so when did your LO start sleeping through the night?

[maybelater]

and how did you do it??

Dd 13 weeks and Ds 9 weeks (7pm - 7am). Both are Gina Ford babies

About 4.5 months for me

3 weeks

DS1 was around a year old, DS2 is now 14mths and has started doing it some nights, although he still sometimes wakes once for a drink.

I wouldn't say i did much to make them sleep through- when they were older (over 6mths)if i could tell they were just having a little grizzle i'd go in, not pick them up, but smooth they hair and also check that they weren't wet. I could never leave them crying- always too worried that they were actually ill / having a nightmare / soaked through (sometimes they were)

Personally, i just followed their lead.

silvermum - I don't agree that there is a different understanding of "sleeping through the night". There is a funny rationalisation of bad sleeping habits, one of which is "6 hours is night sleep, and look, baby sleeps 6 hours from 8 to 2 AM". This is wrong, as 6 hours is night sleep for adults but is only about half of what a baby needs to sleep in the night.

Growth spurt at 4 months? Funny things, these 'growth spurts'. I have read on MN that there are apparently well-known growth spurts at 1, 3, 6, and now 4 months. Can we then say that the whole early life of a baby is a growth spurt? Or that 'growth spurt' is a way to rationalise a baby's bad sleeping/feeding habits at any point in the first six months?

If you don't mind, I will continue to believe DD's paediatrician who said a 4 month old baby does not physically need to feed through the night and that nightfeeds at this point are a habit.

Good for you if nobody wakes during nightfeeds in your household. In ours, DH woke (light sleeper), I woke (not only to latch DD on, but to keep her there for a half hour, and then to put her back to sleep which took another half hour at times. And then I couldn't get back to sleep), and obviously DD woke. Not good.

"If you don't mind, I will continue to believe DD's paediatrician who said a 4 month old baby does not physically need to feed through the night and that nightfeeds at this point are a habit."

This is an opinion just like all these other opinions about sleep on this thread. By opinion I mean not scientifically researched and proved once and for all to be correct.

What is important is that you listen to these opinions and then choose one (or make up a new one!) which fits in with your baby, with you and with your family.

only 1/2 of what a baby needs to sleep through the night HAHA

try telling DS1 - the one who I did CC with, I think he record was 11hrs, generally it was 8pm until 6am - sometimes a little earlier.

And actually come to think of it none of my babies have ever slept for 12hrs at night, even DS2 - my excellent sleeper,

DD1 - sleeping through from 10 months, only really reliable at 12 months. It was not a fun year. And we resorted to CC after everything else didn't work and my sanity started slipping away. Hopefully DD2 will be a little easier.

And by "sleeping through the night" I mean going to bed at 7pm and not waking up until "morning" i.e. after 5am.

gagarin - Err, yes, it's all opinions. But one is the 'opinion' of a well-respected paediatrician, the other is that of a stranger on the internet whose claim to authority on the subject is having had a child or two.

If you had a weak heart, would you listen to a heart surgeon or a random person on MN? Why, if the latter's words are just "an opinion, just like any other here"?

personally i trust my opinion more regarding feeding at night- neither of mine were ready to go without milk at 4 mths (nowhere near!)

FAQ - Your DC's sleep habits notwithstanding, you must know at some level that the norm is about 12 hours of sleep for young babies.

DD was trying to get up at 5-6 AM as well, but as neither DH nor I are morning people, we sort of ignored her and soon she was sleeping 8PM-8AM.

Mine didn't look like she was ready to go without milk at night, either. But it was a habit, and once it was no longer an option, she compensated by feeding more in the day. After a few nights, the habit was broken and she no longer woke up for a feed.

When I say "habit", I don't mean babies are not genuinely hungry when they wake up for a feed at night, by the way. They are.

Example: In Muslim countries during Ramadan, most people who intend to fast the following day wake up at 2 AM or so and have a big meal. Then they go back to sleep and don't eat until sunset the following day.

What do you think happens when the month of Ramadan is over? They still wake up at 2 AM with grumbling tummies, because their bodies are used to having a full meal at this time. You ignore the 2 AM hunger and go back to sleep for a few days and the habit is broken.

The focus here seems to be on physical need.

