Sleeping through the night tips

[kittykat8]

Hi Guys,

Has anyone any tips to help the LO sleep through the night, or does it just happen naturally?

Ethan is now 6 weeks and alot of people keep asking whether he is sleeping through yet as though he should be????

I tried a tip from the Baby Whisperer Tracy Hogg, to feed him at 6pm, 8pm and 11.30pm which should do the trick, but it didnt work.

Also at what age did your LO's sleep through?

 

[Bee]

I wouldn't rush it if he's not ready - it will happen soon enough

Finlay has only been sleeping through the night for the past month. He'll go from 8pm till 7.30am if I let him nut i wake him for a feed about 11pm

I don't think he should be sleeping through the night at 6 weeks - Finlay certainly wasn't

 

[JulesK81]

Kayla is now 8 weeks old and has been sleeping through from 5 weeks. She pretty much fell into the routine herself and found it quite easy as she only used to wake once anyway (around 3am). She has her last feed between 10/11pm and will sleep through until about 6am.

If she wakes too early for her bedtime feed, I give her some water that tides her over until 10/11pm - if she feeds much earlier than this, she won't sleep through.

There's no right/wrong with babies - some sleep through earlier than others. Personally at this early stage I have always just demand fed, perhaps tweaking it the odd half hour here and there to suit. I've never followed any books (or MWs!) who say feed every 2/3 hours, wake your baby, blah blah blah - they eat when they are hungry, simple as that!

Another thing that helped my little one sleep through was putting her in her own room early - I know a lot of mums don't like doing this, but it really has been the best thing for us. We don't disturb her that way either.

x

 

[Lis32]

There are lots of things that people suggest you try...
Cluster feeding (like you are doing) in the evening.
Strict, consistent bedtime routine (bath, massage, bottle, book etc)
Putting baby down awake so they learn to go to sleep themselves.
Keep interaction to a minimum if they do wake etc etc.

However... we have tried all these things and LOADS of other suggestions but we are STILL waiting for James to sleep through! Some people believe you either have a sleeper or you don't. But they will do it in their own time. Hope it happens for you really soon though

 

[Bagpuss17]

I wouldn't be concerned that your LO is not sleeping through the night at 6 weeks, it's still very early days. Babies only have small stomachs so can only hold a small amount of milk, they're going to need feeding at regular intervals still at this stage.

They'll just do it when they're good and ready. My son started with bigger gaps between his night time feeds at about 3 months old, then he slept through at 4.5 months.

We didn't try anything in particular to get him to sleep through the night, we just let him find his own way.

It is a good idea though to introduce a bed time routine soon if you haven't already done so and more importantly making sure you put baby to bed awake so that they learn to get themselves off to sleep.

 

[Vickyleigh]

I think if you can get a baby to sleep through at 6 weeks then your lucky.
He's still so young and young babies need their night feeds but it will
gradually get less and less until he's ready to sleep through.

 

[maybebaby]

Austin didn't sleep through until 9 months, and then started waking up again after a week. He regularly slept from about 11 months, but even now will occasionally wake up once or twice in the night.

I don't think that the 'norm' is for a baby to sleep through at 6 weeks, although some do it's pretty rare and definitely not something to worry about if your LO still wakes up.

Also, if you're breastfeeding then breastfed babies tend to need feeding more often than formula babies.

 

[Gem & Leland]

5 months and dropped dreamfeed at 7 months

 

[purple13]

connor still doesn't sleep through - occasionally he'll go 7-8 hours but that's a recent and rare thing.

all babies are different. 6 weeks is v early to expect anything in the way of a full night's sleep, especially if you breast feed.

i've just got used to not really sleeping - if connor has a good night now, i'm exhausted the next day

 

[CalamityGem]

Ava was 8 weeks old when she started sleeping through (about 8.30pm to 7am) and has only been up during the night once since (she's almost 10 months old) so we're really lucky. She just kind of fell into the routine herself. We fed her 7pm then 11pm then 3am and at 6 weeks she dropped the 11pm feed then 8 weeks dropped the 3am feed. I was strict with bedtime, bath every night, bottle then bed... I didn't sit and rock her to sleep or anything, just winded her, sat for 5 mins to make sure then bed. I don't think this helped though, she just found her own wee routine.

