To expect my baby to continue sleeping well at night?

[aureliacecilia]

I had DC#2 seven weeks ago. For the past week she has gone to sleep by 11, woken around 4:30 for milk, and then gone back to sleep until the morning. Last night she went to sleep at 11 and didn't wake until 5:45 this morning. She's sleeping now but obviously I'm not. I can't believe she actually sleeps in long chunks. I am not exaggerating at all when I say DC#1 did not sleep like this until he was 3.5. We waited until he was nearly 4 before trying for another baby as the lack of sleep, broken sleep, disturbed sleep broke me. This time around I seem to have a wonderful unicorn of a baby who sleeps well at night and will also happily drift off back to sleep if I put her in her crib awake. I read so many articles when DC#1 was a baby about putting him in his crib drowsy but awake and I laughed at all of them because I didn't believe there were babies who were capable of going to sleep like that. But here I am, seven weeks in, and my baby seems to do it. It's just a phase, isn't it? Is it too early for her to be sleeping like this? She's EBF and gaining weight well - she's just shy of the 91st centile.

I guess I'm wondering whether anyone had a baby who slept well at this stage and if so how soon it soured and you were up all night trying to console him or her.

Am I being unreasonable to expect the good sleep to continue? I know about the four month sleep regression, etc. If you had a good sleeper, did it last?

(I just want to add that my dad died the day before DC#2 was born, just four weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. It's been a tough few months and having experienced what I now recognise as undiagnosed PND after DC#1 I've found having good sleep restorative and good for my mental wellbeing. I'm coping so well at the moment and enjoying second time motherhood a lot but I'm quite afraid of things changing and my mood plummeting.)

Bar the 4month regression and teething / illness then yes my good sleeper stayed a good sleeper. He's almost 5 now and has fallen asleep independently since he was small and has hardly disturbed us in the night past the baby stage.
So far it looks like my almost 5 month old is a good sleeper too (bar a couple of weeks there which I expected).
Keep up good habits like age appropriate naps during the day, bedtime routine and move bedtime gradually earlier.
Baby ds now has a 7/7.30 bedtime and wakes around 5am for a feed then usually snoozes for around an hour or so after that although it can be hard to settle him at this time.

I'm sorry about your dad I lost mine to cancer less than 18 months ago.

My twins are 4 and still terrible sleepers (both autistic) but from about week 10-13 they slept amazingly well. I thought we’d just got really really lucky... sadly it didn’t last! It might do for you, but likely you’ll at least have issues with sleep regressions.

In some ways, just appreciate the fact she sleeps well now and don’t worry about what’s coming next. It’s great you’ve had some good sleep to get you over the trauma of birth - along with helping you cope with grieving for your father.

So sorry about your dad - my mum died before I got pregnant and it’s so tough becoming a parent without your own. Hugs to you

I'm in a similar situation having had a terrible sleeper for my first. My second baby is 13 weeks and wakes once for a breastfeed - so hopefully you might have at least another 6 weeks of great sleep ahead! I do wonder if I was a bit quick to pick my first baby up sometimes and by necessity second baby sometimes has to wait whilst I deal with my toddler - don't know if that's made a difference to how she settles or not, I'd say she's definitely cuddled/carried around less than my first who always seemed to be in someone's arms!

just appreciate the fact she sleeps well now and don’t worry about what’s coming next.

I agree with this. It's impossible to know what's coming. For every child who continued to sleep well, there will be another who started to wake every hour. Worrying about it won't change her sleeping patterns, so just enjoy the current situation.

My Unicorn baby was DD2 and by 16 weeks she slept a good 9 hours and it did continue

DD3 was a wake every hour/reflux/colic/

Mine were all very unsettled at night at 7 weeks, at 8 weeks they slept a short night, for example 12-6 or 10-4.30 ish. This then got progressively longer and by 12 weeks they slept 12 hours. I was very fortunate that they didn’t have sleep regression.

