Why do so many babies sleep through

[ZebraZeebra]

And neither of mine just never have??

I read/hear about it so often. At six weeks/13 weeks/23 weeks...whatever. It's often on threads about babies going into their own rooms. My ds didn't sleep through until 13 months and my dd - 24 weeks - had yet to wake less than three times.

I just can't wrap my head round not having to wake up. My children woke the most in the evening in the time between their bedtime and my bedtime - whether they were downstairs or in their own room. Why didn't I get one of these great sleepers? stamps foot

Mine didn't either. My 2 year old is improving but we're still not there.

Hmm actually that is bringing it all back to me Zebra!

It doesn't last forever. I know you know that :)

Oh and by not sleeping I mean ds woke up repeatedly EVERY night till he was almost 4. Dd is slightly better in that she averages twice a night so far.

So they did sleep through? As they slept fine from once you went to bed until morning?

Have you tried just not taking them up to bed so early? Let baby play on floor or nap on you whilst you watch stuff so you aren't up and done like a yoyo, and you will feel less stressed by it as not expecting full on sleeping at 7pm. You can feed more also in evening making it even more likely they sleep through 11pm-7/8am

My eldest is now 5. He has never gone to bed before 9pm and I would classify him as a great sleeper. He now sleeps 9pm-8/9am

Mine has just turned two and we are finally at a point where he "sometimes" sleeps through. Maybe 2 nights a week.
Until recently it was "rarely".

Don't worry OP. My DD truly was a wonderful sleeper as a baby, and I coasted through the baby and toddler years. She also kept her afternoon nap going until 3 and a half. So far so smug....
Having recently turned 4 she now only needs about 8 hours sleep per night, and doesn't have an afternoon nap. Last night she had 7 and a half hours sleep and has been firing on all cylinders since early this morning, and is still going strong.
It's karma.....

Formula fed babies do apparently sleep better than ebf babies. I have no solid proof of this, but remember reading that bm is easier and quicker to digest, which leaves little ones hungrier quicker, and more prone to waking. It is perfectly normal for littlebones to wake regularly.

*little ones

Sleep through for me means not waking for a feed or crying and being lifted out the cot. All my 3 dc have been very good sleepers. Dc1 slept 10-7 from about 12 weeks (I'd class this as sleeping through ). Dc2 was an excellent sleeper from newborn he only ever woke once for a feed and was doing 7.30 -7 from about 8 weeks and when teething slept more! he'd cry to go to bed at 5.30pm sleep all through til 7/8am and wake up with a tooth I've never known a kid like him! Dc3 took a couple of weeks to settle but was sleeping 9pm-7am from around 9 weeks he's 24 weeks now and currently goes to bed 7.30 and will wake any time between 7am and 9am.

I'm not exaggerating at all I think I've just been lucky, me and dh love our sleep so maybe they've inherited that from us. The only thing I've done is start them in a bedtime routine from day 1.

Oh i hear you about wanting a restful night!

I am actually so convinced that I could never be so lucky twice that it puts me off having number two

It's just the luck of the draw. Temperament of baby, mode of feeding, whether you get a grazer or one who likes fewer, bigger feeds. Possibly genetics, though DH and I were both much worse sleepers than our offspring.

Both of mine did some 'sleeping through' from an early age and we did nothing to encourage it particularly. DC1 slept for a 7 hour stretch roughly 50% of the time between 3 and 7 months, whereupon we had a night waking virtually every night until well past 2. DC2 (6 months) sleeps on average a 10 hour stretch without feeding, with occasional need for dummy reinsertion or a cuddle but refusal to take any milk, and has done since about 10 weeks. There are two small differences between the two of them I guess. The first is that DC2 didn't get picked up as quickly when crying as DC1 did, because I haven't acquired an extra pair of hands in the meantime. So better self settling. And DC2 has a dummy. But we never did any form of sleep training though. DC2 just seems to want to sleep more at night than DC1 did- equally, she probably sleeps less in the day. Neither has/will be going into own room until well into toddlerhood.