 

[Sherlock]

If you are breastfeeding then chances are your LO won't sleep through till a bit later. Breast milk digests quicker than formula so babies need feeds more often in the early days. Also growth spurts will have your LO waking to feed.

Galen was 17 weeks before he slept through from 9pm-7am. Before that he would wake for feeds at least twice a night. We didn't do the 11pm time feed however. He had one before he went to bed and then upon waking in the night.

FWIW once you've had your baby this sort of thing is better asked on the Parenting section of the forum Also if you look there there are a number of discussions on this sort of thing that might help

 

[lfc_sarah]

Callums always been a sleepy baby
He slept through from about 5 and a half weeks

He sleeps 6pm-7am now every night
Or close to

 

[Charlie:-)]

Maia is a bit hit and miss with sleeping through lately. She first slept through the day she turned 3 months but we also put her into her own room the same night which I think had a lot to do with it. Then she slept through again about 4 nights later and then continued to sleep through till 3 nights ago when she started waking at about 5am for a feed. I think she must be going through a growth spurt though cause she's been feeding like every 3 hours during thay day when she used to go about every 4 hours.

So for me it was putting her into her own room which helped Maia to sleep through (BTW we dreamfeed when we go to bed).

 

[LisaJ1986]

We had 2 or 3 wake ups til 3 months, 2 weeks of sleeping through, back to 2 wakes, then to sleeping through and now where back to up again. Although she's getting later with her feed now so she's getting up later.

 

[Kylie1007]

Finn slept right through for the first time last night and he is 10 months! He went from 7.30 - 7am HURRAH! However I had the HV come around to discuss his sleeping on Friday and she said the best way is to let them cry themselves to sleep because babies get a bit disorientated if they wake up in a different place to where they fell asleep so I left him up in his cot to cry himself to sleep. It's horrid to hear them crying but I didn't turn on the monitor so I couldn't hear it (or I would crack...!) I don't know at what age they recommend getting into this habit though. Your LO may be still too young. I do think that some babies do it naturally from the word go and others, like my baby, need to "learn" to sleep.

 

[swan1]

Charlie slept from 11 to 7am from 7 weeks and then 7pm to 7am from 11 weeks. He was bottle fed and i followed Gina Fords conented little baby book. I wasnt 100% with the routines she used but used them with my own interpretation. I would imagine that breastfeeding would make it harder to have a routine.

 

[Sherlock]

FWIW breastfed babies are supposed to be able to go through the night from around 12-14 weeks. But how long overnight can vary. At least 8 hours, hopefully longer. In principal thats when they are able to go without needing a feed. We realised around this time our LO could, it was more comfort feeding that he was doing and so we slowly worked toward getting him thorugh the night without feeds then.

If you are co-sleeping it might be harder to do this though as LO is next to you. Not sure how you would go about things then.

 

[BabyMagic]

LO is not sleeping through a night yet - not even close. I think everyone is getting asked the same question: 'does she sleep through a night?'. I just always say that nope, but it doesn't bother me...

 

[trixipaws]

my daughter slept thru from 12/1am til 8am with one BF at 4am from about 3 or 4 weeks old, without doing anything.

then at 4 months old she became a total nightmare for sleeping, she was up every hour at one point

i dont kno which of these takes the credit for it- but when she was 8 months she started sleeping right thru from 7.30pm until 7am:

* she cut her first tooth
* we moved her from our bedroom into her nursery
* i stopped breast-feeding

 

[flowergirl]

My LO has been able to do the hours to constitute sleeping through since she was about 8 weeks- but she always does them too early! She's asleep from 7pm til about 2am and then up again at about half 4! The biggest difference for me was when she would go back into her cot awake and not create- meant I could get up feed and go straight back to sleep!