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?

Yes, my first slept 7-7 from 6 weeks. Very rarely woke. I thought I was so clever and smug.
My second is nearly 7 and still NEVER bloody sleeps the whole night.
Serves me right

That's rubbish about size my DS was tiny. Aslong as their gaining weight and no concerns then just let them be.

Baby 1 formula fed, slept through 8pm- 6am at about 6 months,
Baby 2 formula fed, slept through 8pm- 6am at about 9 months,
Baby 3 fully breastfed every couple of hours through the night until 26 months then took until age 3 to sleep through 8pm- 6am. Still gets in our bed every night at around 3/4am at age 4!

Regretting commenting on this thread, DS woke up at midnight last night and I ended up sleeping in the spare room with the worlds wrigglyist, arm-windmilling baby EVER by my side

I read somewhere babies don't sleep through until >15lbs?

DS1 was 9lb 3oz and slept through at 6wks old.

DD was my smallest at 7lb 10oz and slept through from day one. She never woke for a night feed and would go 2-4 hours between feeds during the day. She had a tiny appetite and in all the time she was FF never had a bottle of more than 4-5oz. Even now she's still my best sleeper and still my smallest (4yo and 28lbs).

DS2 was 9lb and my worst sleeper.

DD1 did her first sleep through 8-8 at 8 weeks. Her timing was priceless - the night my mum dropped her in the bath whilst we had our first date night. DD2 did it from 10 weeks. I know these experiences are unusual and they are both lovers of sleep and their beds at 7 and 3. None of my mummy friends had anywhere near similar. I don't know why we it happened like that and am eternally grateful that it did. I kept very quiet about it.

DD 6lb 12oz born, formula. "Slept through" from 6 wks - 11pm til 5am. Consistently did til 10 months and then the major milestones hit and sleep went to shit.

I'm a breastfeeding counsellor, working mainly with mums and newborns, but some babies up to about 6 months.

Very, VERY few sleep through early on. Out of all the women I've worked with since starting at my current clinic 6 months ago, 2 have mentioned that the baby sleeps through at under 3 months. It's rare that a breastfed baby's sleep improves with the introduction of formula, either.

I read an article recently saying genetic predisposition is the factor that affects infant sleep the most - i.e. some babies are just designed to wake up more.

My baby didn't sleep through and still don't. Napping during the day saved me.

Mine didn't sleep through until about 7.5 months when eating a fair amount of solids.

I still felt pretty lucky as most of my NCT buddies babies were waking until 1 or 2 years!

DS1 fed and slept on a three-hourly schedule all around the clock til he was 6 weeks old, by which time I was about ready to send him back for a factory reset. I am famously rubbish without my sleep and take my hat off to parents who keep it up for months or even years. Anyway, in desperation I bought this book. He was sleeping 9pm to 9am within a fortnight, though I would have been happy with 7-8 hours and would call anything more than 7 'sleeping through'. Using the same techniques, DS2 performed the same feat at 6 weeks and DS3 at 7 weeks. They all had an afternoon nap until about 2.5yrs too. I try not to talk about it too much, as people either hate you for having an infant that sleeps well or just don't believe you, but there's no mystique if you follow the techniques and assuming no special problem factors. Now DS1&2 are teenagers they sometimes manage even longer.

I had my babies more than 10 years ago. I get the impression "sleeping through the night" is less expected these days. Within my NCT and antenatal yoga group most were going 7 or 8 Hours at 12 weeks, of course we started solids at 4 months and would drop the 11pm feed shortly after that. These were nearly all ebf babies. But "that book" was much more used.

This in comparison to my dsis who is having her babies now, she is very passive with their sleep " they will do it when they're ready" "they all sleep in the end", "I'm not going to worry about it". Where as we really stuck to a routine, but it was ok because everyone else did too and the babies did seem to sleep perhaps not better, but differently.

They dont all sleep in the end . My nephew was still waking his parents in the night every night until his late teens. His mum was still sitting outside his door for him to sleep at 10.
I dont think Mumsnet helps with sleeping. There is a undercurrent if anyone who says their baby is sleeping through at 3 months etc is lying and babies need feeding all night.

My DD1 slept 6hrs at 6 weeks, 7 at 7 etc until she got to 12 hours at 12 weeks. DD2 did the same except a week earlier for everything. So she did 12 hours at 11 weeks. This carried on for DD2, but DD1 did have a spell of waking up around the 7 month mark.

However, both girls meant that at 6 weeks, I was sleeping normally ... I normally sleep 12 - 6 (or 1 -7 actually!)

Both girls were bfed and under the average weight. With DD1 I followed the baby whisperer and cluster fed her in the evening (she was ebf). DD2 had a nightly bottle.

Bruffin why was your nephew waking his parents in his teens? Did he have additional needs?

I think there's a difference between a baby and an older child that can follow instructions.

Both DDs were almost 3 before they slept through. This coincided with them getting their last teeth through.

Yes. Surely that's an extreme situation which wouldn't have been fixed by a bit of sleep training anyway.

Ds went 8-6 from about 3/4 months, my dd was a textbook four hourly feeder but slept 7-7 from 5 weeks! She still likes her bed now seven years on. I haven't risked a third, luck has to run out....

Both of mine slept through (ie last feed when went to bed till 8am next morning) at 6-7weeks.

I have often been made to feel guilty or accused of lying for that by other parents but I'm not smug because I am sure that it's nothing special I've done, just that they were just like that. Like a PP said "genetic predisposition is the factor that affects infant sleep the most - i.e. some babies are just designed to wake up more."

Mine has just slept through sort of at 8 weeks. It is the first time so might be a one off but she has been going longer and longer.
I keep her up with me till I go to bed about ten and do a big feed in bed with her with the lights low. I have had her in a sleepyhead next to me in bed and she co sleeps ( with me in a sleeping bag) if she fusses after her middle of the night feed. I am Breast feeding and just feed on my side half a sleep. I tend to not jump on her and feed her immediately as soon as she starts fussing/ twittering and wait till she is adamant she wants a feed. I did that last night as she stirred about 1:30 so I left her and she dropped back off and went back to sleep till 9 this morning. My boobs were killing mind!
I should add my first born wasn't quite so good. He started sleeping through at 3 months but regressed at 4 months and never quite got back on track (health problems came into it though).

It's totally and utterly down to luck (unless there's an underlying medical issue of course).
My pfb slept 11-7 at 3 days old and by 6 weeks was 7-7. Still an excellent sleeper at age 7.
No idea why, nothing we did for sure she just did it. We were lucky and I soon learnt to keep my mouth shut and nod sympathetically.

DS 3 years later was what I thought was a pretty decent sleeper. By 6 weeks he was going 11-4 and by 8 months was 7-7.

We treated both DC exactly the same, so just sheer dumb luck.

Oh, and we never ever used any form of sleep training.

DD slept for 12 hours through when she was 6 weeks old. She was breast fed, slept in her own cot, and no dream feed or anything. I actually had to ask the midwife whether I should wake her to feed her, I was worried whether she was ok to go that long without a feed. She never looked back - always been a great sleeper. My Mum said we didn't know what it was to have a baby - we were supposed to be sleep-deprived for months rather than just weeks! It was sheer luck. DS was around 9 or 10 months before he consistently slept through, and that was for 7-8 hours.

He didnt hage additional needs, his mum just let him get away with it. He is very sensitive , but i still think they could have stopped it. Both dd and i are over imaginative and i was scared of the dark even in adulthood but i wouldnt have expected my mum to sit up with me when i was 10.