But I don't think there's anything much you can really do in the first few months. Tweaks, but that's it. Anecdotally, formula fed babies don't often seem to do the whole waking up every hour thing that bf babies sometimes do initially. But even then, formula's not a silver bullet. You hear of the odd ebf baby sleeping through from 8 weeks, and while this is unusual it's still perfectly normal.

Yes I agree its usually a luck thing. Both my DDs generally slept through from 7pm-6am ish at about 7 months of age. We had a couple of full nights earlier but they were exceptions rather than the rule. I reckon once they get onto proper varied solids then you have a chance of a full night and both mine were pretty good eaters. That said we have, of course, had interrupted nights and phases where they don't sleep through (not talking about illness but scared of monsters/bad dreams/who knows what) and DD2 (4) quite often calls us in the night to cover her back up with the duvet. Actually I had to chat to her and teach her how to pull it back up (?!?) last week as I said she was too old to call us for this. Seems to be working at the moment.

My DC1 got worse with solids! Desperately hoping DC2 doesn't decide to do the same.

My dd slept 7-7 at 3 months... Then from 4 months to about 2yrs she woke frequently through the night.

Yeah, nobody tells you that they can go backwards with sleep! The first time DC1 slept through, I was utterly overjoyed. There was the end of night feeds with that one, I thought. Little did we know...

Another thing I've thought of is that both of mine started sleeping for long blocks at around the same time they started spending a good portion of the day flinging themselves around the floor. They have both been very reluctant to be put down when tiny, then turned into total floor monkeys in the space of about a week, somewhere between 2 and 3 months. I think it's possible the extra energy they use when they spend hours of the day rolling and flailing instead of sitting being cuddled might tire them out more. I don't know if yours is down on the floor a lot OP or you're more of a sling type, but might be worth a go?

I describe my 16 week old DS as 'sleeping through'. He settles at 10.30 when we go to bed and he generally doesn't wake me up for a BF until 4.30/5am. It means I get a good 5-6 hours sleep which is all I need, so to me it feels like an undisturbed night.

We still get a bit of an evening as he'll often nap from 7pm-8.30ish then be awake until we go to bed, so there is some time to 'relax except for the bit where the 3.5YO has to go to bed

I see 7-7 as being a good few months off yet.

I remember clearly being in tears after a meet up at a baby group because everyones baby was sleeping so much better than mine. Years later they all tell a different story (except 1 - her dd really did sleep through).

I think it's luck, either that or parents exaggerating!

It's mostly just luck

All six of mine have slept through (10-12 hours) early, the latest one was six months but the rest were before four months. Wasn't really anything I did, they just like their sleep

Both my kids were/are amazing sleepers as babies. My DD slept through from 10weeks, 7pm - 6am and my DS slept through from 5months from 7-7, however when DD turned 1 she became a terrible sleeper and would wake 2-3 a night, not for anything in particular but she just wanted me to come and put the blanket back on or something like that. She has only recently started sleeping through again and she just turned 4!

My DS is only 7 months now so I know this great sleeping can change at any moment but I am very happy at the moment being able to sleep through the night.

The longer I live, the more I conclude:

-luck

• genetics
• sleep training.

In that order and with the third a very distant third.

It's all luck. My dd slept from 8 until 8 with a dreamfeed at 11 and feed at 4 from her first night home from hospital. Never woke except for feed.Now at 6 months she has dropped nightfeed and can sleep until 9 or later. Actually worried about how I'll get her up when she starts creche.
However this is in spite of me not because of me (generally chaotic no routine) . My mum said I slept that much but my brother never slept for 4 years.
I don't tell anyone about the sleeping . There is no way but to sound smug about it.

I don't think they do. I really don't.! I've had three. One of them never cried, but none of them have ever slept for longer than a few hours at a time before a year or more in age.

It's not natural Unless of course you FF which I believe can make a baby sleep for longer.

Surely waking twice in the night isn't sleeping through though?

My twins slept from 11pm-7am at 11 weeks (5 corrected) and at 14 weeks (8 corrected). And from 6:30pm-7:30am from 8 months. They still love their sleep now at nearly 3.

So lucky! And no way we would get so lucky again so no more dc for us!