7pm-7am sleepers..how? Please god tell me how?!

[Jammers]

So I know from reading lots of other threads on here that babies who sleep 7-7 are rare, however, it is the holy grail in my opinion. I am interested to hear from people who have babies who do this (or similar, 7.30-7.30, 8-8 etc) and how they achieved it...

At what age did it start?
Did you need to 'encourage' your baby to do it by using sleep training or other methods or did it just happen naturally?

Lots of sleeping through/droppping night feeds threads are confusing as sleeping through the night seems to mean different things to different people (ie 12am-5am for some). I am interested in those 7-7 sleepers (although, really, if my baby was sleeping 7-7 I probably wouldn't be stalking various sleeping threads but would be out and about enjoying boundless energy and verve for life!)

PS Jammers how old is your baby and what is a typical night? I am also new to mumsnet and have found it really helpful!

Both of mine slept 8 till 8 from 6 weeks, even before then they only woke once for a feed at 4, think it's just pot luck tbh

My toddler has always slept well. We did sleep train early on but only for a week and it worked (controlled crying) thereafter all well (aside from teething etc). A clear and consistent bedtime routine in dim light and quiet really works for my DD. But the biggest thing that's proving to work well since she was 2 years old is that I really "big up" sleeping. I tell her sleep is a wonderful thing, that I love sleeping, that I love being in bed etc etc. She's got the message and now always says "I love sleeping, I wanna go to sleep!" :-)

Definitely luck. DS1 woke several times each night til we did controlled crying at 10 months. DD1 slept 7-7 from 6 months. On demand breastfeeding for both fo them. I was soooo envious of friends sleepy babies when DS1 was still getting me up - just couldn't figure what they were doing that I wasn't. Turns out, it was nothing. Sorry I can't help more!

I haven't read everyone's replies but happy to shre my experience. I have 3 DCs and all bf. I think there is definitely an element of luck to it, but not JUST luck.

DC1 slept through 7 - 7ish very early (pre 9 weeks). She basically did it on her own. For the first 5 weeks of her life she screamed almost non stop and hardly seemed to sleep at night at all - just cried and fed (or that's what it felt like anyway!!), then she started to settle well after feeds and go straight back to sleep. I never woke her for feeds so by 6 weeks ish she'd sleep from 7pm to 2am, then that quickly extended out to to 3am and so on. I always tried to settle her without feeding (dummy / rocking etc), just 5 mins or so and sometimes it worked, sometimes not. When she was almost 8 weeks she regularly went 7pm to 5 / 5.30am so I made an arbitrary decision not to feed her before 6 am (which I classed as morning!!). Just kept popping the dummy back in. The suddenly after a couple of nights of that she didn't wake up until 6.30am and we never looked back.

DD2 v similar although it was more like 10 weeks before she was reliably sleeping through.

DS showed no sign of sleeping through whatsoever by 11 weeks and I was going crazy, looking after 2 pre schoolers too driving me over the edge. I decided he had to drop the night feeds and that was that as I couldn't cope. Around 11 weeks he was waking twice in the night (1.30ish and 5 ish). I started with 1.30 wake. When he woke I didn't feed but held and cuddled him. he cried and screamed and rooted for well over an hour before passing out on my chest so I took him into my bed and he slept until around 5am when I fed him. Next night similar - cried and screamed in my arms for about an hour, then passed out and this time I popped him back into his cot and he again slept to about 5am when I fed him. Next couple of nights he setttled easily after 5 or 10 mins of crying and the went on to wake at 5am, then finally he just stirred at around 1.30, cried for a minute or 2 but I didnt need me to pick him up or comfort him and he just dropped back to sleep. So then we were down to the 5 am feed. I did the same with that as I'd done with the 1.30 wake and so altogether it was about 10 days / 2 weeks to go from 2 night feeds to none. He never looked back and has slept through ever since (now 20 months).

I think it's luck. DD1 slept 8pm to 9am at 8 weeks, and DD2 slept 7pm to 7:30am at 11 weeks. My rule has been to resettle if there is waking before 7am (we are a 7am household - DD1 was taught at 20 months that she wasn't to get out of bed untilher clock said seven! She's now four and still adheres to the rule!). A bedtime routine helps, I think, but I don't think there is any magic thing you can do.

I didn't read any books, and it just happened. It will for you too, honest!

The only thing I would say is put them down awake. That way they are used to going to sleep on their own, so if they do wake during the night, they are capable of going back to sleep without intervention. Not that they always will, of course!

Have you tried not feeding when he wakes, but giving cooled boiled water instead? It may be that he has an association of waking in the night and needing food to settle.

If you give water then it might stop him doing that. It does depend of course how much he's taking at each feed. If he is having 5 ozs 3 times a night then clearly he is hungry. In which case I would try and increase his milk intake in the day (easier said than doen though I know and only really possible if you are on a set routine)

It depends on the baby. It can be luck but it can also be down to routine and sleep training imo. My DD was sleeping 11-7 from 6 weeks and 7-9 from 12 weeks. She's 7 months now and is currently on 7.30-7.30.

We got here through some controlled crying both when we first put her down to sleep and if she ever woke in the night (although I never left her alone, always in the room and stroking her). We also did the core night method at first, which if I remember is the idea that if they go at least a week without needing to be fed in the night, you should offer them water rather than milk if they wake; complete pitch darkness in the bedroom, day-time sleep of no longer than 3 hours, main nap of two hours at the same time everyday, bedtime routine.

I think she's also a naturally a good sleeper though. It was very easy to get her into a good routine and to get her sleeping through.

Wow - thanks again for all the responses.

Orrisiah - love the idea of a 2 year old saying I want to sleep. Will store that approach in my memory for later!

Mrs Marple - fantastic CC worked so quickly for you. DS is 5.5mo and a typical night is bed by 7.30 (following consistent bedtime routine, always put down awake and leave the room - he settles 9 times out of ten without any further intervention), wakes sometime between 9.30pm-11pm for feed and again between 4am-5.30am. If the first wake up is early he will sometimes sqeeze in an extra one at 1am ish. He settles quickly after the middle of the night feeds but it is 50-50 whether he will settle after the 4am feed and if he does it is until 6.30am or 7am on a good day. This means that I am generally getting 4-6 hours sleep per night which simply isn't enough. Not as bad as being awake every 1-2 hours but still exhausting. Added to which for a good month at around 3 months he was going 7.30am to 6am ish regularly which was bliss!

Basically I feel in my bones that he doesn't need the night feeds and that I have slipped into giving them as the path of least resistance, added to which I am now plagued by doubt that he may be hungry (getting ready for solids etc.) or teething or something which means he needs the comfort. The fact that when he wakes at 7am he could happily go until about 9.30am without another feed just tells me that he shouldn't be feeding so much in the night. However, I have been unsure how to approach it as CC feels extreme and I don't think he has sleep association issues.

Nelly - thank you, thank you! Your story is exactly the reassurance I was looking for and I think exactly the approach I would feel comfortable taking. We have relatives staying this weekend but am going to go for it on Sunday and hopefully I will get a good night's sleep for Christmas!! I just need to make sure I stick to my resolve at a bleary eyed 1am! Congratulations also on surviving 2 pre schoolers and a new baby. I want all mine close together but people look at me like I'm mad...