When did your babies sleep through the night?

[Poniesandpigs]

My 1yo is still waking at 12am and between 4am-5am. Surely it should have stopped by now?

What can I do to encourage sleep through, I’m so fed up of broken sleep? We already do tea and bath, big bottle of milk before bed, blackout curtains etc. Has 2 naps/day. Nothing makes any difference!

The only way to get him back to sleep is a bottle of milk, how can I break this habit without hours of screaming?

DS slept through from 10pm-6am when he was six weeks but then went through a phase at about 18 months when he started waking up and wanted a bottle of milk. I think he was hungry as he was a rubbish eater at that age. I gave him the milk because he always went straight back to sleep and I am lazy so I got to go back to sleep too. Hopefully it's just a phase.

You don't want to know ... primary school age

Both mine started sleeping through at 10 months when I stopped breastfeeding. Stop offering a bottle, transition with a quick cuddle and lay them back down. They might cry at first but it won’t do them any harm, and you should notice an improvement within a week.

Mine’s three and she sleeps through about fifty percent of the time. She was about two before she started sleeping through at all

18 months, and he had an enormous sleep regression before it clicked.

At 1 year old my youngest was still waking every 40 minutes without fail and nothing made any difference.
You can try things but some kids just don’t sleep through until they are older. Is it that bad if you have to make a bottle of milk and he falls asleep again quickly? Seems easier overall than coping with the screaming

Thanks all! My other 2 DC went to sleep without problems so this is new to me.

I just grab the milk because it’s easier too @Hoglet70 as he does generally go back to sleep within about 30mins but it’s really killing me! It takes me a while to get back to sleep myself so I’m usually up an hour or so then up for the day at 5 ish.

I work 14 hour shifts (usually until 9pm so 10pm by the time I get home and settled) 3 days a week and I'm like a walking zombie. I’ve also been really unwell and just need to rest but can’t.

I’ve tried putting him back down but he gets more and more awake, sitting up and swinging off the sides of the cot or throwing the dummy off the side repeatedly then crying for it!

I am unable to let him cry for any length of time as I also have a 2yo DD who would be a nightmare if she was woken by him, I would never get her back down 😄

1ds 5 years!
2 ds 6 weeks

A few weeks or so

When we sleep trained.

9 weeks but we obviously have periods of waking up, teething, hungry, poorly. He is 5 now and came in at 2am wanting a cuddle! Lol

About 10 years old... got better for a few years and now a mid teen with horrible insomnia 😑

Ds1 - 3ish maybe. I can't remember.
DS2 -9.

Ds1 slept through 9 until 6 religiously by 6 weeks. DS2? about 5. We gave up trying at 1yo and he just got in with us when he woke up for an easy life

DS 1 - about 3
DD1 - about 3 months
DS2 - from the start
DD2 - about 4

And now the are all teens or nearing teens, I sleep badly and never past 7.

Long after they were babies, but it comes in waves - so they'd get the hang of it, then colds/teething/nightmares would set us back again for a few weeks

Any chance DC has teething pain waking them up? Sometimes if we're going through a new phase of bad sleep the doctor suggested try them with a dose of Calpol before bed - if it works, shows they were possibly in pain but too young to communicate it. If no difference, don't offer it again. You can't do it too regularly, like every night! but it's not unsafe eg a few times a year

I had one at 10 months and one at 7 years old.

Both reliably once at Primary. Poor DS1 (autistic it turns out) was waking five times a night even aged 9 but had said nothing because he thought it was normal and he didn’t want to disturb us. We’ve got it down to waking once or twice (he’s 11) and he won’t disturb us unless he’s unwell.

It was some time ago but I think from about three months I'd do sleepy feed at about 11pm then they were good til morning (though for my first born morning was about 5.30am when he was ready to go - still is an early riser at age 20)! Definitely by six months and I'd dropped the 11pm feed by then.

There will be a couple of nights of crying but just night wean him. Both times I did this it took just 3 nights (with progressively less crying - the last night was only 5 mins) to get them sleeping 12 hours 7-7.

Back in the 80s we could be weaning at 3-4 mths and mine slept all night from then onwards (apart from teething/sickness).

DD1 age 4
DD2 around age 3

DC1 7 months
DC2 6 months
DC3 9 months

the youngest two are 1 and 2 and do occasionally wake up during night with illness/teeth etc. The youngest will sometimes stir a bit but I don’t get up straight away to give him a chance to settle himself. DC1 is a teenager and you couldn’t wake him up once he is asleep.

Have you tried reducing the amount in the bottle over time. If they are waking up for milk they could be in habit of being hungry.

Thankyou all! I’ll try giving him a smaller milk and some calpol. He already co sleeps. It’s possible he’s teething- he has loads of teeth. Hes never slept since day one though!

Is there a way to night wean without cry it out?

Sorry my ds 2 didn’t consistently until he was about 3.
ds 1 did slightly better. We sleep trained him age 2 (broadly let him cry it out) and it works and it was the best thing we eve did. Now aged 10 he sleeps better than any of the rest of us.