How long did the tough new born stage last?

[pollypocketss]

At want month did you feel like you were out of the foggy new born stage?

Did it take longer with each baby (if you went onto have more)?

And at what month did (each) DC start sleeping through the night?

Do you feel that was down to the babies personality, temperament or parenting style with each one?

Felt good by 6 weeks in. She was going for 4 hour stretches some nights then and I was cosleeping so I could even sleep while she fed if I needed to. She's one now and still doesn't reliably sleep through, but I just feed her in bed with me so it's fine. She feeds more when teething etc. I love being mum and night wake ups were what I signed up for so it doesn't bother me now. What I found really tough was those two hourly wake ups in the early days to then feed for an hour. But we got through it and by four weeks I was feeling vaguely human!

She's my only baby.

I found things got easier every time a major milestone was met so when they could sit up, when they could crawl etc but overall I'd say I found 6 months a turning point for both DC. They also both started sleeping in their own rooms and sleeping though at 7 months but I think I'm incredibly lucky there.

DS1 4mo
DS2 6 weeks and DD 8 weeks.

I will be a very long time if you don’t allow them to settle themselves and hold them all the time.

Baby 1 - 3 months

Baby 2 - 3 years 😭

Ds 1 - slept through from 10 weeks.
Ds2 - (currently 3 months old) slept through from 9 weeks!

I haven't done anything fancy, just incredibly lucky!

I think really everything felt OK from then! A full night's sleep makes a huge difference.

First baby I didn't realise it at the time but she got so much better after 2weeks. She wld do long stretches and I had to wake her for feeds. I stopped waking her at 6weeks and she wld sleep 12-14hrs overnight. She was the best wee baby so happy and hardly ever cried.

My second was not so gd lol and def liked to cry! I started to feel able to get out the house more around the 10wks mark. I was going to bed at 9pm though and letting dh do a feed so that if she wouldn't settle I'd get back up at midnight with her. I survived on 4hrs of broken sleep quite often. At 4 months she started sleeping for 6hrs in a row. Usually it would only be one night feed from then on. She was still a terrible sleeper. She wld still waking during the night and cry for no reason up until age 2! Often being awake for 1-2hrs before I managed to settle her down.

She still doesn't sleep through the night as such and she's 4. Instead she likes to come in with me for cuddles during the night. Although now sleeps 12hrs or more thankfully. She is not a morning person, loves a gd lie in lol but is a nightmare to wake up for nursery!

Thank you everyone, very insightful

I've had 3 and found each one easier than the last basically due to giving up lmao
I think with my first it was such a shock that the newborn stage seemed to last forever..
But with my 3rd it's flown by and I'd only really say it was about 4 weeks that it was hard.. maybe even 2.
I think I just don't have ridiculous expectations about how much I'm going to get done in a day or how much sleep I'm going to get any more.
Have learnt to just go with the flow. Put baby down when she seems tired rather than at specific times.. don't take crying personally as I know sometimes they just cry and there's nothing to be done.. don't expect to be anywhere before midday.. don't expect the house to look pristine.
I'm just enjoying my time with my baby. It goes so fast. She's nearly 6 months now and it honestly has flown by.
My first was definitely a lot harder but looking back it wasn't because he was a difficult baby it was just because I personally was finding caring for a baby hard!

DC1 - I was completely overwhelmed for 18 months. Slept through: 6 years old!!!!

DC2 - easier from about 6 months, slept through from 18 months (after sleep training).

Well.... he's 11. And we're still in what feels like the fecking newborn stage.
He. Never. Sleeps.
And cries all day.
Send help!!!

Started self soothing and slept through from about 9/10 weeks, she's 12 weeks now and sleeps in until 9/10 most mornings

Forgot to add I don't follow sleep cycles I let her sleep when she wants and play when she wants

DC1- 6 years
DC2 and 3 were much better sleepers, couldn't tell you when they slept through as I was always up with DC1 but would guess around 1 year.

I think it is down to the baby's personality.

It depends what you mean by sleeping through the night, we had a night at 7 weeks where he slept from 12 midnight-6-am and I was so happy! It definitely wasn’t consistent after that though. I’d probably say 3 months was the time it started to feel a bit easier but definitely after 5/6 months I’ve started to enjoy things more with him

With my first it was definitely 2-3 months to get over the shock to the system. It felt so bizarre that I went into hospital and came out and my life had completely changed.

With my second, she just slotted straight in. I found the newborn stage a breeze compared to my first but learning how to juggle a 1yr old and a newborn took about 6 weeks.

as for sleeping through, my first is a good sleeper but my second only started sleeping through this year and she's 5 next week 🙃 she still climbs into bed with us at 1am most nights.

14 years and counting 😂

Seriously about 3 -4 months

DS1 at around 3 weeks it was tough but the "Jesus fuck how have we been allowed to leave hospital with a baby" fear had dissipated, plus recovery from the c-section. Slept through from about 14 months, but had always been happy to sleep in a cot overnight, and his naps were longer (and lasted until he was older) than seemed the norm. At 5 he remains a child that needs a lot of sleep.

DS2 was in NICU for a long time, and once we were home it probably took about 6 weeks for me to stop panicking that something was going to go wrong. Never happy sleeping anywhere but on a person, and DP and I did effectively shift work to each get some sleep for a long time... Which we felt wasn't too unreasonable after the trauma (for everyone) of NICU. Now 16 months corrected and going for not bad stretches overnight, but not as consistent as DS1 was. He also clearly needs less sleep than DS1 did.

I think it's primarily temperament, but with DS1 we also had the time to persevere with things like naps in the cot. With DS2 we were juggling the needs of two children, so contact naps were a lot easier.

My daughter slept through at six weeks she also has pretty much only ever woken up once in the night for a feed.

I agree with this

mine was like 8m? With the first and 8weeks with the 2nd.

Also, people mean different things when they say "sleeping through the night". For me it means that they go to bed, they don't need anything from you, and when they're awake they are awake for the day. But for some people "sleeping through" means that when they wake for a feed they go immediately back to sleep.

Sleeping through the night?

DS1 was about 18 months.
DS2 about 12 months
DS3 about 50 months. Yup. That’s over 4 years.

newborn fog significantly worse with DS3. I got better when he started school,

Baby 1 - a year
Baby 2 - 2/3 months

Oh and sleeping through the night
Baby 1 - 18 months
Baby 2 - Still having 2 hourly wakes at 6 months..

DC1 - very unsettled baby. Born during lockdown. I didn’t feel anything lifted until maternity leave ended tbh. Slept through from 10 months but was v tricky during the day (still is).

DC2 - easy baby. Lovely mat leave experience. I was up and about and fine within days of his birth. Still isn’t sleeping through at nearly 13 months 🙃