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Original poster

when do babies sleep through?

37 replies

emalushka · 30/11/2007 22:45

My daughter is 11 weeks old today and is breast fed. She weighs about 10lb - I am quite small myself too.
When will she sleep through the night? Or how can I make her sleep through? She goes to bed at 7 every night, then wakes at 12 and 4 for a feed, then we get up between 7-8 am. I am desperate for a full nights sleep.... does anyone have any advice/opinions?

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emkana · 30/11/2007 22:46

tbh she sounds like she's doing great

At 11 weeks she is too young to sleep through the night, and you need to go with the flow atm.

She will sleep through when she's ready.

LongMeg · 30/11/2007 22:47

The only answer to your question is, sadly, "when they do". They're all different.

Plus people have different ideas of what "sleeping through" means; to some it's 6 hours, to others it's 8, to others it's 12.

I know it's tough right now, but it will happen.

LaylaandSethsmum · 30/11/2007 22:47

There isn't a specific age! DD slept through 7 till 7 at 6 mths DS didn't sleep through until about 14 mths. Its very varied , your DD is still tiny and needs to feed often still.

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Dontlookatmeimshy · 30/11/2007 22:57

Some sleep through as young as 7 weeks (friends dd did this ), some don't sleep through for many months. There's no rules.

I would say that for an 11 wk old breastfed baby, only waking at 12 and 4 for a feed was pretty good going tbh.

SleeplessInTheStaceym11House · 30/11/2007 22:59

when they feel like it.

dd did at 8 days but ds is still up once in the night at 13 months, ho hum!

christywhisty · 30/11/2007 23:04

11 weeks is not too young to sleep through. Both mine slept from about 10 until 7 when they were that age. One was breastfed the other was bottlefed.
They were both smallish babies but ds went from the 25th to 75th centile in the first year, so it is nothing to do with size either.

I didn't do anything they just stopped waking up one night and were sleeping through from then onwards.

christywhisty · 30/11/2007 23:06

Sorry that wasn't saying that all babies should sleep through at that age, but it is not too young for babies to sleep through then.

tribpot · 30/11/2007 23:08

It does sound like she's doing really well - bf or ff, to be honest. Can you get some help to make the nights easier to cope with? My friend with a dd of similar age gets her dh to do the 2230 feed, whilst she sleeps through. Erm, til 4.

hellish · 30/11/2007 23:09

congrats on your new duaghter,
sounds like you are doing really well, at 11 weeks my dds were both feeding every 2 hours all night,

didn't sleep through until they were 2 (years) - don't want to scare you - don't worry you'll soon get used to sleep being something that happens in small amounts

Original poster
emalushka · 30/11/2007 23:13

Thank you. I'm loving every aspect of being a mum, I feel so proud of her and am completely in love.... BUT the nights are killing me. I never expected it to be so hard.

OP posts:
LittleMissLate · 30/11/2007 23:15

I bf and found that doing a dreamfeed as I went to bed helped (so I only got one wake up about 3am - this was from about 3/4 months). By 6 months dd was sleeping from the dreamfeed at 10.30 through to 5.30/6. I didn't risk dropping the dreamfeed until she was 9 months but when I did she started sleeping from 7pm to 6am. I know that babies vary so much - my bf brother (over 9lbs at birth) was sleeping from 7 until 5am by about 8 weeks according to my mother! Think that is unusual though...

Original poster
emalushka · 30/11/2007 23:18

dreamfeed? what's that?

OP posts:
DaphneHarvey · 30/11/2007 23:21

Both my dcs slept through pretty much as soon as I put them in their own room. I just think we were disturbing each other in the night when we all slept in the same room.

But I followed the SIDS guidelines and didn't put them in their own room until 6 months plus. Then they would sleep from 8pm til 5am (killer) but gradually it got to be 6am, then 7am. Both very good sleepers before they were 12 months old.

Christie · 30/11/2007 23:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

madamy · 30/11/2007 23:45

DD1 - 11weeks for about 7 weeks, then not until about 1 yr
DD2 - 7 weeks - fantastic sleeper both at nap time and at night!
DS - is 6.5mths and has never slept through - awake at least 3 times overnight

All breastfed, smallish (although ds quite tiny) and solids introduced at 19weeks (dd1), 24 weeks (dd2) and 26 weeks (ds) - so goes to show how different they all can be!

robinredbreast · 01/12/2007 10:31

hi was really lucky with dd she slept through for the 1st time at 3 weeks,then between week 3-6 she slept through half the time,then from 6 weeks she has slept through everynight dd is now 5 months, although i may start the sleepless nights through teething soon i guess !!, and she is bf too,i didnt even think it was possible so i had v low expectations,i thought right you can expect to have no full nights for at least 6 months.
i am aware from many family and friends what dd does is the exception not the norm
so maybe you should just accept that your baby wont sleep through for a while,maybe that would help you think of it as a bonus if
she did

also how do you feed dd at night when she wakes ? have you tried bf while laying down?
worked a treat for me and i think it helps if there is no lights on noise etc ,helps define night and day imo
hth

zebedee1 · 01/12/2007 11:26

DS slept thru from 7-6 from age 4 months with a 10.30 dreamfeed. That's where you take them out of their cot and feed them asleep. However all went pear shaped at 6 months with teething/ starting solids/ 2 colds/ learning to sit up and he's been up MANY times a night for the last month!!! Hoping it's only temporary

CoteDAzur · 01/12/2007 19:12

emalushka - if you are lucky, your baby decides to sleep through the night by herself. If not, you stop the night feeds & after 2-3 difficult nights, she learns that nighttime is not for feeding but for sleeping.

DD's paediatrician told us when she was 4 months old that if we don't teach us to sleep through the night before 6 months, she would wake up every night and expect to be fed until she was 2 yrs old. Best advice I ever got. Two nights of patting/carrying/shh-shhhing her back to sleep and she has been sleeping through ever since.

beautifuldays · 01/12/2007 19:15

lord knows!
dd still wakes at 1 and 4 for milk and she is 10 months old......

sorry you prob didn't want to hear that did you?!

MeanOldMother · 01/12/2007 19:15

where is your baby sleeping?

Denny185 · 01/12/2007 19:41

DD - 2 1/2 when we got rid of the dummy
DS - 10 weeks, was ignored unless woke properly so was much better at getting himself back to sleep.
Both slept for longer periods once they went in their own rooms.

tissy · 01/12/2007 19:43

dd age 2+

Jojay · 01/12/2007 19:49

Another recommendation for a dreamfeed.

It's a feed that you do just before you go to bed, normally about 10.30.

You keep the room dark, and wake them just enough to feed, no more. Some manage to stay asleep all the way through, though my ds always woke up properly.

If they have a full tummy at 10.30, the idea is that they can then go till about 3-4 am, and then till 7 am, which is more manageable.

It's worth a try - it was a godsend for us and we continued it until ds was 7 months and established on solids.

Best of luck

walkinginaWILKIEwonderland · 01/12/2007 19:58

Everyone kept telling me 12 weeks, 16 weeks....any time soon....

SIX MONTHS!!

SO annoying but she will do it when she is ready.

Dreamfeed is defo a good idea.

annoyingdevil · 01/12/2007 20:11

Ds slept from 11pm - 7am at 8 weeks (breast fed). I did a dream feed and put him on a very loose routine (ie a proper feed at least every 3 hours.) He also cluster fed most of the afternoon