When did your baby start to sleep through the night?

[Dinski]

My little boy is 6 weeks old tomorrow. He sleeps most of the day apart from his feeds but is very awake and alert at night. He doesn't fall asleep normally until past midnight, often 1am and then sleeps until about 4.30-5am for a feed. He is a light sleeper and wakes up often and snuffles and wimpers a lot in his sleep. He suffers from what appears to be colic and we have been giving him Infacol which has really helped and changed his formula.

I'd like to ask mums at what age did their babies start sleeping earlier in the evening and sleeping through.

Obviously he is still only ickle but me and my hubby are exhausted as he doesn't normally fall asleep unless one of us is holding him or rocking him. He doesn't like to be left alone in his moses basket.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[lauramumof2]

I sympathise with you, I have a reluctant sleeper. It gets gradually better. Joe is 10 months and at 6 weeks I was still sleeping in the living room with him but I think once we hit the 8-10 weeks it improved. I always put him in he cot. Im not critising you for holding him to sleep because I would have cut my arm off for a nights sleep at that stage but try letting him sleep in his cot (or moses basket in the cot). I would lie him on my top I was wearing that day so my smell would be near him. It was hit and miss. No two days were the same and we had the colic problem too. I used colocynth crystals (homeopathic remedy). You cant give to much of it but it makes them fart. I know this because i tried it too.

Good luck, it will get better. Please believe that.

 

[kellie80]

It should start getting easier soon! With mine it happend gradully, they went to similar to what you have explained to sleeping through by about 3 months. Now Nathans sleeping about 10pm-8am at least at 18 weeks.

 

[Emmylou]

Awwww he's gorgeous! Love that pic in your sig

L started sleeping through a couple of weeks ago, has about one night a week where she wakes in the night once for a quick drink.

My advice is to make the difference obvious to him between day & night, so set a bedtime routine. I took some good advice to start it late, and bring it earlier, so I started it at 10pm, and now we are at 8.30 (bring the start time forward 1/2 hour each week).

We wash her hair over the sink at the start of the routine, then either top&tail or bath depending on whether its bath night, then into the nursery (or your room) nice clean nappy & change into babygro. Have the blind down/ curtains closed and keep the lighting low - don't play with him either, cos you want to keep him calm not wound up and excited. Feed baby in the same room, then put him down to sleep. I found it was hard for the first few nights, but L soon clicked on to what was happening. So much so that within a week she was sleeping through from 10.30 to 6.30, this has now stretched to 9.30 to 7.30

Try to let him settle himself too, as this means if he does wake in the night & he's not hungry he won't need you to get him back to sleep.

Also you'll find that you'll find ways to settle him whilst he is going to sleep - this was hard with L, I thought routine wasn't working & was ready to give up but we kept going and its the best thing we've done.

Sometime L just wanted to see us, so we'd sit on the bed next to her so she could see us, or we'd stroke her face or hair to calm her if she was moaning, or just keep a hand on her tummy (as she liked to fall asleep with her tummy pressed to mine so this mimicked that).

Good Luck hun......aldo bear in mind 'sleeping though' at his age is about 5-6 hours as he'll still need to feed often

 

[little*red]

Evie started sleeping throught he night (11pm -7.30am) from about 4 weeks, but we are extremely lucky with her and i think its quite rare for babies to sleep through that early but im not so sure .
She had colic too and we used infacol but we found that using colief worked so much better. It is expensive at £10 for 7ml but you only need to use it until they are 3 months which is usually when colic subsides.
Also can i say that you really need to get them knowing the different between night and day feeds i.e at night feed keep it 'boring, the lighting very low, dont make eye contact, dont speak and have no distraction in the room (music on, tv etc) i found this helped as Evie soon realised that when its dark she should be more sleepy.
hope that helps

 

[lauramumof2]

dont make eye contact, dont speak and have no distraction in the room (music on, tv etc) i found this helped as Evie soon realised that when its dark she should be more sleepy.
hope that helps

They are clever buggers though, they pick this time to smile and laugh and its extra hard not to smile back.

