Help! Tips on sleeping through night at 10 weeks old?

[AnnieDelores]

I have a plea for all you wise mummies out there?

My little boy Samson has been thriving on the EASY routine from the Baby Whisperer for the past two weeks now. He's now 9 and a half weeks old, a good weight, feeding every 3 to four hours and going to sleep between 8pm and 8.30pm every night. He even manages to settle himself if he is drowsy with the help of a dummy.

He feeds at around 7pm ish sometimes before a bath and sometimes after depending on his mood or how hungry he is. We wake him for a feed at 11pm and he sleeps through till about 3 or 4am (he once went to 5.30!). Does anyone have any advice on how to eventually get him to skip the 4am feed? Will it happen naturally? Do I try him with just a dummy or cut down gradually on the amount of milk I give him from the bottle? Boiled water maybe?.....although it seems to come out of the teat too fast for him.

Or do I NOT wake him at 11pm and see how long he goes?

Also, he loves his dummy and it really soothes him but he cant keep it in his mouth!

Any tips on all of the above gratefully received!

I don't think you can expect a 10 week old to sleep through? He sounds like a fab sleeper and only waking once is amazing!

I would let him drop it himself, he will sleep through when ready. How much milk does he drink at that time? Surely he will only take what he needs so there is no need to cut his milk down? If he takes a good amount, drops off straight after his feed you would probably making life harder for yourself trying to get a 10 week old go back to sleep hungry.

samson is such a a fantastic names
he already sounds like a good sleeper though.....

name not names

He may not be big enough to go longer than that without milk. At that age I would not like to make him go hungry. He does sound like a fab sleeper already - much better than mine were.

It might be worth seeing what happens for a couple of nights if you don't wake him at 11pm. None of my 3 ever got on with being woken - it seemed to reset their nighttime sleep pattern into daytime mode and then they would want to be fed every 3 or 4 hours again whereas if I left them they would have one long stretch of sleep sleep from 7.30pm bed time which gradually got longer and longer until they went through the night. Leave the feed out for a couple of nights and see what happens - if it's a disaster you can always start doing it again.

In order to extend that long period of sleep I would always first leave them fussing for a minute or so when they stirred (you'd be surprised how often they cried and fussed then dropped straight off again, I never exactly rushed to feed!), then I tried to re-settle without feeding (i.e. dummy / pat / cuddle etc). Sometimes they would re-settle and go another couple of hours before I had to feed, sometimes it didn't work and after a few mins of trying I would feed. As they got older I would find that the resettling would work more and more often and then suddenly a wake time would drop out altogether and the later wake time / feed would become standard for a bit until I'd find that they would start to re-settle at that time too and then finally we made it through until morning (all my 3 slept through by 12 weeks). I don't know about giving water or smaller amounts as I breastfed so those strategies didn't really apply for us although I have friends who did both those things.

Hi,
I've been using the same book along with Gina Ford and Baby Secrets!! My DS has a bath at 6pm,feed at 615 then usually asleep by 645-7pm. We were giving him a dream feed at 11pm he was then waking at 1am having 7oz and 4am having 3oz then only taking 40z at 7am. Two weeks ago I stopped the dream feed to wait until he woke for food. He initially woke between 1230-0130 and I was able to resettle him mostly around 0430 without feeding him. Sometimes he wakes at 3am for the 'dreamfeed'. Last night was best ever asleep by 7pm woke at 1am for feed then slept until 6am. Give it a go you can always re introduce it.

Thanks for all the thoughts and advice. We went out to a housewarming tonight between 6 and 8pm and he was a perfect baby and charmed everyone. I fed him at 5pm and again at 8.15 when we got home, although he only took 2/3rds of his feed. He crashed out at 8.30pm on cue and I didn't have the heart to change his nappy as it didn't seem desperate (he only poos once every 3 days and when the come they are super poos!!). I'm going to wake him for his dream feed at 11.30 tonight and see how we get on because he will also need a nappy change! If he only takes a partial feed, I will do as you suggest Airhostess and NellyTheElephant on Sunday and Monday night and see what his own little body clock wants to do. I'm not very strong when comes to trying to settle him and probably give in too quickly with a feed for a quiet life.....but will try the dummy for a few minutes just in case. Can I check in with you again Nelly and AirHostess to see how I get on?

Yes would love to hear x

I've also gone cold turkey on the dummy in the last few days, he loved it but had me up one night every two hours popping it in!! So the next day,the dummy was gone! Yes there were tears but he's now settling himself to sleep,even if he wakes at night. I didn't let him cry it out the first night, though I would go in every few minutes but waiting until his cry got desperate rather than whimper. Refer to the Baby Secrets book on how to do it.

Ooooooooooh I don't have the Baby Secrets book. Will have to amazon it. Last night Sam woke at 4.15 but DID want feeding even though he had nearly a full bottle at 11pm. The night before, he just played with the bottle then demanded food an hour later. So......I guess you never can tell. I wish I could tank him up more at 11pm but he's like a cat and only feeds when he is hungry and takes what he needs........which is good in a way! Downside is that I cant fill him up at 11pm. He's not doing too badly though as 11pm to 4.15 is pretty good going, although I have friends with babies who are sleeping through from 11pm till 6. They are girls though! I've heard boys are tougher! How is it going for you and how old us your baby?

I don't think the sex of your baby makes a difference to how they sleep. Your DS sounds a perfect sleeper for his age.

At this age "sleeping through" actually means 5 hours, so he is already doing this.

Young babies do need feeding at roughly 4 hours as his little tummy does not have room for any more. His tummy is roughly the size of his fist, so this will show you how much milk he can take and it's not a huge amount.

When he is a bit older he will drop the feed if he doesn't need it.

Hi
Agree that at ten weeks it is normal to waken regularly for feeds and that he is probably genuinely hungry. I would personally feed on demand until he is old enough to physically manage sleeping through. I would not recommend giving boiled water.

Your DS is a fab sleeper already, doing such long stretches at 10 weeks.Despite the general opinion, most babies don't sleep through until they are about 1 year old. The earliest you can try to night wean is 6 months, and some even say 1 year.

Babies have tiny stomachs so need little food often, night weaning so early would deprive your LO of nutrition. DS is almost 8 months and a very good eater, but still wakes up once in the night. He is genuinely hungry, he wolfs down a bottle in 5 mins and then goes back down without a fuss (most nights). He wakes up for this bottle at different times, between 1am and 4am, so it's not habit, it's hunger. When he starts taking less milk I'll start thinking about night weaning, but I think he'll do it himself when ready (he went from 2 to 1 night feeds a couple of months ago).

Oh, and I completely agree that the sex of your baby doesn't matter when it comes to sleep.

Don't count your chickens quite yet....

My general feeling is that the baby/sleep conundrum is a day by day thing. You might work really hard to find a solution now and then find it'll all go flying out of the nearest window as soon as teething or the 4 month sleep regression or separation anxiety or 6 month growth spurt or general bloody mindedness kicks in.

Nothing is permanent. Enjoy the fact that your DC is sleeping well now (because believe me, that constitutes good sleeping). Treat every night as if it's your last ok-ish night's sleep.

I speak as someone with one fabulous sleeper and a 9 month old who slept through by 12 weeks but woke every 1.5/2hrs between 4 months to 8 months. I'm now only getting up once a night which is such a relief!

Limelight x