To expect dd to sleep the night through now?

[Peppery123]

She is 24 weeks...nearly 6 calendar months. Iv been told that now is when they start slweping through....shes not...yet. but AIBU to expect it?
I know I will most likely get loads of responses with 3 and 4 year olds still not sleeping the night through. I get it, Im not trying to say that she SHOULD be sleeping through..its actually my health visitor who saw me last week and my huge, unmissable eye bags, and commented well shes nearly 6 months so she will be sleeping longer now and maybe through the night.
Just hanging onto to those words with immense hope. She said most mothers she sees it all starts to get better come after 6 months.
Some nice postives anecdotes would be good to hear. Anyone?

My 2.5yr old still doesn't reliably sleep through the night.

I have a dream sleeper dd and a more average sleep pattern dd my first was was breastfed and would until 18 month wake up approximately every 5 hour. She self weaned of the milk and slept through then for 12 hours. She's now 6 and still takes 12 hours a night, only walking for nightmares or sickness.
Dd2 slept trough from 4 weeks old, still breastfed. Luckily she was a little chubby so could without the milk at night. Didn't do different with any of them...
And before some jumps on me for gloating, then I have never gloated to friends or given unasked advice...And I have nightwatched a friends baby boy several night to give the parents a night sleep, including staying overnight in hospital with him staying awake looking at flashing lights while he slept.

My youngest is six and has slept through the night four times in his life. We have tried EVERYTHING. I think some kids just aren't good at sleeping.

He is six years old, not six months btw 😴

@KnackeredHag

My youngest is six and has slept through the night four times in his life. We have tried EVERYTHING. I think some kids just aren't good at sleeping.

He is six years old, not six months btw 😴

Sounds like my friends son. We have him once a week to give my friends a chance to sleep. He's 7. Wakes up anywhere between 2 - 10 times a night... it can take from 2 min to 1 hour to get him back to sleep. He's a lovely guy but a horrible sleeper

I believe sleeping 'through' the night is defined as 5 straight hours of sleep. I'm afraid yabu - my 14 month old still wakes. Don't listen to the 'shoulds' - it will just make you feel inadequate.

Mine all slept thro by 4m.. 10 to 12 hours.
I felt so lucky.
However at 8m there was a sleep regression. Waking multiple times. It killed me.. Now at 14m werte back to multiple wakes and a bottle!
It's a killer.
Every baby is different.

My DD slept through at 17 months. Still breastfed through the night, she just decided to do it. Once. Night-weaned at 19 months; from there she started sleeping through 1-2 times a fortnight. Now at 2 she mostly sleeps through, or wakes up once and comes into our bed and sleeps.

The main thing is, are you Team Try To Fix This or Team Wait It Out and Just Try To Survive – I was the latter and found the things that helped were hot showers, fresh air, strong coffee, an absolute shitload of dairy milk, complaining endlessly on Mumsnet, and lowering my clean and tidy standards dramatically (house and personal appearance). Things that didn’t help: health visitors, people with children who were naturally good sleepers, sleep training advice.

Who on earth had told you that? There are so many leaps then plus teething.... No, not a chance! Mine started at 8 months and only in my bed.

DS was 20 months old before he regularly slept through. My DD was 4 weeks 8pm - 8am. They both had the same routines although I was more relaxed 2nd time around.

She just hasn't read the literature! The chance are she will start to sleep better but it's not true for everyone.

My first was 7 months, second 4 weeks. But I'm not going to be deluded. Nothing to do with my parenting all to do with personalities. Last one still doesn't sleep through (5 years).

What happens if you pop her in cot awake and leave her to cry for 5 mins? One of mine always cried themselves to sleep in 5 mins. I only discovered this when I was in the toilet (had bad bout of ibs) and couldn't physically leave the toilet. 5 mins then silence. I rushed in thinking the worse, nope little sod was happily snoring away. They just didnt like going to sleep. Any patting or me being near them they stayed awake like they had caffeine pills.

You poor thing! It's so hard when they don't sleep. Both my DC had similar patterns of how they slept at what age. 6m was still pretty rough, but they both slept through at around 10m, albeit waking quite early. And by through, I mean THROUGH. down at 6/6.30pm and not up until 5am (which we gradually pushed forward to 7am) - none of this "five hours = sleeping through" bollocks. I need more than five hours sleep! Always check what someone means by "sleeping through".

