When Did Your Baby (Really) Sleep Through the Night?

My oldest was 5 weeks -- I finally fed him cereal with his last night time bottle. I needed sleep.
My daughter was 2 weeks. I gave her cereal at night as well. I needed to sleep. My husband was away at his father's funeral and I had a 2.5 year old to chase all day. That teaspoon of cereal was my life saver!
LBC

Hi, M.:
Every baby is different.
Keep doing what you are doing.
Doc's can give advice, but they don't have to wake up
and do anything themselves. Anyway, the Doc maybe
thinking you are complaining.
Having a baby is a sacrifice to a mother and father's life style.
Do what you think best, and everything will work out. You won't be perfect, but you will be loving.
Good luck.
D.

It sounds like he's legitimately hungry at night. As long as it's not a big deal to you, just keep doing what you're doing. Once he's older and eating more table foods and drinking whole milk, I'm sure you'll find his night feedings will stop. Babies should be getting the bulk of their calories and nutrition from breastmilk or formula for the first year.

My oldest is 4.5 and *still* doesn't sleep through the night! My almost-3 year old only wakes to go pee, and that's rare. My 11 week old wakes 1-3 times to nurse, where her sisters were up every 2 hours to nurse till they were weaned.

Every baby is different. Do what works for you :o)

My son was kind of a rare baby. He was sleeping 8 hours straight through the night, by 8 weeks. By 12 weeks he could go 10-12 hours. I was concerned he wasn't eating enough, but the pediatrician said the amount he was getting in the day, and his weight gain was good enough. He was formula fed, if it matters. At 20 months, he still sleeps through the night. Now, my son has always had enough during the day. If your baby isn't getting enough during he day and you are fine with waking, I don't see what the problem is.

My babe's were all about 7 weeks old when they slept through the night. At 7 weeks, I considered 6 or 7 hours sleeping through. By 8 months they slept 12 hours through the night. They all have since except for the occasional road bump and hiccups along the way from illness, or routine changes or something like that. I let them eat/feed as much as they want before bed and they were always satisfied through the night.

8-1/2 months! He'll be 10 months thus weekend and is off the charts for height & weight. I also felt he needed it as his growth was so rapid (he has 4" on his big sister at the same age!). I started forcing a few more times to nurse during the day and my hubby started giving him a before bed "snack" of yogurt or fruit & cereal...took about a week to sleep train him and now his best nursings are before nap & bed. Good luck!

I fed my boy through the night until he was 2. He is 3 and has NEVER slept through the night. They are all different, our wonderful children!

My opinion is that every baby is different and a hungry baby isn't going to sleep.

My just-turned-one year old also prefers to nurse at night and not much during the day. In the last week, he finally started to sleep one 6-hour stretch at night and that's still not consistent (I only got a 4-hour stretch last night). Like your baby, he nurses and goes right back to sleep so it's not as if he wants to be up playing, he wakes up hungry. On a good night, he's up twice to eat (usually around midnight and then sometime between 4 and 6AM). And as I said, he's one (today actually).

I've tried everything: feeding him more solids during the day, putting some cereal in a bottle of breastmilk before bed, giving a bottle of formula instead of breastmilk before bed, letting him cry, not letting him cry, sleeping with me, sleeping in his crib. None of it made any difference. This is just who he is - a hungry baby who needs to nurse at night.

I really think it is a baby personality thing, because my 1st son slept through the night at 3 months (he would have wake-ups when he was teething or sick, but in general slept through starting early). I know now that I was just lucky the 1st time around!

We've never had bedtime issues, or let either of our children CIO. In fact, we've let them both sleep with us until they were ready not to. So I know when they are awake during the night, even if they go right back to sleep. I weaned my oldest daughter at 1 yr, but she continued to sleep with us until just recently (she just turned 4)- but it was the easiest transition imaginable (not what i'd expected at all). She still woke up most nights until she was around 3. My youngest is 18 mos and still night nursing, and she still wakes up 1 or 2 times a night. I'm confident she'll outgrow this when she's ready, so am just going with it for now. Every baby is different, i think you just need to follow his lead as much as you can, and try to remember that it won't last forever.

