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Original poster

Seven-month-old still not sleeping through the night

126 replies

Lookydo · 27/12/2007 11:57

My ds is nearly seven months old and is still not sleeping through the night. Any advice/tips as to what we can try to get him to sleep through? Don't think we can face Controlled Crying, but we're considering getting dh to try a bottle of water in the night - the theory being it won't be worth ds waking up for. At the moment he wakes up and wants to breastfeed 3 or 4 times a night. Sometimes I hear him wake and he DOES go back to sleep, so it's not as though he can't put himself back to sleep. In the day he's taking solids well - 3 meals a day - and has 2 formula feeds aswell. He goes down really well at 7.30pm and I don't feed him to sleep or anything. In fact, I feel rather cheated because I feel like I've followed all the advice and made sure we haven't created any bad sleep habits - ie. feeding to sleep, rocking to sleep etc. So why isn't he sleeping through? Any advice/your experiences gratefully received.

NB He sleeps in a cot in his own room (only moved him out of our room 6 weeks ago). He is teething at the moment, but as he's never slept through the night I don't know how much longer I can keep making excuses for why he's waking up.

I know some mumsnetters think you should just live with a situation like this, but I really want to change it if I can. I just keep imagining what it'll be like in a year's time when I still haven't slept properly and I'll look back to this period and wished I'd bloody done something! I feel SOOO knackered all the time. And surely I shouldn't still be a walking zombie by now. Also, my health visitor said that if you don't get the sleeping through cracked before the 8 month stage, the waking habit can become very ingrained.

Help!

OP posts:
annoyingdevil · 27/12/2007 21:01

Yes this thread is particularly irritating. 'Sleep training' for me involved plenty of feeds during the day, waking gently if they slept more than 3 hours and giving a dream feed at 11pm. My first was sleeping through at 4 mths and second at 8 weeks. No doubt someone will tell me how 'cruel' I was

karen999 · 27/12/2007 21:02

Chardonnay1966 - am with you sister!!!

TrinityTheRedNosedRhino · 27/12/2007 21:05

not cruel annotingdevil at all
BUT I have done all those things too and mine NEVER slept through the night till 18 months ish

I just dont like the attitude that I'm just being crap cause I haven't 'trained' them

Feel free to do cc (I cannot), or other things (like annyingdevil has mentioned) as I did and if they work for you GREAT
But they dont work for all babies and sometimes you just have to go with it

juuule · 27/12/2007 21:12

Oh, Annoyingdevil, if that's all that was needed life would have been so much easier. But.. I did what you said you did and....no such luck for me.

cheapslutonjunk · 27/12/2007 21:16

Karen, didn't you leave a 12 week old to cry?

MUMOFDJandP · 27/12/2007 21:20

my ds is one and still wakes oh atleast three times a night, I must see if I can change this though as not good for my mariiage long term I dont think!

blueshoes · 27/12/2007 21:21

I can guarantee you that any parent who 'lifts' a baby for a dream feed does not really have a baby with (that big) a problem with sleep.

Sorry. But us parents with the true non-sleepers will NEVER touch a sleeping baby on pain of death.

TrinityTheRedNosedRhino · 27/12/2007 21:22

very true blueshoes

thats the only thing I never did

annoyingdevil · 27/12/2007 21:22

Sorry to hear that Juule, guess I was lucky with DS. If it's any consolation it only lasted 2 mths anyway. By five months he was waking up again. I finally went cold turkey on feeding him back to sleep when he was one.

Hamishsmummy · 27/12/2007 21:23

My ds sleeping more than 3 hours durnng the day? ROFL at the thought...

NowTheHollyBearsABero · 27/12/2007 21:26

oh blueshoes, how right you are. Lifting a baby...

I can sometimes do it with ds2, who at 3mo is a fabulous sleeper IMO, waking anything from 2 to 5 times (the 'night' starts at some point between 9 and midnight and ends around 8am). ds1 woke 5-6 times a night until at least 8 or 9 months. He was down to 1-2 wakings by 18 months and by the time he was 2 was sleeping effectively through most nights. He might wake briefly and/or climb into our bed, but is back off in no time. And I bf him to sleep until he was around 2.

I'm with those who say a child sleeps through in its own time. With ds1 it paid off in the end to meet his needs.

evelina · 27/12/2007 21:35

My dc is 7 months old and has a regular feed at between 11pm to midnight. In the past week, I've just moved into bed with him when he wakes at 3am ish and then cuddle rather than feed him to sleep. Last night this didn't work, I changed his nappy, cuddled him but he was still crying so I went and got him a bottle. I am just planning to be flexible and go with the flow. I can't really do cc.

