7mnth old NEVER slept through the night :(

[Mummysmall]

My seven month old DS has never slept through the night and I am nearly going out of my mind! He was a fairly good sleeper from birth to three months (waking only once between 2 and 4 for a feed), when he suddenly one night started waking every three hours or so. I thought this was just a blip/growth spurt and was reassured via internet that it would last a week or two, tops....they were wrong! He has continued this pattern ever since - its not getting any better (worse, in fact, last night he was awake every couple of hours) and the only thing that will settle him is boobie. He will feed (actually there's no feeding happening - he's just using me as a dummy!), for a couple of minutes and be sound asleep again.

I have half-heartedly tried leaving him to cry for a bit but I find it so upsetting and he has woken his siblings (I also have three year old twins) when crying.

Not sure what I'm looking for on here but any advice/reassurance/sympathy etc would be welcome!

[ShowOfHands]

At 7 months dd had never slept for more than 2hrs. You have my sympathy.

She did sleep through eventually. At, er, 3.

[AngryFeet]

Sorry neither of my two slept through the night until they were 2. Both were having milk in either BF or bottle form until then. When I took them away they slept through.

7 months is pretty young. A few sleep through at that age but tend to be the bottle fed ones.

[AngryFeet]

I got sleep by co-sleeping so never had trouble with disturbed sleep.

[pregnantpause]

I could have written your post! My dd now 10m STILL hasnt slept through (IMO that is, some will say that any stretch over 5 hours counts) But recently shes gone back to pre "4month growth spurt" sleeping( the spurt that lasted 5 and a half months!). Just once or twice a night. Its depressing, but I feel revived. I am, honestly, full of beans having only gotten up once last night. I mean that was practically convienient, I did need to pee, after all. So perhaps, fingers crossed, there is light....

[Wigeon]

Sympathies. I'm afraid I don't think it's that unusual for a 7 month old to have never slept through. So perhaps the first thing might be to stop beating yourself up about it. DD1 didn't sleep through at all until 8 months, and then only occasionally until several months later (now is a v good sleeper aged 3).

My DD2 sounds a bit like your DS - good sleeper as a newborn, but in the last couple of weeks (she's now 5 mths old) she has been waking up at least every 3 or 4 hours for milk and more frequently for a cuddle. Or just for a bit of a cry / rock / shussh etc even when being cuddled, which is the tiring thing because you end up being awake for ages at 3am! We have decided to just give into it (no sleep training yet) - cuddles in the evening if she won't settle, co-sleeping in the night if she is refusing to go back into her cot.

You might find the No Cry Sleep Solution a good read if you don't like leaving your DS to cry. Although I have to say it is by no means a quick fix, and I think my DD1 just slept through when she was ready, regardless of what we did. Which is why we are just responding to DD2 immediately with milk or cuddles while she is in this not-so-great sleeping phase.

[MustControlFistOfDeath]

Welcome to my world

DS is 10mo, at best he goes 4 maybe 5 hours between waking but this is not the norm. His back teeth are coming through now so he's been waking up every couple of hours again for the last few nights.

I keep telling myself that ONE DAY PLEASE GOD he will sleep through.
Preferably starting tonight.

[choceyes]

DD 14 months is still yet to sleep through then night. DS nearly 3yrs only recently started sleepign through the night. It's normal for babies to wake up at night. That's what babies do. Sorry

[Mummysmall]

Glad I'm not alone here. I think I have unreasonable expectations of him as my (bottle-fed) twins slept through by four months. He was BF exclusively for 5 months (now BF from bedtime to morning - sod making bottles in the night!) and it's been such a different experience that I feel like a novice again. Keep telling myself that babyhood is so fleeting that I should just enjoy the fact that he needs me so much but this is getting harder as time goes on.

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Ooh, I remember that feeling...!

My DD slept through for the first time at 13 months.

I actually had to do a wee bit of sleep-training at 7.5 months because DD was refusing to unlatch in order to go to sleep. She would only co-sleep if she was permanently latched on, which was a no-no for me. I concentrated on getting her to get herself off to sleep at bedtime and thankfully, it only took two days and a maximum of 22 mins of protesting on her part (and I hated having to do it, but both her and my sleep were suffering by that stage). That cut the wakings dramatically from 5 or 6 per night to 2 or 3.

My DD was also a comfort feeder - she wasn't really bothered about filling her belly, it was to resettle herself back to sleep. Eventually, at about 18 months, that stopped working so I stopped offering her the boob and DH did all night-time resettles.

At almost 21 months the sleeping through - although not an absolute banker every night - is now pretty consistent.