To ask when (or if) your baby slept through the night

[HariboFrenzy]

... and what you class as 'through the night'. Just trying to work out what is 'normal'.

Out of my NCT group I apparently have the only baby that does not sleep 7-7 or thereabouts.

My baby is 9 months and on a good night will wake at 10 or 11 for a feed and then again at 5ish, waking for the day at 6.30/7. He's breastfed (not sure if this makes a difference).

Your baby sounds normal to me. And IME, for some reason, many mothers lose all capacity to tell the truth when it comes to reporting how well their babies sleep.

My daughter slept 7 hours at 4 weeks old. Everyone in my NCT class hated me. She's 17 weeks now and sleeps from 9pm to 6am.

We're never having any more kids in case we get one that doesn't sleep next time!

DD was 9 months when I accidentally forgot to put the monitor on, shut our door and had an epic long sleep. I've no idea if she cried that night but from then on she slept through. Wasn't trying to do controlled crying - was just knackered

My eldest increased her sleep to 8h a night when she started secondary school. I have no clear memory of what the other two did. Or much else.

I remember DS sleeping for 8-10 hours through on a regular basis after he was about 8 weeks old.
I breast cluster fed him for hours beforehand though!

Around aged 6mo he began to wake up every two hours in the night for bf. He's not really been a good sleeper since he was 8 weeks old !

DS1- 8.5 months, with controlled crying.

DS2- well, he's 9.5 months, I tried controlled crying, and it didn't stop him waking up at night, although perhaps makes it less frequent. I don't feed him any more at night, though. These last 2 nights he's slept 7- 5.30, and 7-6.00. I'm not convinced this is it for the long run though.

DS1 slept 5 hours at a time until he was 18 months then slept 8-6ish. He slept a full night from 2 (7-8am).

DD and DS2 (twins) never slept more than 3 hours each until they were 13 months. DD slept less than DS2 so I was often up all night as they were awake/asleep at different times and DS1 was still waking at night then.

DD2 was a fab sleeper. She slept 7-7 from 10 weeks but I was still up with the twins during the night. I combi her though, so maybe that was a factor?

Oh and yes parents lie! My neighbour used to boast dreadfully about her two 7am-7pm children at a baby group we both went to. I didn't mention i was woken frequently by their screams..

And I lied too! By time DS was 1 and people were questioning him and why I wouldn't get on with it and let him cio, I'd say how much better it was getting and he was 'more or less sleeping through' (total bull)

My DD is almost ten months and has always been FF. From about eight weeks she would sleep about eight hours and from ten weeks for twelve hours plus. She has consistently slept a minimum of twelve hours since with about half a dozen exceptions but even then, she has very quickly settled and gone back to sleep and never woken more than once in the night.

Thanks for replies so far. As I said, the example in my OP was a good night -we get maybe 2 per week if we're lucky! A more typical night there are multiple wakings, between every 90mins -3 hours. These aren't all for feeds, although feeding can sometimes speed up returning to sleep. Other times he cries, or babbles and chews his feet.

It's interesting to read others experiences as I feel it's often implied that babies should sleep 12 hours straight from a young age, and that you are doing something wrong if they're not!

EBF for three months, never slept longer than two hours at night.
Didn't nap for longer than 20 minutes or so.

FF from then, got 5/6 hour stretches at night.

At around 6 months he slept from 8, dream feed at 11pm and would wake around 6-7am.

Did not nap longer than 45 minutes until he was 15 months old. I remember clearly the first time he did. I danced a jig of joy!

Ds 1 didnt sleep untill his 3rd bday and still.wakes up occasionally. He is 5yr.
Ds2. Since Week 8 and still sleeps well. He is 15m now

4 and a half years and counting .... Still not a full nights sleep.

About 2 years for dc2 but it's still hit and miss

Yeah, my NCT group all claimed their babies slept through in one Whats App conversation that I didn't join because mine didn't (and I was gutted!).

A couple of weeks later one of them clearly flipped the lid and listed how crap her kid's sleeping pattern was at night. Cue a stream of competitive messages about how crap their kids were waking up all through the night.

So basically, it's all bollocks. In the end I read 'Precious little sleep's website and it worked from the first night but I'm sure that was just chance.

DS 2.8 still rarely sleeps though he has done it twice this year and a handful of times before that. He generally wakes anytime between 1 and 4 will come into our bed will sometimes go back to sleep sometimes not! and generally wakes around 6.30-7. He has seriously put me off having anymore I love him to pieces but he has ruined me!

There always seems such a rush to get babies to be sleeping through, away from the comfort of mummy and daddy. It seems almost un-natural to me.

Babbling, chatting, chewing feet, I would just leave him to it. He'll settle himself off. I would only go to crying.

Interestingly have you ever tracked your own sleep? Most people wake several times a night, the difference as an adult you just roll over, get a drink, or nip to the loo and go back to sleep. Dh is an out for the count sleeper once he is in bed. But we have had an app tracking our sleep.... He wakes about 3 - 4 times a night. The difference between him and me is he rolls over straight back to sleep... I wake fully and am aware I have woken. Sleeping 12 hours straight for anyone is a myth

DD1 reliably from about 5 months with a dummy.

DD2 slept from 4 weeks 9 - 6 till 4 months then it all went to shit! She's 9 months now and wakes once on a good night, loads more on a bad night.

DS - 8pm to 5am from 6 months
DD - same from 15 months (I think she was trying to kill me).

Both BF.

You're not doing anything wrong. At all. But check out How to Survive a Sleep Thief blog for sanity! Mine don't at all - 16 months and nearly four. Years, not months. We love coffee in our house...

DD is 7 months old and wakes every 2 hours.

Ds slept thru from about 8 weeks dd not til she was 3 years and even then not reliable she was also in her teens before she stopped sneaking into my bed at night. crap parent desperate for sleep

My first was fed expressed milk. She didn't sleep through until four years and eight months. She use to wake up and shout every night wanting her covers or teddy numerous times until one night at seven months pregnant I was early in tears and told her she had to start sleeping through as she was going to be a bug sister.

Second child use to wake in the night until I had my son when she was three.

Son started sleeping through a year ago, at two! The younger two were both breastfed.

I had a theory that because breastfed babies wake to be fed more often as babies that it gets them in the habit. Therefore, takes longer till they sleep through. But, then my friend had a baby that's breastfed and fed very four hours during the day and slept through from two weeks. So, that blew that theory out the water.

Consistently? About 18 months when I gave up the second day sleep. He went from 2 X 90 mins to 1 X 2hr and all through (approx 7-7) overnight. Before then (since approx 4.5 months), he would wake once most nights for milk.

My DD was bf, at 7 months she was waking 3-4 times a night, taking half an hour- hour to settle so we did controlled crying (had to for my sanity.) I made an enormous mistake and allowed her to keep one feed about 1am, this continued until she was a year and we had to do controlled crying again to get her to drop that. Until she started school she was waking at 5am. She still wakes through the night and I often just get into bed with her. Bloody nightmare!!!!