Things which made a difference:

• just them getting older
• starting solids. Not to fill them up, because they only had a few kicks at first, but I think the sheer sensory novelty of it tired them out and made them sleep better
• crawling, because it knackered them out
• me being slower and slower to respond to them crying at night. I'd wake up on a hair trigger but over time I was so tired it took more and more effort to haul myself out of bed, so eventually they fell asleep again before I had stumbled in

So around 10m they were both sleeping through most nights. Even now our 14m cries once or twice a night - a single massive bloodcurdling scream then total silence. It's awful because it wakes us up but clearly not her!

So I think unfortunately YABU to expect 12h from a 6m baby, but YANBU to hang onto the hope that it will improve soon!

OP I dont want to freak you out but my dd didnt sleep through the night til she was 5 years old! it totally depends on the child...

@Peppery123

Why does statistics show at 6 months most babies sleep the night through?.im shocked how many are still not at the ages of 2+

Statistics dont show that at all.

There is a summary of research into babies sleep. It’s considered normally for children to need their parents through the night up to the age of 7 years old.

You’ve been very lucky with your first two children and your 3 just sounds like an average baby. And average babies are exhausting.

My first baby did not sleep, naps were rubbish, nighttime was rubbish. I didn’t sleep train as I think it’s barbaric but tried everything else.
He’s 3 now and still wakes once some nights.

I now have a 5 month old and she has slept well from day 1, it’s a revelation to me!

I’ve done the same things with her so it’s not down to changes in milk/routine it’s just a different baby.

Anyone who has a great sleeper and then a rubbish one, have a think if there’s any mums you need to apologise to for judging or giving bad advice. I felt like such a failure with my son because I could “just do this or that ..”

If my good sleeper had been my first baby I would have found first time motherhood so much easier!

We started gradually night weaning DD from about six months by pushing back the first feed of the night. By 7 months she did one night a big sleep from 10pm-6am without a feed, and after that we knew she could go that long without it so did not feed in the night any more. By 8 months she was sleeping 12 hours a night most nights. It will happen!

24 weeks is nothing. My 2 year old has only just started sleeping through most nights, just as my three year old has started waking up most nights. There isn't a set age when they should sleep through, every baby is different.

You were just lucky the first two times. Mine was still having 2 or 3 bottles in the night at 6 months and has only just started sleeping 7-6 at 2.5 🤞🤞🤞. And that's with him being able to self settle, night weaned at 13 months (should have done it at 9) and following a very strict routine - so all of the standard sleep advice.

He has hit all his milestones excellently and is far too clever for his own good, so he didn't suffer for lack of sleep. However, he was a misery until he was 2.

I forgot to add the link for the summary of research into baby sleep

www.basisonline.org.uk/normal-sleep-development/

Our sons were all very large hungry babies and until they were a year old, all needed a bedtime feed at about 11 pm when we went to bed. Then they would sleep till about 6 am. Without the 11 pm, they'd wake in the small hours bawling to be fed.

They were all over a year old before I could put them to bed around 7 pm and they'd sleep through till 6 am next morning.

The sons are all middle aged, in their own beds in their own homes. I still wake up at 6 am every morning. ....

I night weaned both at six months.

DS1 slept 10 hours straight from 9 months (with the help of some sleep training). DS2 is now almost 3 and still doesn’t sleep through, but he has bad eczema which wakes him up.

At 6 months, I put mine to bed around 7pm, fed again at 11 and then they slept through until the morning. (7ish) It is possible and worked for all of them, but reading posts, I realise that I must have been incredibly lucky!

Sorry OP, but it didn’t happen for us. DS is 9 months now and usually wakes once or twice each night for a feed and a cuddle. Don’t think he’s ever really slept though.
However...it’s manageable for us because he’s bottle fed, so DH and I each do one wake up and therefore get a pretty decent amount of sleep. Also (and this is more important I think) DS definitely got into more of a predictable routine from around 6 months, ie consistent bedtime, 2 naps at the same time each day, and either one or two wake ups every night. Occasionally we have a blip if he’s poorly or his teeth are bothering him but generally he’s pretty predictable for now.

*slept through. My kingdom for an edit function!