Do any babies really sleep through at 6-8 weeks?

[Pyjamaramadrama]

Aibu to kind of not believe that babies sleep through the night so early? Ok of course I believe it, but how on earth?

My first slept through, I mean properly 7-7 at 6 months old. I'd have thought that was quite good and lucky. My second still doesn't sleep through at 8 months, although he dropped night feeds at 6 months, he wakes lots for comfort though.

Loads of people I know and posters on here say that their babies slept through much earlier, by say 3 months, some as early as 6 weeks!

Mil tells me my dh was a 'terrible sleeper', but in his baby record book it says he first sleep through at 2 months old, how can that be terrible?

What I'm wondering is, when people say slept through, do they mean something else, such as going straight back to sleep after night feeds, or do they mean with a dream feed at midnight? When I imagine sleeping through I think of once they will fairly reliably do 7,8,9pm-6-7am, without any night feeds.

If yours did what is your secret?

My DD was 2yrs 2months when she started sleeping through. DS was 9 weeks, EBF and smaller than average at birth (and still is), when he started sleeping 7-6/7. I worried at first as didn't really believe babies should sleep so long at that age, but at 11 months he's fine! (Although as of the last two months, wakes in the night for a feed again )

My first one slept about 11-7 from about 6 weeks, I consider that straight through as I got 8 hours uninterrupted sleep!
My second did similar times from about 10-12 weeks, so double the time it took my first but she was a reflux colicky baby so I think I was very lucky

My son did at about 9 weeks 7-7. At 12 months it's a very different story it all went tits up when he started teething and now we have accidentally ended up co sleeping

Mine both slept 7-7 with a dream feed at 10pm from 9 and 7 weeks respectively. They both dropped the dream feed around 4-5 months. They were formula fed and in a routine which I guess helped a lot and isn't something many people on here approve of!

DD1 was about 9 months before she did 8pm-7am, but she did sleep well before that. We just very gradually moved her bedtime earlier and earlier.

DD2 is 12 weeks and does 11.30pm - 7.30am most nights. I would count this as sleeping through! If she wakes in the night, it's usually around 5-6ish, but she'll generally go back down after a feed until 8.30am. We're mix feeding and I give formula for her last feed at night and any night wakings. She then bf off to sleep for 5-10 minutes.

Ds1 slept from 8-8 from 8 weeks and had 2 2 hour naps through the day as well. He was a dream baby.

DS2 slept through 9-7 from around 6 weeks.

Oh how smug I was and oh how I thought all these people who didn't have young babies who slept through we're not doing it right...

Then we had DS3 who didn't sleep through for the first time until he was 15 months old, waking 3 times a night for a feed. He is now 7 and still not the best sleeper.

At 10 days old DS1 went through the night from10pm (last feed) to 6 am the next morning, He started going from 7pm to 7am when we started solids.
Ds2 was 6 weeks old before I got him going from 11pm through to 6am and the DTs were about 5 weeks old when I got them to go from about 11-11.30pm to about 7 am.
They were all initially breast fed but I had to supplement the DT's with formula.
All 4 can sleep for England (mind you their parents are the same)

I guess I was lucky, but my Dsis's DC's were the same so I expected mine to be good sleepers.

Potty training, however, that was an absolute nightmare with all 4!

Mine is now 25 years old and only recently managed to sleep through and that isn't consistent!!! Luckily he lives away from home now so I've got the opportunity to reacquaint myself with sleep. But decades of broken nights mean I can't sleep through nowadays myself. I am awaiting an appointment with a sleep clinic to see if I can get some help. Prior to motherhood I was a 9.30 to sleep and 7.30 to wake sort of person. Such luxury is a dim distant memory or winning the lottery type fantasy now.

My girl slept from 7-6 from 8 weeks with a dream feed at 11pm and the straight through the night from 3 months from 7 -8:15 every night. It made up ( a bit) for some of the sadness at not being able to breastfeed.

Ds1 was 18 months and ds2 was 8 months old. I remember being very jealous of parents of babies who slept through.

