lo has done is great!!! id kill for 6 hours sleep. my health visitor told me that sleeping thru for babies is actually only about 6 hours!! think yourself lucky!!! lol. like LM said it could be sleep regression?! just a phase?! i hope he grows out of it for you soon! maybe when u start weaning in a fe wmonths it might get better. most of my friends said their lo's slept much better once weaning was well established.

i hope my lo cracks even 5 hours sleep, that would be heaven!!!!!

 

[MrsR]

Seb's 5 months old and doesn't sleep through. I don't mind though. I know he will when he's ready.

 

[Yodabo]

Drake used to be like this Hun, we had 4 weeks of it! He's loads better now..he still wakes now and then for his dummy but last night he was in bed for 9, I heard him stirring at 1.30am (was downstairs watching a film) but he resettled on his own and he woke for his dummy at 4 then up at 6.30. I'm really happy with that considering he used to wake up to 20 times a night!

Hang tight sweet, he'll get there!

 

[kiki]

My oldest didn't sleep through untill he was 8 months! He always used to wake up at 3.30am for a feed. And there is no sign of my little one sleeping through, but it doesn't really bother me that much. He has his feed and goes straight back to sleep so I only have to be up for 10-15 min so its ok. He still wakes up anything between 1-3 times every night.

 

[JJ Mum]

Devon is 8 weeks , Bf and has just started sleeping 9pm till 5am (but may not last), and seems completely different and new to me. He is a sod in the day since tho!!

But my three bottle fed babies only slept through from 10 weeks , but it was only 5 hours from 12 midnight till 5am, and we were happy with that, and that carried on for months but was managable. They didn't have a late morning rise for soo long tho, so don't worry.

Could you wake Donovan before you go to bed and feed him again then, to last better? What about hungry baby milk, my babies started waking up again when they got near to weaning time and we switched to it then and it really helped fill them up longer.

 

[Rosie's Mummy]

I don't believe in the first instance that young babies sleep for 12 hours! For one thing very young babies cannot go for long periods without feeding as their tummies are so tiny they don't hold an awful lot of milk - breastfed babies digest the milk quickly so naturally need feeding more often.

I can't stand it when people go on about how their babies sleep all night - as if they have cracked every parenting challenge already. I agree that there are babies who will sleep for longer periods but 12 hours?!

 

[kay126]

I think people may have got the end of the stick, it may sound like I'm complaining that he doesn't sleep through but its more that I'm frustrated that I don't know why he still wakes up and feel like I'm missing his needs coz I can't find the solution to why he is waking. I know w lot of babies still have night feeds way past three months but donovan isn't interested in his bottle when he wakes so I was looking for ways to try and find what is actually wrong. He isn't cold, not hungry, not thirsty and there's no pattern to the times he wakes up. So I'm stumped!

 

[Rosie's Mummy]

Have you tried co-sleeping? Not everyone's cup of tea but when Matt wakes for no apparent reason he goes straight back to sleep when I put him in bed with me Good luck!

 

[Zazu]

Have you tried co-sleeping? Not everyone's cup of tea but when Matt wakes for no apparent reason he goes straight back to sleep when I put him in bed with me Good luck!

I did this wen zac was younger too, he slept loads better with me, OH didn't like me doing it but I loved our cuddles n needed the sleep! X

 

[Momma`Kat]

How come 6/7 hours doesnt count as sleeping through? Lol Alanna goes down between 10-11pm and wakes up between 7-8am. I have never tried putting her to bed at "Kids" bedtime. That the routine she worked out herself, ive tried putting her down at a more aceptable time.. doesnt happen, and this works for me, i ts when i sleep anyway! why change it just for acceptabilities sake