Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

At what age did your baby/ child regularly sleep through the night?

139 replies

Dellspoem · 18/04/2025 18:47

I have a 33 month old and an 8 month old. I’m after a cross section of answers as I’m going crazy with exhaustion!!

DD is almost 3 and has never slept through regularly. We have had a handful of nights where she’s slept 12am-5am.

Is this normal or am I being unreasonable to expect her to sleep through the night?

OP posts:
Devonmaid1844 · 18/04/2025 19:22

DS was 4.5 and in reception for about 6 months before regularly sleeping through. DD is about to turn 3 and still waiting

nonmerci99 · 18/04/2025 19:21

My boys, around 6 months for the first and maybe 8 months for the second. My daughter, 16 months.

Fupoffyagrasshole · 18/04/2025 19:21

Since around 1 year old. We sleep trained both kids at 7months though.

had a few hiccups along the way with the now 4 year old - some bad phases

but passed and it’s very rare she’d ever wake in the night now

SouthLondonMum22 · 18/04/2025 19:20

8 weeks
6 weeks
6 weeks

All 12 hours by then, 7-7. Not popular but we followed a mixture of GF and Baby Whisperer. Worked beautifully every single time.

Motherknowsrest · 18/04/2025 19:19

Oldest child, 3 months old. 12 hours a night. It was weird.

Younger child was about 5 months. Then stopped sleeping at 2yrs old and didn't really sleep until 9. Only left my bed at 14yrs old.

Ragwort · 18/04/2025 19:19

My DS slept from 7pm-7am from the day we came back from hospital, he would have one very quick feed around 2am (went straight back to sleep) and dropped that at 8 months. I appreciate it's not popular these days but we followed a strict GF routine and it worked very well, DS has always been an excellent sleeper. It may have been the routine, it may have been luck ... who knows. I never had a second baby so can't comment!

Purpleturtle43 · 18/04/2025 19:18

My kids were 6 months, 2 yrs and 3 yrs. All born within 4 years of each other so it was a tiring time!

HerNameIsDebbie · 18/04/2025 19:18

5 years old and 6 months old.
DS1 still doesn't really, DS2 always has.
Unfortunately it's just how they're made.

converseandjeans · 18/04/2025 19:16

6 weeks for both - but I worked really hard to achieve that by doing Gina Ford routine. No crying or leaving them upset was involved. I think you will get very mixed replies to this. Lots of people don’t like the idea of any sort of routine & prefer to go with the flow.

MaltipooMama · 18/04/2025 19:16

My little boy is 16 months and has reliably slept through from 7pm until 6-7am from around 6 months (excluding exceptions when he’s been teething or poorly!)

Believeitornot · 18/04/2025 19:15

Probably once they started school. But the stretches of sleep got longer.

NW3Lady · 18/04/2025 19:15

14 months

TheCurious0range · 18/04/2025 19:13

3 when we moved him from a toddler bed into a full size single. He's quite a fidgety sleeper so I'm guessing needed the extra space

ShodAndShadySenators · 18/04/2025 19:13

Mine was nine weeks, but I did initially wake him up to feed him in the night. The health visitor was horrified that I woke him, but it was very uncomfortable for me if I didn't feed him. So I left him to sleep and pumped instead.

He has slept through every night since, pretty much.

I'm sorry that yours is not being obliging, it very much is luck of the draw...

AprilBunny · 18/04/2025 19:12

I have 3 DC, they slept a shortish night at 8 weeks eg. 10-5 ish. This gradually got longer and they slept 12 hours at 12 weeks and woke up about once or twice a year if they were ill or teething etc.
I was really lucky sleep wise.

UpAnDownMama463 · 18/04/2025 19:12

My DS slept 8 hours a night between 7 and 9 weeks old.

Never replicated after that.

homeedmam · 18/04/2025 19:11

First one was about 3, but then I put more effort into good sleep with the next two and they were more like 9-12 months.

Parker231 · 18/04/2025 19:11

DT’s occasionally from eight weeks and then we used a sleep consultant at five months. They then slept through apart odd nights when they were unwell.

Blingismything · 18/04/2025 19:09

14 months for both of mine, when they started walking.

Didimum · 18/04/2025 19:09

You will find as many answers as there are children. Try a sleep consultant?

FlyingPandas · 18/04/2025 19:09

DC1 & 2 - c. 9 weeks.
DC3 - around 7m.

One ND child, two NT.

As with all things, the 'sleeping through' aspect of childhood will be a mix of nature, nurture and sheer luck.

But that said, I also think that certain parenting choices will have a big impact.

So for example if you refuse to even consider any form of sleep training, ever, you're never going to know whether sleep training might have had a positive impact on a child's sleep, for example.

If you always feed/rock/cuddle a child to sleep, you're never going to know whether things might have been different if you had tried an alternative path to feeding/rocking/cuddling to sleep.

And so on.

There are many factors influencing how well a child sleeps but it is absolutely not and never will be just 'the luck of the draw'.

EastCoastExile · 18/04/2025 19:01

DS1 10 weeks, DS2 18 months, DS3 3.5 years, DD1 10 months?, DD2 10 months?, DD3 3 years, DD4 6 months

ACynicalDad · 18/04/2025 19:00

6 weeks and 6 months, both of which later had regressions that were met with sleep training. It was 2 bad nights each and they then slept beautifully and they had parents that were well rested. I have no regrets.

Lookingforwardto2025 · 18/04/2025 19:00

DS was 5. He almost broke us but we did survive and now it feels like a distant memory.

Olinguita · 18/04/2025 19:00

Fairly reliably from about 22 months, but absolutely appalling sleeper up until then. We tried to sleep train and it didn't work. ds is 3.5 now and will usually wake up once or twice a night, but goes back to sleep very easily so it doesn't really bother me.