Hi M., I've got three, all three very different sleep habits

#1 did not officially sleep through the night (6 hrs or more) until a year old

#2 Slept through the night from the get-go, had to actually wake him up for feedings until he was 5 or 6 months old

#3 Starting sleeping consistently through the night roughly 6 months

But even after they 'slept through the night', they ALL had various sleep strike phases, teething, growth spurts....and then well past infancy and into childhood, they're've been sleep disturbances as well.

I have to say, now they're teenagers, they all have age adjusted sleep habits similar to what they had as babies. You get what you get, I think!

(All three of them were nursed, I did everything more or less the same for all three, and I only have hindsight to show me that what works for ONE baby, may not work for another, even babies in the same family!)

Hope you get some rest soon!

:)

There is no right answer here, but let me put it the way that Dr. Ferber does. Let's say you are in a sleep experiment where they wake you up at 2 to eat a slice of pizza. This goes on for a week and then it stops. You are going to wake up at 2 the next night for that piece of pizza. You have been trained to eat pizza at 2. Same thing with the baby. A couple nights of waking up at 2 and not eating pizza and you will go back to sleeping through the night and eating your food during the day. Same thing with the baby. She'll eat during the day (and not let herself be distracted) if she's hungry and knows that she's not eating at night. But it takes a couple of days for the body to make that switch.

We dropped night nursing (I mean 2 am, not 5 am) by 4 months. He ate during the day, and then early morning (about 5 or so) and went back to sleep. I don't think there is really a wrong way to do it, just depends on what you want. Decide what you want (to sleep, to feed on demand) and then be willing to accept the consequences of that decision (have to CIO, don't get any sleep). Good luck!

My first daughter slept 9 hours at 9 weeks. My second is 6 months and most nights goes 8 hours but just got consistent when we started solids.

My suggestions would be:
-Make sure he's nursing before you feed him solids. Most of his nutrition should be coming from breastmilk and feeding him solids when he's really hungry may turn off his hunger cues so he doesn't want the milk after/later.
-Babies who aren't getting enough during the day wake more at night. This is the problem you're having, so I would think the reciprocal would also be true. If you cut out one of his night feedings he may nurse more during the day. If you have help at night, try having someone else go in to try to put him back to sleep. If he sees/smells you he'll probably want to feed and get upset if you don't.
-You can also mix expressed milk with his food to get more in him. Mix the milk with pureed fruits, veggies, or whatever else you give him and if needed, re-thicken it with rice, oatmeal or barley cereal.

I'm suddenly feeling very lucky. We have had issues with our children from time to time, but sleep has never been one of them. My first was 12 weeks old and slept from 10pm-9am, and does this still today. My second was closer to about 16 weeks old, and he slept from 9pm-8am. I am probably the minority, and I am blessed. They are 5 and almost 3 now.

At 8 months, your baby is likely not hungry. In need of some tlc maybe, but try to sooth him with other things, patting the back, getting him on his belly (yes, that's plenty old enough for belly sleeping). You need to get him eating during the day, change the schedule around somehow and allow your nights to get easier. At 8 months, he can go 6-8 hours without eating.

My son didn't sleep through the night until 18 months (I wasn't able to nurse him past 10 months). My daughter started to sleep through the night at ~1 year and I nursed her until a little past 1 year.

My oldest who is now 6 years old did not sleep through the night until the night before I returned to work form Maternity leave. He was almost six month old. I was so happy because I had no idea how I was going to work and be up all night.
My youngest who is now 4 was alway a very good sleeper. When he was a newborn I remember just picking hm up and he would stop crying as if my touch or the sound of my voice comforted him. He did not do this with any other family member. Even now he is more of a mommies' boy.lol I felt so special.