What did your well respected paed have to say about the emotional side of it?

Sadly well-respected paediatricians know little of normal infant feeding practices. They know a huge amount about ill children, children with developmental and feeding issues and they are the experts.

However I truely believe that their knowledge base on normal infant feeding is relatively poor and not evidence based scientific fact.

So in my opinion their opinion is just that - an opinion.

But my point is to find something that suits you - and do it. You did. I have no problem with that at all! Indeed I never fed my dd1 in the night past 5 months for just the same reasons as you. But that was a decision based on opinion.

"but as neither DH nor I are morning people, we sort of ignored her and soon she was sleeping 8PM-8AM."

Not much of a morning person myself but there is no way that some of mine would be ignored once they had woken up. If we'd tried to ignore them from 5-6am they would have screamed blue murder and become hysterical.
Some of how your child/ren sleep might be due to you 'sleep training' them but I think that you have also been lucky in that they have had the temperament to have responded in the way you wanted.

DD1 wasn't hungry in the night when we started sleep training - she would feed from me 3 times a night, but if DH took a bottle into her she would take half an ounce of milk, maximum. Which is how we were able to do CC - I knew that she didn't actually need the milk.

Interestingly, DD1 herself was a lot happier and calmer in the day once she had started sleeping through. She obviously needed the sleep!

well none of my children have fitted the "norm" of 12hrs a night as babies.

We tried the ignoring DS1 once he started sleeping through (after CC) and waking up early he NEVER slept longer than that, and now at 8yrs old still wakes up hours before the rest of us.

Surely everyone's perceptions of a 4m growth spurt will be varied since the introduction of the 6m weaning guidelines? A couple of years ago we were all weaning our babies at 4m whether they were extra hungry or not.

Sometimes the sensitivity of the listener makes all the difference, in this case my overzealous dh. Of my three children ds2 was the worst sleeper and still ocasionally wakes up once a night (aged six)trots upstairs and goes to sleep in our bed. When he was about 2 my husband would hear him crying and fetch him into our bed where we all slept happily till morning. HOWEVER, whenever dh was away on business trip I never used to wake up/get up fast enough being a much better sleeper, and quite often the little fellow would fall asleep again by himself. Now of course he can get up when he wakes. The other babies slept through from about 4-10 months with occasional reversions and are excellent sleepers. If the children do wake up in the night (illness, wet beds) I am absolutely shattered, and I'm amazed that anyone can survive/put up with a long term night waking pattern.

I'm not saying that babies only need 6 hours of sleep a night - I'm saying that for a lot of babies this is the longest stretch that they will go without feeding - particularly breastfed babies because the milk does digest more quickly. Perhaps your lo wasn't that hungry at night because she had fed enough during the day so you were able to give up that feed. I know for a fact that my DS was hungry during the night and I would rather feed him than try to convince him to go back to sleep on an empty tummy. I wouldn't leave him hungry or even possibly just thirsty in the middle of the night. No offense to you or your paed CoteDAzur but I think I will continue to believe the research of the breastfeeding experts who spend years specialising in the feeding needs of infants. I've heard the opinions of too many medical professionals being given as facts when they really are based on nothing. I'm glad you found a solution that suited your family but I don't think it would have suited us - each to their own!

Buckets, I completely agree with your point, and I think a lot of babies will need to wake up in the night with the new guidelines on solids after 6 months.

True about the change in weaning guidelines. DD was weaned at 4 months, as per guidelines of the time.

but early solids are so small it makes little (ir any) impact on their sleeping. They get most of their calories from the milk still at that age.

DS1 ate quite a lot (compared to DS2 who was also weaned at 4 months) - 3 meals a day very rapidly - made sod all difference ot his sleep. And now he eats like a flipping horse and still wakes up early

For any desperate mums out there, has anyone tried dropping a muslin over the baby's head to get them to sleep? Works on mine when I know he's definitely not hungry, pooey and has been awake for over 90mins! Works on kittens too.

So do any co-sleepers try anything else before BFing in the middle of the night? After all surely everybody does a bit of 'sleep training' during the day when we know they're not hungry etc.

ds1-18 months
ds2-8 months
dd-8 months

did controlled crying each time and it really works! they all sleep about 12 hours.