Sleep

[Lid98]

At what age did people babies start doing longer stretches at night. We are nearly 8’months in and waking every 2 hours have been since 3 months old.
slowly going mad 🤣

Hi!
TBH mine didn’t really sleep thro the night until 11 -12 months on. So hopefully will be sleeping soon for you too!

Are they waking up for milk?
By 6 months both of mine were sleeping 12 hours, needed it for my sanity! Never done the crying out method, but stuck to a routine and had slowly phased out breastfeeding throughout the night.

The only way to chill him out is to bf him yeah. Every 2 hours seems excessive though .

2y
At 3 she went through a bad reflux stage and went back to waking every 40 minutes!

2h at 8 months isn't unusual between now and 12 months more babies will be doing longer stretches. I think by 12 months half can do 6-8h stretches

My daughters sleep has been equally terrible when she was breastfeed, formula fed and not had anything overnight. The reason her sleep is poor is unrelated to hunger. She can sleep through but absolutely all of her needs have to be met to do so which means this often isn't the case

Ah, I had one of those. At 8 months I night weaned and he was sleeping through again after a week.

It just wasn't sustainable and I had to change something.

I would night wean. They don't need to be fed overnight once they're past 6 months ish, it just becomes habit and comfort. You'll have a tough few days but sleep will probably improve if you can get him settling without being fed.

I think it's quite cruel to night wean when they are 6 months, my baby is 9 months and has really relied on some breastfeeding at night to help soothe her teething and when ill. One year old is more usual for night weaning. I'd look at other strategies first relating to routine, consider co-sleeping if you get more sleep, ensure not overtired, ensure not undertired, ensure having a big dinner or supper to help, etc. There's a lot you can do before that opion!

I would strongly suggest you don't use the word cruel so casually, it could cause a lot of upset for some people who have chosen differently to you. It is perfectly fine to nightwean from 6 months if weight gain is good and daytime intake is adequate - please do your research. If you don't want to that's your choice, but it is not cruel and there are plenty of other ways to soothe a poorly or teething baby. An 8 month old does not need feeding every 2 hours in the night - it is perfectly logical to suggest that reducing this would improve sleep.

Bottle of formula at 10pm works a treat

i'm not using it casually, I do think it's cruel, babies are programmed to feed at night still at that age. Every 2 hours is excessive, but there are ways to reduce without stopping altogether.

And I've done plenty of research, thanks, far beyond the awful 'Your baby week by week' or whatever source suggests nightweaning is fine at 6 months!

oh and of course your breastmilk contains vital antibodies so I'm not sure why you'd ever not offer a feed at any time of day to a poorly baby. Teething or poorly babies can easily become dehydrated and breastmilk is the absolute best way to settle them and ensure they keep taking in liquid. So I guess my point is, not only is nightweaning so early unfair on the baby IMO, it's also a bit pointless as you'll end up one step forwards and two steps back several times over the next few months, most likely.

So true. Feeding an 8 months old every two hours seems very extreme to me.
It's about comfort, not about milk.
If you make sure they feed well during the day, there is no way they would get dehydrated.

To clarify by no means am I suggesting that there aren't other gentler ways to cut down -- try comforting with cuddles and water sometimes, sure, but it's not developmentally appropriate to entirely night wean at this age for a breastfed baby. It just isn't, No matter what 'Huckleberry' or whatever random app might tell you.

OP, for me with my 9 month old, cosleeping saves my sanity. She wakes up less because she knows I'm close by and she feels comforted by that.

Is he in his own room? I found that helped mine with night wakings, if she couldn't see me she couldn't be bothered as frequently! She did six hour stretches from around six months old. Personally, the people who I know that co sleep have babies that wake up all the time well into toddler years but perhaps that's just my personal experience.

Also, when mine was just suckling for comfort rather than milk I would gently remove her from breast and cuddle her instead and eventually lay her down. She protested at first but it saved my sanity. Otherwise I would have hour long comfort feeds in the night!

My baby is 9 months and still has one bottle over night and wakes a few times and needs resettling. I tried to night wean and he was hysterical. Really hoping sleep improves too as I can never resettle him after 4am and he ends up in bed with me...

Because lots of people don't breastfeed at this point, which is perfectly fine and their choice. Plenty of people also don't want to cosleep. This doesn't mean they are cruel. Your choices are fine, but they are not superior to others, and I will say again that it is perfectly fine to nightwean from 6 months if you want to. If you don't want to, that is fine too.

14 months for me. 8-10 months was probably one of the worst periods for waking. It was every 1-2 hours. Slowly got better around 12 months but basically as soon as he had cracked walking he slept through. Just be warned the bit before he cracked it, when he would fall quite a lot, sleep went totally out the window. I didn't do anything differently so may have just been luck but it was like a light switch for him at 14 months.

@SErunner but you're giving this advice to a mother who is breastfeeding. Therefore your advice is particularly inaccurate. I still think it's unfair to a baby to nightwean at 6 months whether breast or bottle fed, however. That's my opinion.

8-10 months was rough for us. We started getting longer stretches at 11m. He's 16m now and sleeps through sometimes, others he wakes once. He's still breastfed. Most breastfeeding support groups suggest to keep feeding on demand, although nutritionally they can manage longer. We did an in between approach where we would resettle him without milk with the exception of one wake, where I would feed. I wanted to keep this in case of poorliness, teething, thirst etc and just to give comfort if he wanted it. Sometimes I feed more if he's going through something developmentally or is unwell and needs more comfort. Every 2hrs is normal for waking at this age x

What are those ways?

@PoppingTomorrow offering alternative like cuddles, getting husband to try to settle baby etc to check if they are truly hungry overnight. Sometimes they will be hungry however, due to growth spurts for example. With breastfed babies in particular with how quickly digested it is it really isn't fair to night wean before 1 when they're having significant food intake. Even later than that, many will do reverse cycling when you go back to work.

I can't rember exactly but probably around 5 or 6 months. By 9 months I think they were waking once or twice at night. They both started sleeping through (like 7pm to 7am) around 12 months.
If your baby's waking every two hours for breastfeeding at 9 months I think he's waking for comfort rather than milk as he won't need that much milk. I'd look into gentle sleep training.

I'm treading this. My 3 month old is EBF and I'm the higher earner so should really go back to work at 9 months.