so when did your LO start sleeping through the night?

[maybelater]

and how did you do it??

12 weeks. She occasionally (once every six weeks, maybe) wakes up in the night for a cuddle and then goes back down again. It's bliss and I would be a mental case if she didn't.

Last night ds slept from 6.45pm to 6.45am - he is one. He is a v keen bfeeder and would feed 24/7 if I would let him. He has never slept well so I am a happy bunny today
DD slept from 7-7 from six months - she is a good sleeper

ds was colicy with terrible reflux, he used to howl so much during the day that sleep training at 5 months was easy. come to think of it, since he started sleeping through he's been a happier baby, still puking even now and again at nearly two, but packs in a good 12 hours sleep most nights, and a gorge, happy, secure little man. Am deinately a sleep training fan (especially for "difficult" babies) and recommend healthy child, healthy sleep habits, as the best book for it. Have lent it to many friends, including co-sleepers, who've all used it and been wowed by the return of restful nights. Just out of interest, one co-sleeper said she was TTC, how exactly does that work with the baby in bed with you? (not being argumentative, genuinely want to know)

dd at about 8 or 9 weeks
ds1 at about 6 weeks
ds2 still not (he's 2.4 yrs)! but thats my own fault - there's only 22 months between the two boys and they had to share a room from when ds2 was about 6 weeks. Whenever ds2 woke crying from when he was this tiny i would go into him quickly and its just carried on from there. A definite rod for my own back!! but today is the start of another attepmt to sort this - i'm too knacked to let it carry on!!! trying gold star charts and rewards - lets see what happens!!!

Slept 10pm to 4am early at about 6 -8 weeks.

Slept 7.30pm - 7pm for about six months.

Aged one... became erratic, sometimes waking at 4 am, 5am and more difficult to settle at night.

Sometimes woke at 2am and difficult to settle again.

Slept 7.30pm 7am again for about 3 to 4 months.

Now aged 2.7 months, more difficult to settle (finds numerous excuses..need a poo, hungry, more stories, etc)

Wakes in the night, i think this is vivid dreams or nightmares.

DS is pretty good, but I thought that sleeping through the night meant every night, no disturbance. I was just a little naive.

ds is over 2.5 and I expect that I will be getting in bed with him later on tonight. I get too tired trying to settle him each night when he wakes up. Its easier, quicker and I get more sleep if I just get in.

Just add me to the bad mothers club. I am too tired to care.

Hello ladies, I've been reading this thread with interest as both dp and i are nearing the end of our tether regarding ds's frequent night wakings. He is almost 4 months and has gone from waking at 3am each night to waking at 1.30am, 3.30am, 5am, 6.30am etc yawm...Please could someone take a little time to explain a bit more about what sleep training is?

Sleep training is really for babies of 6 months and over - so at 4 months your ds is rather young to contemplate starting.

There are HUGE differences of opinion about whether it is a "good thing" or an "evil thing".

I would spend the time between now and 6 months-ish reading various sleep advice books and see if you find one that strikes a chord with your parenting/personal philosophies.

I would suspect that your ds is waking for a feed? If that is the case no amount of sleep training will work!

Why don't you start a thread called something like "4 months old and sleep getting worse not better - help!" and you should get lots of advice.

ds- 9 mths but from about 16wks he just woke once at about 3am for a quick feed and was otherwise 7-7.
dd1- 16mths, she used to wake up in the night screaming and nothing made a difference but she did have chronic constipation.
dd2- 6mths (she would sleep 6pm-9am). From a few days old she only woke up twice between 7 and 7.

Mine are now 3.10, 2.5 and almost 8mo and they all share a room and sleep from 7-7 and nap after lunch.

Sambo- I think a routine is important but it doesn't have to be really strict- just a general guide to when they want to eat and sleep etc. It helps if you write down exactly what times your child does things over a few days and see if you can see a pattern emerging.
Make sure your child is not overtired at bedtime and have a good bedtime routine- the same every night- try to get your ds in bed before 7pm. 4mths is still young so don't expect too much and BE RELAXED!

Ds started to sleep through at around 5/6 months of age and was 2 months prem. Moving to own room improved his sleep pattern considerably (and mine!!)

5 weeks 1930 - 0700

Now only wakes if teething or ill at 17 months.

