When will baby sleep through the night?

[atvh]

At the moment my six week old baby is having a feed at about 10.30pm, another at around 2.30-3.30am and another between 6.30-7.30am. Does that sound about right for six weeks of age?

Also, when can I expect my baby to ‘sleep through’ from say 11pm to 6-7am with no feeds in between, so I can get 7-8 hours of continuous sleep and drop the middle of the night feed? I know there’s no categorical answer to this and I’m sure it’s a long way off, but I’m really missing my sleep since having a baby and would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts and experiences.

[Sparrow234]

Are you bottle feeding or breast feeding

[Drivingdownthe101]

That sounds great at that age, you have a good sleeper!
Mine slept through consistently at 3.5 years, 15 months and 17 months respectively.

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I'd say that's bang on/bordering on good for that age.

I can remember distinctly dc1 going from 11pm to 6am when we took them on holiday at about 9 weeks and it caught us off guard. But we couldn't trust it. It was off and on for a good few weeks.

Are you formula feeding? If so, trade with your husband/partner on the nights they are off work the next day, so you do the 11pm and 7am and they do the 3am.

Also, mid week, have them do the 11pm and 7am feed and you go to bed earlier /lie in around the 3am feed.

[AvocadoPrime]

I think that's quite good for 6 weeks. My first was bottle fed. He slept through pretty quickly but he was also a premie.
My 2nd is breastfed and he is 14 months and I'm still asking myself when hes going to sleep through!

[BlueEggsAndSpam]

Mine did that consistently at 6 weeks. She’s a horror at 10 months . Just to warn you as I thought it would get progressively better and was honestly quite smug about my good sleeper at around 2 months in

[SS1987]

Mine had a night feed up until 3 months stopped for a few months then had one every night from 7-12 months. Not feeding through the night doesn’t necessarily mean sleeping through though. Loads of other things can wake them so there’s no real way to answer. Ours has slept through most nights now since 18 months

[Thesearmsofmine]

How long is a piece of string?!
DS1 was 6 weeks, DS2’was 3 years and ds3 was around 6 or 7 months.

[june2007]

I think you need to stop worrying about when baby will sleep through and follow your baby. Don,t compare with others it,s just depressing and what they do may not be best for your baby.

[Tatapie]

Mine is 17 now so forget exactly but definitely by 2.5/3 mos. I could never get him to wake for a 10/11 feed so we went from 7pm to 2 then later and later until it got to 5am by about 4/5 mos when he'd have some of breakfast. Breast fed. Once he'd started doing a big stretch the health adviser suggested not leaping up as soon as he stirred which I followed and he did settle himself.

[MissingCoffeeandWine]

Sorry, but that sounds good to me. At 6 weeks mine LO was feeding every two hours, and stayed that way until this week (6 months). When we are finally getting her down 10-2, feed, 3-6, feed, up at 8 ish. Which is the best we’ve ever been. The sleeplessness is hard. Sending hugs.

Are you by yourself? My DH used to take the baba at 6am and let me sleep for two hours on a very rough night? Ebf so he couldn’t do the night wakes.

[atvh]

DS1 was 6 weeks

@Thesearmsofmine So he slept from around 11pm to 6/7am without needing a feed? I didn’t realise it was even possible as early as six weeks.

[BendingSpoons]

It's so tough adjusting to sleep changes. Mine slept through 8-7 at 11m and 15m but I know lots earlier and later. They managed 8 hours earlier, but 8-4, not 11-7.

I echo what a PP said about sleep not being linear. DC2 was really good around 10 weeks but dreadful from 5-10m. Do your best to make the most of the good nights and prioritise your sleep however needed on the bad nights.

[Selfsettling3]

That’s how often my 11 month old feeds. My 4 year old still sometimes need us during the night. It’s all normal. 7, that’s years, 7 years is when you should expect them to never need you at night unless unwell.

[FourPlasticRings]

When can you expect a baby to sleep through the night? How long is a piece of string?

My DD had just managed it, in her own bed, at about 20 months. Then bloody lockdown hit, along with massive separation anxiety, so I've no idea when it'll return to that!

[butidoloveyou]

My 1.5 year old has still never slept through. On a good night she does a 4 hour stretch. I live in hope that one night she will sleep through...

[Drivingdownthe101]

@atvh

DS1 was 6 weeks

*@Thesearmsofmine* So he slept from around 11pm to 6/7am without needing a feed? I didn’t realise it was even possible as early as six weeks.

Everything is possible. Some babies sleep through from birth and have to be woken to feed.

[Thesearmsofmine]

Yes he used to go to sleep at around 10pm and sleep through the night, wake up 6ish have a feed and go back to sleep. He is 9 now and still loves to sleep! Like I say my other two were much later, he was just a very chilled baby.

[atvh]

My LO is bottle-fed and DH does sometimes do the early morning feed, but we don’t have a lot of space so I tend to wake up anyway.

[userabcname]

Sounds pretty good! Ds1 fed every 2 hours on the dot 24/7 until he was 6 weeks old, slept through for the first time at 12mo and slept through consistently (ish) from 2yo. Ds2 slept 4 hour stints at night from birth and I felt like I'd hit the jackpot! He's 7mo now and usually has 1 feed at night, sometimes more and has slept through a couple of times.

[Drivingdownthe101]

Actually DS was a good sleeper at 6 weeks. He went to sleep at about 7ish, fed at 11 and then slept though until 5. It all went to absolute shit at around 5 months and he’s just started sleeping through (7-5.30) at 17 months.

[YouBoggleMyMind]

My DS slept through for the first time at 6m but not reliably. He also massively regressed at 18m up until he was 2. He's only started consistently sleeping through from 2 and he's 2.5 next week.

[atvh]

@Thesearmsofmine I’m very envious!

Is there a chance that my baby will continue to be a fairly good sleeper or do they all regress at some point? I actually have anxiety that things will get worse, as I’m finding it hard to function on the sleep I’m getting now.

[SomeoneElseEntirelyNow]

@atvh the sleep you're getting now is INCREDIBLE for someone with a newborn. I'm still being woken at 11pm, 3am, 5am (sometimes for the day) by DD and she's 7months. At 6 weeks she was waking every hour, at least.

Even if your baby starts sleeping through, it will likely go to pot at 4m and when teething starts. You need to readjust your expectations, drastically, or you're going to be miserable.

[Tropical2]

DS1 - from 18 months
DS2 - from 11 months
Both breastfed

[Cantbutwill]

4 months. I was extremely happy :)