None of my 3 children even began sleeping through the night until I nightweaned them at about 18 months (my third was nightweaned at about 24 months). The first two started sleeping through shortly thereafter, my 2.1yo is still often up several times through the night, but he has slept through twice this week (I'm counting waking up at a little before 6 for a nurse and a snuggle and going back to sleep for another hour or so sleeping through) I honestly believe that if an 8mo is still waking up wanting to nurse overnight, it's because they need to. I have to say, I also believe in on demand nursing, and extended nursing (they've all weaned at 36-39 months), and have coslept with all of my children, transitioning them out of my bed sometime between 2 and 3 years old. I know that this is not for everyone, but it works for me. Babies who nurse tend to start sleeping through later than babies who don't. It's not unusual to have them still nursing at night up to a year and beyond. Doctors are experts in medicine, not experts in parenting, no matter how much parenting advice they may give. And remember -- You know your baby better than anyone, including his doctor -- if he seems hungry to you, he probably is.

My daughter was still waking to feed during the night at 8 months old. She didn't sleep through the night until 18 months old. When she woke and wanted to nurse, I would get up and nurse her. I agree that a hungry baby is not going to sleep. I don't think you are doing anything to cause this, some babies just need to nurse during the night. And who are we to say when that should end? Every baby is different and has different needs. You are being a good mother and meeting your baby's needs. Keep up the good job!

I nightweaned at around 6 months, and did CIO at 8 months, because my son was relying on me as his "habit" in order to be able to sleep, and nothing else we tried worked.

That being said, we've had several regressions (usually after a weekend trip away from home, or after an illness--if he's sick, I get him).

He's currently 27m, and he wakes up (maybe from dreams, I think?), and if he's not sick, I go in and hug him and tell I love him, that he's safe, and that it's time for sleeping and that Momma is going to go back to sleep. Then, I go back to bed..... Most nights, despite his protests when I'm in the room, he does go back to sleep with little to no vocal resistance. Occasionally, though, it turns into "Momma I'm scared; Momma I have a poopy diaper (no he doesn't! LOL); Momma I cant find my Charlie Mouse; etc.).... For these, I might get up 1 more time and repeat that it's sleepy time/time to sleep & Momma is going back to sleep.... Then, I don't go back into his room until it's time to get up (or a reasonable facsimile---if he is still fussing at 6 or 6:15, and he normally gets up at 6:45, I'll go get him and we'll start the day).

It's not a perfect solution, but it's better than him sleeping with us (he is not a fun co-sleeper!), or me rocking him in the rocking chair, or standing next to his crib for an hour till he falls asleep.....

I do dread the transition to a toddler bed, because I'm afraid we're going to have lots of transition problems with that......... :)

My first slept through the night at 12 weeks -- 11 hours straight. My second was up nursing 2-3 times a night until 9 MONTHS when I finally did CIO and dropped 1 nursing session at a time. I think it is a baby thing and has nothing to do with whether you are nursing or not. Each baby is an individual -- my daughter has always eaten less and slept longer than her little brother. She was forced to drop her morning nap by her daycare provider at 17 mos -- she would have kept 2 naps longer. My son dropped his on his own at 12 mos. He is currently trying to drop napping altogether at 2 years, 2 mos and she is still napping 2 hours a day in the afternoon at 3.5 years. I read Weissbluth and the book said kiddos can be expected to night wake for feeding until at least 9 mos (that is why we did the 9 mo cut-off).

Good luck!

My first started sleeping through the night VERY early (too early, really!)--about 4 or 5 mos.
My 2nd, however, is 3.5 yrs now & still doesn't always sleep through the night.
They're both just very, very different kids. My first was very independent & my 2nd is extremely "High Need".
Dr. Sear's "Nighttime Parenting" is a fantastic book! It might make you feel better about things & give you some good tips.
Ultimately, I think your children will sleep through the night when they are ready to, but it's can NOT be forced. I'm sure that as far as nursing goes, (both my kids were exclusively breastfed too) that part of it may be a nutritional need that they are having filled my mid-night feedings but a lot of it is probably emotional/comfort too.
If you're comfortable with co-sleeping that would probably help considerably & you may find that he wakes up much less. Even if he doesn't YOU will! You'll notice that after a few days or a week or two that you'll be hard pressed to remember how many times (if at all!) he woke up to nurse!

Hang in there, mama! Sounds like you're doing an awesome job & are being very responsive & loving to your children's needs! Good for you!