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

You're not supposed to put them in their own room till 6 months either. Many most parents would prefer to follow SIDS guidelines rather than bend them so they can get their kid 'sleeping through' sooner.

Yes , sorry. I wasn't really commenting on the own room bit. More stuff like not going in at a murmur.

DS2 slept through from four days. He has Down's syndrome though and that's quite common. It was great though!

Ds was a milk monster, though it was often as much about comfort as hunger. He finally slept through at 7 months, when he was weaned. Since then he's been a great little sleeper - 12 hours a night, always goes to bed easily and is asleep within minutes. Some if the babies who slept through at 6 weeks or whatever have turned into horrendous sleepers at 2, 3, 4 years old!

I honestly thought 'sleeping through' meant baby slept from bedtime (say 7pm) until morning - their solid 10-12 hours. Is this not right?

All babies are different though...genetics, personality, appetite etc. You just need to get to know your own baby and try what works best. My DD is almost 11months. First slept through at 6.5 months. Was a terrible sleeper between 8 months and last week and now has started sleeping through again.

She fights sleep and is a light sleeper and her sleep is effected by developmental leaps such as crawling etc. She's almost ready to start walking, so we will probably be in for some more sleepless nights yet!!!!

Hazel - mine never went to bed at 7pm on their life's. Neither do many people we know. For us 7pm is just getting home, dinner for everyone including baby around 8pm, bedtime later. So the 7-7pm pointless here. Here 11pm-9am is great! Everyone gets evening together and lovely lie in

Love that idea, Artandco. I should take a leaf out of yours, I think! :)

It's bollocks that formula fed babies sleep better in my own, very bitter, experience.

DS was nearly 3 before we had a full night of sleep. I was a zombie.

He now sleeps beautifully. Of course now I'm expecting another baby so am expecting another 3 years of shit sleep.

Other mums used to say 'oh my baby has been sleeping through since 8 weeks'. How I didn't punch them in the head is anyone's guess.

We sleep-trained DD at just over 6 months (when she went into her own room). She very quickly started sleeping through from 8pm-7am(ish) consistently. Prior to that she would usually get up twice over night (12ish and 4ish), but when I stopped offering her a feed when she woke she very quickly just stopped waking up. She's now sleeping much better day and night!

We are the same as Artandco- toddler (16months) gets up at 7ish, naps 12-2, and usually again 545-630ish, bed 830-9pm.at weekends she sleeps til 9 and skips the second nap. The obsession with 7pm bedtime is something I find very odd!

Mine was fed to sleep and slept 7-6 by about 5 months. No training, no techniques, just luck. She likes sleeping. That's it. If I had another one I would expect the opposite.

I don't know anyone who would lie!
Perhaps misremember through the annals of time, but at all the baby/toddler groups I go to everyone is stonkingly honest about how little sleep they get

I think some kids just sleep and others don't.

I do think it's all in your definition of sleeping through. DD1 slept from 8pm to 6am from a very young age (about 5 weeks iirc) but DD2 is 20 weeks and has very irregular evenings (sometimes has a feed at half seven and has to be woken at half eleven then goes til four but sometimes is wide awake and demanding a feed every hour til we go to bed at midnight!!). She's treated the same as DD1 so can only assume it's personality. Although DD1 was a teeny and slept through her first night in hospital. I woke up to a panicked midwife who asked me if I'd been waking her every three hours to feed. I was because no one told me you have to encourage small babies to feed sometimes.

Artandco if we did that we'd never have time as a couple just the two of us.

Perhaps it's just different priorities or you have big houses etc. I used to know people who did that no/late bedtime thing and always fondly imagined I'd do the same. Then felt like a failure for needing a break from DS!

But realistically we do get some time alone in the day at the weekends. So it's not unbelievable to expect that it would be possible to sneak off whenever. I expect if you want to watch an adult rated film or whatever then you just ask them to be elsewhere.

Still I do like knowing that in the evenings there will be NO demands placed on me at all. That's important to me and that's also okay. When he was younger I didn't mind because it was always quick to resettle and then on with my evening.

I have 4 DCs and only DC4 has ever slept through from about 6 months! DD6 still wakes in the night to come in our bed

Wee - depends what you prefer. We work in the day, so now they are at school 6-9pm is the only time of the day we spend together really. In holidays like now we keep them up until we go to bed usually as we like spending time with them and don't actually find we need just couple time as they will happily play together a few hours so they aren't full on. As babies the same. We have the opposite, we live in a small flat (1 bedroom), so no point in having early bed as would just keep them awake anyway as nowhere to get away from the noise anyway

My DS does the definition of "sleep through"- 6pm-1am, then wakes up hourly (and awake for the day at 6 30) so we still get no sleep. If won't stay up past 7pm without getting very cranky. He's nearly 6mo.

DS1 didn't sleep through the night until he was 4 years old. he's now 6.
DD has slept from around 8 until 7-8 from about 3 months (she was 11/12 weeks) and from 11-12 ish to 6ish from being newborn. so I say she has always slept through, but she wakes easily if there's any loud noises etc. she's 20 months.
DS2 is currently led grinning at me. he is nearly 3 weeks and has decided that night is much more fun than day! and I have to bring him downstairs so he doesn't wake his sister. I'm knackered. I want sleep...

I don't think babies do sleep through. I've no experience of it happening ever

My 'baby' is now 3.6 and still doesn't sleep through. Last night was a particularly bad night, he woke every hour fuck knows why, couldn't get to the bottom of what he wanted/needed.

I have nearly thrown my iPad reading some of the 'my baby slept through the from 1 week' comments. Pure jealousy, nothing else

Cersei- have you tried just letting him nap? Let him nap 5pm-6.30pm. Then wake him, n into bed at 10pm for the night. That way might higher chance of him going 6-7 hrs from 10pm

He won't nap at that time, he will be out until about midnight. Its just his own internal body clock which seems to have decided that's bedtime. I have tried before and when I've woken him he's been very upset.

The people I knew whose babies slept through put them in their own rooms from 4 weeks onwards. Not sure if the parents just couldn't hear them, or whether it was because the room was quieter. I wouldn't have done that though, each to their own but the anxiety would have stopped me sleeping anyway.

DD was 9.5 weeks. She found her thumb and slept through (until the sleep regression ) pretty consistently.

DS was about 15 months before reliably sleeping through.

"All babies of mine will be like DD so of course DS will sleep through early" are words I look back and laugh at