Is my 7 month old baby the only one in the world that doesn't sleep through the night?

[zambooloo]

My dd still wakes at least 5 times during the night and is wide awake by 5am!

She has an hr nap from 8.30-9.30 then 2hrs from 1-3. We do bath, bottle, bed at 6 and she is usually asleep by 6.30-7.

She still feeds once during the night - seems v hungry.

ALL my friends babies have slept through for months now! I'm going back to work in September and I just wish she would sleep!!

Not fair - rant over :)

Sorry to dissapoint but at nearly 3 Ds still doesn't sleep through the night

sirzy oh dear I may have some way to go then... Have you done any sleep training? Hv recommended cc but I don't know if I can face it.

However it is preferable to another 3 years of this!!

My 18mo has only just got the hang of a straight 7 hours sleep. He's still up at 3ish for a feed.

my 19 month old only woke me once last night and that's a major achievement.

I think a lot of people lie about 'sleeping through', though I guess some people are lucky or have trained their babies to within an inch of their llives somehow.

My 14 month ds is only just sleeping through although this is very on and off depending on dreaded teeth etc.. my dd slept through from 6 months so been a bit if a shock with ds.

Don't worry. My DD was the same at that age. I don't believe in sleep training and in spite of loads of pressure to have a go, I decided against it. Sleep has been improving gradually on her own... she is 13 months now and sleeps through from 8pm to 6am most nights (sometimes longer)... we take her into bed with us a few nights a week and she feeds around 4am maybe once every 9 days or so.
It will pass.... or you will get used to it. One or the other. ;)

What is this 'sleeping through' shit? It appears no-one has told DS, almost two, about it and why it's so good. Bloody hell.

No it isn't just you. My ds woke hourly from four months to around ten, teeth I think. I was a zombie and there is nothing harder. Your ability to 'enjoy' them during that period of extended sleep deprivation is severely diminished also, so try not to let it get you down. I didn't want to sleep train either. Happily, he (jinxing) goes through from 8ish till 7 these days and has done for a while. Hold your nerve, this too shall pass.....hopefully.

nope; dd2 is 8 months and is not sleeping through either

DS2 has just about started to get the hang of sleeping through aged 18 months, even now it's a bit hit and miss.

With DS1 I wondered why everyone found babies so tiring, he slept through fairly reliably from about 14 weeks. I remember complaining when he started waking for a feed again when he had his 17 week growth spurt. I realise now why complaining about 1 wake up for 1 feed got me a few looks...

No sleep training and didn't do anything different either time, so I firmly believe it's luck of the draw whether they sleep or not.

Zam half of 12 month olds wake during the night, no matter how you feed them or parent them so you are not alone .

Have a read of 31 wyas to get your baby to sleep and stay asleep, Best Dinners for Sleep and 8 Sleep Facts Every Parent Should Know.

As for CC, I thought that even the people who devised the technique didn't recommend it for babies that young. You might also want to read Beware of Sleep Trainers.

ds was 5 and at school the first night he slept all the way through an entire night.

It was 5/6/7 times every night.

We tired everything and i mean, everything. He just didnt sleep.

nosleeps our DS slept through the week before his 5th birthday, although for the last couple of years it was medical. I feel your pain

All your friends are probably embellishing the truth.
Your HV is probably old school. I've only ever trusted one HV's advice and she was brilliant.

Your baby will sleep through when she is developed enough to do so. My 15mo sometimes sleeps 7.30-6 but more often than not she wakes around 1am for a quick drink, cuddle and straight back down. It took 13m to get her to that point.

At 7mo my DD was only just going 3hours between feeds!

i walked round like a dead corpse for 5 years. totally sleep deprived.

thought it would never end....even the HV washed her hands of us nothing she could do.

Agree with Pessimistic the best thing my old HV said to me when DS was a baby and not sleeping was other Mums LIE .

7 months is nothing! It's fine :)

DS slept through for 12 straight hours at about 2.4, but before this he'd slowly gone from waking several times a night to sleeping longer stretches, once he was sleeping from 11ish until 4/5/6am (it seemed to vary over time) it was easily manageable, because I'd just go and feed him before I went to bed, and then let him come into bed with me in the early morning. Then the 11pm wake up became more sporadic until it stopped happening totally, and eventually the morning one stretched out to it's current average time of 7-8am.