 

[sarah113]

Haydens been sleeping through since he was 5 weeks

 

[*saulino*]

Hi

Kiara didnt sleep through till a year old .
Katrina

 

[Sammystar]

It varies.
Molly was nine weeks, Aimee was five months, Sam still wakes up once at about 2-3am but only for his dummy, not to feed.
Routine is the key. Start an evening routine and stick to it night after night. It'll sink in with time!

Good luck!

 

[Gemma & Jake]

For the first 8 weeks or so Jake hardly slept at night so I know what it is like but it does get better. Gradually Jake started sleeping for longer and I think he was about 4 months old when he first slept through although he was put to bed quite late. His bed time gradually got earlier and earlier and since he was 4 1/2 months old he has been going bed about 7pm and sleeping through until about 6-7am. I would recommend putting your LO in his cot to fall asleep on his own if you don't already rather than rocking him to sleep and then putting him down. It might be a bit early to start doing this yet as I started doing it when Jake was about 4 months old once he'd got over his colic. We used infacol and it worked very well. Does your LO have a dummy? I'm not saying that you should use one if you don't want to but I found that it really helped to settle Jake.

 

[Strangeness]

Aaron was sleeping through from 5 weeks old and he would go to sleep by himself. Then he turned 7 months and started standing up and wouldn't sleep through, he would just stand and cry. He did this for months and still does it now sometimes but he just gets out of bed now and gets in with us. Even now I have to sit him on my lap for him to sleep! He doesn't need to be cuddled but he just sits and will then suddenly drop off. Someday he will go to bed by himself

 

[Dinski]

Thanks for all your replies, they were really helpful . LO actually slept last night from 10pm and then he woke for a feed at 1am, but I did it in the dark and he went right back to sleep . He only woke up again at around 6.30am so me and hubby managed to get some sleep and I think he is slowly going to sleep a little early. I do give him a dummy and he takes it sometimes, other times he spits it out. I also put a piece of my clothing or hubbys in his moses basket for the past few weeks and this has seemed to help too.

 

[budge]

well when rachael was around 6 weeks old she slept through the night for a few days maybe a week or so. then she hasn't done it again EVER

 

[Nicky_Jones]

Ellie started sleeping trhough from 7:30 - 7:30 with a dreamfeed at 11:30 at just under 8 weeks. She was going from 7:30 - 7:30 without a dream feed at 4months. However from 6 months she has only managed to sleep through about 7 or 8 times and she is now 10months old.

Good luck. I agree with everything that has been said. During the day I always played and stimulated Ellie after every feed. I also used to wake her for feeds every 3 hours and wouldn't let her sleep past that feeding routine, to try and make sure she slept well at night. Not everybody agrees with that but it did work for us.

 

[Nicky_Jones]

Oh and we established 7:30pm as bedtime right from Day 1. After that time we didn't talk to her or make eye contact. Tried to avoid taking her out of her room, and kept the lights of in her room (just used the light from the corridor etc). I also didn't let her sleep during the day after 6pm, to try and help make sure she went down after her 7:30pm feed. I always got her up at 7:30am (no matter how bad a night she had had).

 

[amylou86]

my daughter is nearly 2weeks old. is it too early to start a routine ? and where would i begin??
im new to all this!!!

 

[Sarah&Braydon]

Braydon is 20 months old and we have done 4 nites so far this is the longest he has ever slept thro for so fully expect him to wake tonite

 

[cloud9]

Dylan hasn'ty yet slept through the night..He does know the difference between night and day...we do make differneces but aren't strict..I watch TV in the bedroom at night when i feed him it makes it less lonley although i do have to turn it off as he can end up straining his head trying to watch it rather than going to sleep.

He won't do dream feeds so just let hi wake when he wants for food. I find it too harsh no eye contact no talking. we have b/side light on and i don't take him downstairs at night, but do talk to him and give him eye contact just don't try and get him so excited talk to him clamly and quietly ...He is improving himself except last night but think he is having a growth spurt cz he woke up hungry..I want him to develop at his pace not mine although i am soo looking forward to him sleeping through