My first slept through from 8 weeks and this has continued - bar obvious issue nights particularly bad teething one night or illness etc.
Currently expecting my second and have a lot of people gleefully telling me the next one will be horrific so shall have to wait and see!

Once mine settled into a good routine they slept through (10 weeks for first baby and 17 weeks for second - she was hard work though and very resistant to going to sleep without being held but I got there). There was no 4 month sleep regression. Bar the odd nightmare or illness they've slept well ever since.

First was a pretty terrible sleeper after a promising start but is now ok at 3yo. Second is a brilliant sleeper. I'm not cursing it by having a third.

Take all the warnings of regressions and leaps with a shit ton of salt. Babies don’t develop according to a schedule. A number of studies have found that babies vary wildly in the way they develop and that regressions and leaps are nothing more than giving parents something to buy into, literally, in the case of ‘Wonder Weeks’.

It could just be you have a good sleeper. I did. He slept through from seven weeks and still sleeps like a champ.

Enjoy your baby and I’m sorry about your dad.

Mine did exactly this...I would say that it lasted about 3 weeks or so before it got worse but even then it never got particularly bad. He would have a feed at 1am and then about 5am. I hope it continues for you!

I had twins. One slept much like your DC2 (a bit more night feeding, as she was small) and the other was much more often up in the night, found it hard to get back to sleep etc. That pattern was obvious from about 5 or 6 weeks, and continues to this day (they are 9!) Honestly, the good sleeper never really had any sleep regressions or anything. Sometimes as an older baby/toddler, after illnesses/when on holiday she would start waking in the night again but it never lasted long.

So sorry about your dad.
DD slept through the night (from 8pm-7am) from just over a week old. She never had any regressions, only things that affected her sleep was teething and when she was ill. She still sleeps amazingly and she is now 3.
The second is more than making up for it though

Bar the odd night my daughter has slept through since she was 2 months old and she's nearly two now. Makes me scared for another though in case we arent this lucky!

My baby is five months and she's a great sleeper at night. Even the four month sleep regression I had heard so much about from friends and had been dreading never actually happened for us as in it didn't change her sleeping welll at night, it just got harder for her to nap in the day.

It can happen, DC1 slept through from 6 1/2 weeks 11pm till 6.30 am, DC2 from 6 weeks

Both are now late teens and continued to sleep through every night never got us up early and only woke us if they were ill

Both however needed melatonin to get to sleep once they reached puberty due to Autism but then slept well

We never had problems when teething or at the regression points I do think that baby sleeping bags were part of the success and making sure they had really dark rooms

I don’t know what the 4 month regression is supposed to be because my first slept through from 8 weeks. My second is 11 weeks and I’m hoping I don’t find out with him! Right now he typically manages 8pm-6am in bed with a dream feed around 10 or 11.

My second slept well from birth. He woke for a feed in the early days once and went straight back to sleep and by 3 weeks we were dream feeding and going all night. No sleep regression. He still loves his sleep at 16. I'm just glad he wasn't born first because my first born was a horror. He just didn't sleep day or night.

DS (3) has always slept well. DD is 12wks old and slept 6-8hrs on a night from being 4wks old. The last week though she has woke 4-5 times a night to feed, hoping it's just a growth spurt! To be fair though she feeds then straight back to sleep, never ever cries.

My DS slept well at that age, generally sleeping 9pm-7am with one or two feeds. Unfortunately for us it didn't last. The 4 month regression started (average 6 wake ups, sometimes 10) and his sleep didn't really improve until 9m. He started mostly sleeping through at about 12m (as in 11 hours, waking once a week).

HOWEVER I coped better than DD who was a better (but not wonderful) sleeper. Somehow I was able to go with the flow more and go back to sleep easier.

Do your best to enjoy it for now. You might get lucky or if sleep does change, it might be short lived.

Sorry to disappoint but mine slept though from about 11 till about 8 from 8 weeks. Unfortunately, he caught a cold at 14 weeks and that was the end of that. However, those 6 weeks of having a full night’s sleep were great and I did not find wakings for a night feed nearly so tiring after that.