3 month olds sleeping 7pm-7am???

[Kjpudding]

Hi, I have never posted on here before but would be interested in people's ideas. My 9.5 week old daughter has been an excellent sleeper since day one. Think she has only cried for part of the night 3 times and that was in first 2 weeks otherwise she is as good as gold (don't want to jinx it!) Currently she goes to bed at 7pm after bath and bottle and settles herself within 10mins or so and is sound asleep. We were dream feeding her at 10pm until 7 weeks but she never took more than 20ml so we stopped at 7 weeks. She sleeps soundly from 7pm until between 2.30-3.30am when she wakes for a feed. She never really cries for this feed but starts fidgeting and sucking her hands and generally 'chatting'. SHe takes about 180ml on average and goes back down awake with no fuss and settles herself again. I want to get this feed to as close to 7am, which is when we start the day and she has her next feed. Am I being unrealistic to expect her to be able to do this in the next week or so?? I've heard that babies can do 7pm-7am by the time they are 12 weeks but don't actually know anyone who has managed it. AJ was a big baby and weighed 11lbs 2oz at birth and is now 13lbs 10oz at 9.5weeks, don't know if this might help her do it?? Has anyone achived whole night sleeps without feeds by 3 months?? How did you drop that 2-3am feed??

God, I wouldn't be changing anything at all if my baby did what yours did. Be thankful that it's only one wake up and that you get an evening - sorry, don't mean to sound flippant, but if it ain't broke...!

Thats girls for you!

If you really want to try I wouldn't drop the 11pm feed, think that is the last one to go. At least that worked with dd, with ds gawd knows what is going on but he MUST eat every 4 hours without fail in his eyes!

sounds great! i don't think you really need to actively drop the 2am feed, just don't wake her and when her tummy is ready she will just not wake up, or wake up later.

Agreed, we only feed ds during the night if he is crying and can't be settled any other way. Don't interact with her at all if she's only sucking her fingers or babbling.
Ds is 13.5w and sleeps 10hrs but he doesn't go down til 9.30pm, and it takes a lot of effort to get him to sleep. He gradually just slept longer and longer without needing fed

My daughter was like yours - a little sleep machine. By about 8 wks she was 7-7 with a dream feed about 10.30. She'd trough down the whole bottle without opening her eyes so at 12 wks, I just tried not giving it her. And it worked! Different story with my DS, however. I think some babies are just good sleepers waiting to happen.

If your daughter isn't crying for a feed at 2am, why not just leave her and see if she just drops back without one. She might not really need it if she's getting enough milk during the day - think they just get into the habit of waking at certain times. You're lucky to have a sleeper.... enjoy!

The other thing we did you encourage night sleeping was 'stuffing' out dd from about 5ish onwards...as in I'd make sure she fed every 2hrs...5, 7, 9, 11...then she'd be down for a decent sleep. Though we didn't manage what you've really got now until about 4.5 months and didn't get a reliable 12hrs until late 5, early 6months.

Mine slept through from 7-7 from 9 weeks old, it can be done!

Would appreciate views on this - my DD is 14 weeks, has always been a lovely sleeper, self setlles etc. Goes to bed like clockwork at 7pm, straight to sleep. Had been dreamfeeding at 11pm, and then she slept until 6/7am, but since 12 week growth spurt started waking at about 4am for a feed. Anyway, this went on and on, so we dropped dreamfeed at 11, and just let her go 7pm-4am, then straight back to sleep until about 6:30am. Does this sound sensible?

olivetti I don't know whether it's sensaible but it sounds bloody marvellous. I wouldn't change a thing.

All my 3 slept through 7-7 ish by 12 weeks (8, 10 and 12 wks respectively), I was very lucky I know, but it does happen and your little one sounds like she could get there soon (although don't count on it - things can change!). The first thing I would say is don't feed her when she wakes unless she actually cries properly for it. With mine, when they woke I never fed immediately, certainly not if they were just chatting. My first thing would be to leave them well alone and only 'do' anything if they were actually crying. With chatting / fussing etc there was always a good chance they would go back to sleep after 10 mins or so. If they did cry I would first try settling (rock / pat / dummy) for 5 mins or so and only if that failed would I feed. With both my girls they went 7pm - 2am/3am by 7 ish weeks and then then the early hours wake got later and later until it reached morning (DS took a bit more work!). So eg I would resettle at 2am wake without feeding and then they would wake again at say 4am and only then would i have to feed. After a couple of nights suddenly the 2am wake dropped away, then i'd start trying to resettle at 4am when they woke, and within a few weeks of this pattern of later wakings and trying to resettle without a feed they went through.

Wow that sounds great. I too would not change a thing.

FWIW, I decided to wean my dd off the final night feed at 7mo, once she was established on solids, not feeding properly at night, and I knew she was not hungry. I thought she would drop it on her own, but she didn't, so we instigated it.

Personally I think the baby books would lead us to believe that 7pm-7am is the norm from a very young age- but from my experience and that of my friends, it is possible but not to be expected. And when it does happen, it's not consistent- even the best sleepers I know hit rough patches at around 4 months and 9 months. Even now, at 12mo, our dd sleeps through, but she goes from 7pm-6.30am max (often more like 5.30am- groan). I have to remind myself that we are very lucky to get 10-11 hours of unbroken sleep out of her at 12mo, instead of feeling despairing that she's up so damn early!

I don't say this to piss on your strawberries, but to try to reassure you that the ideal that is presented is not always realistic, and it doesn't mean your baby is less wonderful, or you are doing anything wrong, if you don't experience this ideal. I find there is huge pressure to have a 'good' baby who sleeps- whereas I think it's ridiculous to ascribe virtues such as goodness to a baby based on how long they sleep for.

Mime did this and then it all went wrong at 19 weeks - ENJOY IT FOR AS LONG AS IT LASTS which I hope is a long time!

it can happen and does happen and you look like you're on your way with your DD.

DC1 slept through (7-7) from 13 weeks and DC2 from 11 weeks.

They, too, only ever woke once in the night following their 10.30pm feed. When they were 8 weeks and were waking beyond 3am and close to 4am / 4.30am i ssshhed them back to sleep/quick cuddle/gave warm water . It took about a week of doing then and then they dropped that feed and they were they sleeping 11pm - 7am (obviously if they were starving then none of the above would have worked and i would have known that and fed them).

Then at the weeks detailed at top of post we just dropped the 10.30pm feed as they were taking a substantial amount during the day - if they'd woken for it and needed it then i would have fed them but they continued to sleep through at that time.

Good luck (and for the most part it is down to luck )

Thank you for all your replies, can understand now why people use this site. Based on the advice baby has slept thro the night!Yay! only once 7pm until 6.30am which i'm calling a night :) she did wake at 4am but settled herself after 15mins of fussing. She has since woken at between 5-5.30am in last few nights so she is closer than ever at being able to go the whole distance :)

We do put her back down after her first morning feed and to be fair to her she goes back to sleep until about 9am!! when I have to wake her as we feed again at 10am as following 4 hr routine during day. I can't complain but like someone said I think I felt pressurised to get her to sleep 'thro' by 12 weeks.

Can I ask probably a very stupid question..what does ds and dd stand for..?? you can tell I don't use these sites veru often..lol!