And because (my theory, anyway) he slept through by himself rather than being "trained" (ugh) we've never had any relapses. He only wakes up at night if he's ill, in pain or if he's fallen asleep ridiculously early without eating dinner.

I think mine's slept through about 5 times in three years, I'm getting used to operating on four hours sleep (actually four hours straight is pretty good).

Nope. Mine is 11 months and usually wakes a couple of times a night. All my friends seem to have sleeping babies too!

Hi everyone, thanks for all your replies - nice to know I'm not alone but oh my god we may have a long way to go!!

Can I ask how you all manage the nights? Do you all have dp's who help? I'm still on maternity leave but only for another 3 weeks :(

I tend to go to bed depressingly early (8 or 9) and dp has the monitor from then until 11. He then brings it to me & he sleeps downstairs. I then have it through the night until dd is wide awake at 5 when he takes over and I can sleep until 7.

It works but I'd love dp and I to share a bed again. Thing is she wakes so much & he is a v light sleeper so we were both ending up awake through the whole night. Also at times of despair I let her co-sleep & the bed just isn't big enough.

I'd love to know your techniques, if you don't mind sharing! Thank you.

Are you mixed feeding OP?

I'm on my 3rd child and after the horrendous time I had with my 1st (didn't sleep through til she was 3), I've chosen to do things very differently with my 2nd and 3rd.

2nd child stopped night feeding of his own accord early on, but with no 3, now 7 months, she'd still feed in the night if I let her. Once she was on 3 meals a day, I took the attitude that she couldn't possibly need food in the night. Water or a cuddle, yes, but no way food.

So I just decided that a bottle in the night was simply not on offer anymore. If she woke I just shoved her in our bed or patted her or whatever. Her not taking in calories in the night meant she ate better in the day, which meant she stopped waking up.

Ooh, the other thing I remember is if you give her homemade food (more filling apparently). With protein at lunch. Greek yoghurt is nice and satisfying too, after her tea.

Our son is nearly 7 months (breastfeeding and eating a bit of food) and on a good night he wakes once before midnight for a feed and once in the wee hours (3am ish). On a v good night (last night) he slept from 8pm, to 6.30am with a feed at 2.30am.

I've noticed that the days we go swimming he has a good night.

Our HV said 2 or 3 times a night for feeds is normal at 6 months but if still like that at 8 months it might be a habit and to ask for advice then.

DS was nocturnal until he was 12 weeks old and I mean that he would literally be awake all night except for maybe 1-2 hrs. It was hell. Then he started sleeping through of his own accord at 5 months and now at 2.8yo is a fantastic sleeper, chuck him in his cot and he'll sleep 12 hours straight.

DD is 8mo and still wakes a LOT, some nights every hour, some nights every 2-3, then up at 6am. I have tried everything except CC, which I don't agree with. I get a lot of pressure to do CC and annoying "helpful" suggestions to get her to sleep but believe me I have tried everything and nothing works.

DH does not cope well on broken sleep whereas I am generally good at just getting on with it, even though at 8 monrhs without one good night's sleep I feel like I am reaching the end of my tether. But anyway, he sleeps in the spare room and I do all the nights, then I get lie-ins on Sat and Sun morning and the occasional nap during the weekend if possible. Its not ideal but I am surviving. And eating a lot of cake/chocolate/ice-cream to get me through!

Zambooloo, I went back to work when DD was 8 months old and still waking several times per night. I was utterly shattered. Luckily my boss (a man) has two kids of his own and was sympathetic. It didn't help that starting nursery meant the whole household picked up every illness known to man. I was ill and run down for 7 whole weeks.

My DH has always been up for sharing the load, thank God. When I was on mat leave I had to tell him off for getting up on a work night but I did try and 'take charge' as much as possible.

Now that I'm at work, we share equally (he probably does more than his share actually as he's a light sleeper too and hears her before I do!). On Saturday mornings, I get a lie in, and on Sunday mornings it's his turn. I'm usually so tired at the end of the week that I sleep in until 11am!!! But it really helps to re-set me.

I don't know what your plans are re: childcare when you go back but I found that nursery really helped us, both in terms of teaching her to sleep and simply wearing her out. It wasn't long before she was waking less and less.

You will get through it. Just keep going to bed early and sleep as much as you can. Don't feel guilty for not getting everything done. Just sleep!