Mellieandmin · 27/12/2007 21:40

I was determined not to routine my baby but I did and dd1 is a very happy chappie most of the time. But I know ladies who would give their right arm for a sleeping baby and have tried the same routine (and many others) as we did but it just has not worked. I guess babies will sleep in tim. My friends twins did not both sleep through the same night till they were 4. She is sane, just about, but she loves then just the same. Both are now highly intelligent 19 year olds who are out in the world making great strides.

What you win on the swings you loose on the roundabouts. I have a sleeper, great, both day and night who is routine driven. Eat? Eat solid stuff from a spoon? Not likely mate!

We all have our cross to bare, of bowl of porridge to bare in my case......

juuule · 27/12/2007 21:41

Good point, mellieandmin

karen999 · 27/12/2007 21:48

I didn't leave my 12 week old to cry. I did CC. There is a big difference. Babies cry. I did CC and went in every 2 mins to settle her and reassure her. I knew that she was fed, warm etc. I had a terrible time with dd1 (now 8 and still a poor sleeper) therefore I tried a different method this time. I am there in an instant if my dd cries at any time. I do not neglect her or am cruel. I merely wanted to establish good sleep patterns. It worked for me and I appreciate that it may not work for everyone but I have a very happy thriving 10 months old dd and am delighted.

blueshoes · 27/12/2007 21:50

My observation with dd (who did not do anything remotely resembling sleeping through until 17 months when she suddenly flipped a switch) is that after she started sleeping through, I was more tired by being woken even once than before when she was waking up to 3 times an hour.

I think when you have the luxury of unbroken sleep (as we do pre-babies), you enter deep sleep from which it is exhausting to be dragged out of by being disrupted just 1-2x a night. But if you have a baby that wakes fairly regularly throughout the night (once an hour is where ds 15 mths is currently at), you only ever just wade in the shallows. And it is quite bearable. I am fully functional in the day that people can't believe how often I am up (we co-sleep).

So ... if you complain that baby is waking 3-4x a night, maybe it might feel better if baby was waking 6-8x instead! Or maybe NOT!

blueshoes · 27/12/2007 21:55

karen, just curious, why can't you do CC with dd1 8?

karen999 · 27/12/2007 22:00

Blueshoes - had never really heard of it tbh! I was quite young when I had dd1 and my husband (at that time) worked every day till late at night so was too exhausted to try anything. I co-slept with dd and she still woke up many times. I suppose I just wanted to try something different this time. I also have a very supportive dp and it was on the advice of my sister who had done it with her ds that we gave it a go. As I said it worked and I am happy that it did. It means that I have quality time also with dd1 now at night when baby is in bed.

karen999 · 27/12/2007 22:01

oh sorry do you mean why can't I do it now?? Well, since dd2 came along dd1 is much better! I think she feels a lot better knowing that someone else is going to bed as well as her!

mumfor1standfinaltime · 27/12/2007 22:14

I do like reading the 'sleep through' threads!
I do love sensing the obvious envy from those mothers who obviously don't have children who 'sleep through' and like to slag off mothers that do!

I have one son who slept through the night from 6 weeks old in his own room in a cot.
He would sleep from 7pm til 7am with no dream feeds, he was a huge baby so would take 9oz feeds. And guess what, I let him cry, I didn't rush to him straight away. I put him to bed at 7pm and he cried until he was asleep. This was for 3 minutes tops. I did this for 3 days only. He is now 3 years old and he only wakes in the night when he is ill.
Shoot me now! I have my sleep!

blueshoes · 27/12/2007 22:19

thanks, karen, glad it is working out better now. I got confused because you said dd1 8 is still is poor sleeper.

BTW, my dcs (crap sleepers) take after my dh. As a baby, he drove his parents to distraction with his waking ways and did not sleep through until 3 years' old. Even now, he is a very light sleeper and quite precious IMO about the conditions under which he can sleep. I was a great sleeper as a baby (my mother could not believe it) and till today, quite easy for me to fall and stay asleep. I think sleep traits are actually ingrained to a large degree.

karen999 · 27/12/2007 22:22

Blushoes - you may be right. My dp could sleep standing up and as a child had to be woken up on Christmas morning!!

cheapslutonjunk · 27/12/2007 22:22

I don't envy women who let their tiny babies cry. What a strange idea.

blueshoes · 27/12/2007 22:24

mumfor1, (erhem, can you hear the envy in my voice), I take the studied view that crying for just 3 minutes before falling asleep is not CC. It is just tired crying. Quite different from hysterical arms and legs flailing, choking, sobbing, wails that the world is coming to an end CC.

mumfor1standfinaltime · 27/12/2007 22:25

Love the turn around! Envy of woman who let their tiny babies cry.

Hmm, thought I said envy mothers who have babies who are sleeping through .(and not crying and waking!)