What do you class as 'sleeping through the night'?!

[Riri85]

Hi all,
This is my first post on here but I am often on reading other posts for reassurance and something keeps niggling me...
What do you class as sleeping through the night?
Some mums netters class it as sleeping for a few hours then waking for a feed and going back down for another few, others class it as a 6 hour stretch,others 8 hours!
I have friends who say their babies 'sleep through' and it's making me feel inferior!
My LO sleeps from 7 until 11.30 when we wake her for a feed-she then goes back down until somewhere between 3 & 5 but has recently gotten into the habit of being wide awake after that feed and singing in her cot!
What are your thoughts?

[Riri85]

Any opinions/reassurance would be most welcome (please!)??

[NoLongerJustAShopGirl]

Sounds perfectly normal to me... (but I never woke mine for a feed before I went to bed, just took the middle of the night hit for a few weeks.)

[Riri85]

Thank you Horace!
My classification would also be sleeping right through without waking for a feed (which my LO doesn't do yet)
There just seems to be a lot of competition from other mums at baby group who love to drop in that their baby sleeps right through and well meaning strangers who's conversation always includes 'is she sleeping through the night yet?' It makes me want to tell them to bog off!

[museumum]

depends on the age of the LO. If somebody told me a very small baby was 'sleeping through' i'd imagine it was maybe five hours or a couple of feeds... if somebody says a three year old is sleeping through i imagine 7pm to 7am or similar.

[LillyEvans]

Mine has slept from approx 11pm-6am most nights since she was 6 or 7 weeks. I count that as sleeping through the night but I'd like it if she went to sleep before 11pm.

[Lazymummy2014]

We were warned about this at out nct classes! Lots of different definitions so you end up feeling shit. Personally I think sleeping through means at least seven hours overnight with no feeds, no settling, nothing. They are in their bed, you are in yours, you say hello in the morning! But I got really lucky with my dd, she was doing this at 8 weeks and was twelve hours overnight by six months.

I'm under no illusions that her sleep has anything to do with me though! (Maybe genetics, my family were all sleepy babies according to my mum.) Don't worry about what other people say their babies are doing. Firstly, all babies are different. Secondly, they might not be being completely truthful! My DH was so proud of dd he always used to add an extra hour to his sleep related boasts!

[Woodenheart]

My DD is 20 months - 1 night she slept 11pm-5am.

I can only imagine what a full night is.

1 bloody night in 20 months

Sorry, I wanted a moan, I'm exhausted.

[Iamyourmil]

5 hours.

[mewkins]

I think the official definition is something like 6 hours (eg missing a fees if they feed every three hours). Really what we want them do to is sleep 12 hours solid though! Most don't get to that stage without being weaned (three meals plus snacks) and beyond.

[BlueberryWafer]

I class my 19mo as having "slept through" when he goes from 8pm til 6am so as you can imagine, when friends with babies were saying theirs "slept through" at 6 weeks (their definition of sleeping through being midnight to 4am...) I felt rather inferior! Only when I realised they were talking utter crap did I feel much better with my non sleeping, breast guzzling monster

[JoandMax]

When you put them to bed and they sleep or don't need anything until morning!

DS1 was 2, DS2 is 4.9 and still waiting........ Woodenheart, you have my sympathy!

[skitter]

I also consider sleeping through the night to be putting the baby to bed at their bedtime and them not waking me up until morning! Ds did this at around 16 months. I guess I'd probably still think of it as sleeping through if they slept from their dream feed to morning...Ds did this twice around 12 weeks but then reverted to two feeds between 7pm and 7am until he was well over 6 months. I knew very few babies who slept through consistently before 1 year old when ds was tiny...the good sleepers had bad patches (eg they didn't need to feed but spat their dummy out five times a night and had to have it out back, or got sick and didn't get their good sleep habits back easily, or slept through from 7pm to 4am and were then up for the day) and most people I knew were still feeding at night well after 6 months. I know some people consider an unbroken stretch of six hours to be 'sleeping through' but to me the crucial thing was if my sleep was being disturbed. Don't feel inferior...each child is different and those who sleep well now may well be challenging when they're older (like my niece, who slept through at 7 weeks but last week got up twice a night through the whole week, aged four).

[Artandco]

11pm-7/8am is sleeping through here for babies. When small we would feed, change nappy and in pjs then settle to sleep in living room with us. Around 11pm would wake them gently and feed, then take to bedroom with us. If they slept until morning from then that's sleeping through for us, as we haven't had our sleep disturbed.

Here they slept 11-7/8am from 8-10weeks.

In own cot at 9pm, waking 8/9am from about 8 months ( kept in downstairs first routine until then)

[Devilforasideboard]

Depends how old they are. There are charts on the interweb if you search around a bit. I think it's 5 hours when they're tiny then gradually increases. I don't think DS got that particular memo but reliably does 10-12 hours straight now at 18m.

[butterfly86]

According to hv etc it's a stretch of 5 hours or if you're doing a late feed then lo sleeps til morning, I think sleeping through the night is bedtime until morning 7-7 for example dd is 6 months and sleeps through 7 until 6/7 although the last few mornings it's been 5.30

[tinklykeys]

Sigh, my dd is 25months, last night she woke 4 times. I'd take anybody's definition to be honest! But I do agree that it depends on age. For a small baby I'd class it as being asleep most of the time I am... 11-6 for example. Fir an older baby no wake ups till morning. We are nowhere near that though!!

[TarkaTheOtter]

Both of mine slept 7-7 from 3 months... then woke 2 hrly for the next 6 months. Neither slept through 7-7 again until 1yr (ds) or 2yrs (dd). It's not a race, even those with brilliant sleeping babies can find their toddler starts waking from nightmares or their child decides 4am is a good time to get up.

Are you sure they are bragging though? Not just feeling relieved/making conversation? Even at my most sleep deprived I was pleased for people whose babies were sleeping - provided they didn't insinuate that it was down to their superior parenting.

[Riri85]

Thanks for the replies everyone!
Good to know that seems normal! Not sure if the other mums are bragging or not! It's possible though-some people do like to make it a competition!
It wouldn't be quite so bad if LO hadn't started staying awake for about an hour after being fed in the middle of the night!

[Szeli]

I refer to my ds as sleeping thru from 7 weeks as this is when he dropped his night feeds so went to bed with us at 11 and got up at 7. Within a few weeks this was 9-7 then 9-9 well before 6 months

[Riri85]

Wow Szeli! Am getting a touch of the green eyed monster again!??

[Riri85]

It just goes to show all babies are different and some of us get lucky!

[DownstairsMixUp]

I'd say five hours when they are tiny. Ds2 was waking three times in the night not long ago now he is four months old it's like a switch has flicked (touch wood ) he now has a feed at 10pm then wakes naturally around 7 am though he eats tons in the day. At least six bottles of milk which means less time to do things in the day but a good night's sleep all the same. My first ds was an angel slept 12 hours from 2 months still a great sleeper at 5 years old :)

[BMO]

"Sleeping through" is 10+ hours without disturbing you imo.

If someone told me their baby was "sleeping through" for 6 hours I'd laugh.