Apparently I slept through the night from the day I came home from the hospital. It balances out though - I have chronic insomnia haven't had more than three hours sleep a night in the past five years

My 3 'slept through' at 4-5 weeks. By that I mean from 12-6, because 6 hours is a full nights sleep to me. They dropped their last feed (which I would give them around 11) by about 3 months, so would sleep for about 10 hours or so. That was the norm, apart from the odd night when they were teething or poorly.
There seems to be a common belief on mumsnet that babies sleep patterns are purely down to luck and there is nothing that parents can do to get their babies to sleep through. I disagree, and if I was having a baby now I would do the same things and expect the same results (short of actual problems such as reflex).

I had twins who no way would sleep through as newborns. If you are one of the lucky ones, count your blessings. Looking back, it was like one more thing that I had to 'get right' and to try and 'train' them for. so I read Gina ford, paid for a 'sleep consultant'. All pointless. In the end it was just something they developed into. I wish I'd just gone with the flow and accepted sometimes they just need to wake, or have me cuddle them all night. With my next I will definitely not bother comparing sleep 'performance'.

There is no actual definition for sleeping through. Some think 8pm-7am. Some 7am-7pm with one dream feed. Some 11pm - 5am, ie they dropped the night feed. So it's hard to compare.

As though he knew I'd posted on this thread, DS2 decided 3am today was a fine time to march into our room, switch on the main light and shout "Charlotte, I had a dream there was a big bad rulf (wolf) creeping into my room, so I thought I better come in here and let you check my bedroom. I'm just going to lie down in your bed for a bit" and the conversation did not stop til 6.30am when I got into the shower (didn't even need one, just wanted to escape the noise) and he fell asleep and went batshit when I woke him an hour later and explained he had to go to school.

He is possessed by anti-sleep demons. I remain convinced.

A friend who had her baby at the same time as me claimed he was sleeping through then. Turned out she meant sleeping from midnight til 5... Not my idea of a good night's sleep!

I slept 14 hours a night from early on, my DS did too. From 10 weeks but from birth only woke once maybe twice between 7-8.

He also projectile vomits a lot, as did I, so my mother tells me with a big grin on her face like its my turn for payback.

O and everyone said from 5 weeks it wouldn't last.

My 2 year old doesn't sleep through as such.. He goes to bed around 8pm and wakes at least once or twice for a cuddle then goes back to sleep. I always thought sleeping through was maybe 7/8-6/7 with no wake ups... my lo has done this maybe 3/4 times in 2 years. I'd love to know people's secrets too!!! X

Can I ask how heavy your babies were when they slept through please?

My daughter is small and I wasn't comfortable letting her go more than 3hours without a feed until she was >12weeks. Now at 7.5months she's only 14lbs and we're nowhere near sleeping through. She does 7-12ish then wakes roughly every 2hours.
I read somewhere babies don't sleep through until >15lbs?

My DD was sleeping from about 9pm through to about 6am from when she was 3 weeks old.

BUT - and it's a big but - on the sleep front, that was it. That was pretty much the only sleep she got. During the day up until she was about 8 months old she couldn't sleep for longer than about 10-15mins at a time and she did that about 3 times a day. She would just eventually give up and pass out from sheer exhaustion at about 9pm and would then sleep through till 6ish. I had people tell me a lot that I was "so lucky" to have a good sleeper...it was laughable. I would have happily coped with a couple of wakes during the night if it meant I had a baby who could have a decent nap during the day!

my daughter did a perfect 10-6 shift she went to bed at eight was woke and fed just before 10 and slept through till 6/7am she has always been a good sleeper my second was almost as good but prefered to co sleep

my third is a nightmare still wont sleep through regularly he is three years old

Ds1 was what I would class as sleeping through by about 2 months - going from 7-7, with a dreamfeed at 11. I can't remember when he dropped the dreamfeed, but I still counted it as 'sleeping through'.

Ds2 was about 14 weeks.

Both of my girls slept for 6-8 hours from four weeks. My boys were a bit longer but all four were sleeping 8-10 hours by 16 weeks. All were exclusively breast fed