'sleeping through the night' is actually defined as 5 or more consecutive hours so a lot of us probably managed this a lot sooner than we thought! DS did this erratically from probably about 5/6 months onwards but we co-slept so I didn't really notice/mind when he woke up to feed anyway. He's now 2.75 and sleeps for around 8-10 hours straight. I really do believe that they do it when they're ready and shouldn't be forced into anything too soon. Afterall, you wouldn't consider forcing your child to walk/talk/read/write etc before they were ready. So, as you can probably tell, I don't agree with sleep training. I'm a more 'go with the flow' type of gal I guess

5 consecutive hours, 6 weeks or so. But as soon as the teething started boy did it change. At 2;2 she still wakes fretful several times a night and is having homeopathic treatment for this (and another) problem. It is working, slowly (got worse before it got better). This kind of treatment is so great because it's so gentle, excellent for babies (like cranial oesteopathy). But they are all so different aren't they, so don't let my horror stories worry you.

DS started at ~6mo then stopped again. Did it once a couple of nights ago, not since. He is now 1yo, still bf'ing so wakes for a feed in the night, sometimes 2.

just gave birth 3 weeks ago to first and so far she sleeps from midnight through to about 7am. hope it lasts. i read that a study was done which found that mothers who exercised regularly during pregnancy where their heart rate was significantly increased had babies that tended to sleep longer hours. don't know where to find the study though.

I regularly did cardio exercises for 1-1.5 hours and 3-4 times a week at the gym when pregnant with DD, until management told me they were scared and not to come back until I've had the baby That was then I was almost 7 months.

Yet DD screamed night and day and was a horror to get to sleep and keep asleep. Until sleep training at 4 months - best decision ever.

sambo - That 6-month figure is not gospel. DD's paediatrician here in France told us to sleep-train her at 4 months. She said a 4 month baby does not need to without a feed but wakes up out of habit. So that habit needs to be changed into the habit of feeding more in the day and not feeding in the night. In order to do this, she told us to stop night feeds.

There are different ways to sleep train. There is "controlled crying" ("CC") where parents leave baby to cry but go in at increasing intervals (1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, etc).

We didn't leave DD to cry, but stopped night feeds at once. When she woke up in the night, DH went to her and tried to put her back to sleep any way possible - rocked her, sang to her, patted her, carried her around the room, etc. First night, this took many hours. Second night, it took about an hour in total. Third night, DD slept through from 8 PM to 8 AM.

Hand on heart, it was the single best advice I received from anyone, about anything. DD was a much happier baby once she started to sleep well, and I was a much better mum when rested.

I don't know who defines sleeping through the night as "5 consecutive hours" but that is not what I understand from the concept of sleeping all night.

DD did that when she was a few weeks old - 8 PM to 2 AM or so. It wasn't much of a consolation, since we could only sit down to eat once she was asleep (before, she would be screaming the house down and we would be carrying/rocking her non-stop) and by the time we got to sleep it was invariably after 10 PM.

I had a dream baby - at 7 weeks he slept 7-7. I did NOTHING. He came out of hospital sleeping an 8 hour stretch. It lasted till 20 weeks when his first teeth appeared. And apart from the odd few weeks he then didn't sleep through again till he was nearly 2 and his last teeth came through. He was a terrible teether and no amount of sleep training would have dealt with that. We just had to ride through it, administer pain relief and keep his temperatures down and provide comfort to a distraught baby/child. We had MONTHS of being awake for approx 3 hours in the night, but I fail to see what we could have done to make the poor kid sleep through when it was due to pain he was awake. Last teeth came through and he's slept through every night (barring sickness) since. Been a much nicer soul to know too

DS slept better when he had lots of feeds late afternoon and early evening. I fed him every hour to two hours from about 3pm on demand. Last feed was 10pm. This was when he was under six months.

8 weeks and breast fed - Followed Baby Whisperer book. Love that book! Buy it for all my friends when they have had a baby

Ds1 - 11 months
Ds2 - 5 1/2 weeks
Didn't do anything differently with second

slept through from 11pm to 7am at 11 weeks.
dropped 11pm feed at around six months, after which slept through from 7pm -7am roughly (wakes up bit after 6am in summer; bit before 8am in winter, cos of the light etc.)
Followed Gina Ford.
Oh, and i think it's probably a LOT easier if you're bottle feeding, which i was (not through choice.)

I think that's the problem cotedazur, our perceptions as adults of sleeping through the night and a baby's are completely different! One of the biggest shocks to the system for a new mum I think! I would be more inclined to use dream feeds when was going to bed and keep the baby close so I didn't need to wake up to feed and just deal with it that way.
I personally, wouldn't cut out a baby's night feeds to improve sleep because I think they are important and I do know that babies go through a growth spurt at around 4 months so I don;t agree that they wake up just out of habit. A lot of mums notice that babies increase their feeding around this age and sometimes all the excitement of what they are noticing during the day prevents them from feeding as much and so they stock up at night. I don't have a problem with feeding in the middle of the night if it keeps everyone asleep! That's the most important thing to me!

Dd's 4 and half YEARS and still doesnt sleep throughand never has!