Do they ever just sleep through without training?

[faffmaff]

Have been mooching about on the sleep boards and seeing loads about CC and sleep training. Now wondering if these are inevitable. DD is a greedy chubby 6 month old who's just started solids. She slept through from 9 weeks till 14 weeks then decided she'd rather feed every 3 hours. She's breastfed, and self settles during the day.

Rather than the usual stuff about offering water and shush patting, just wondered if anyone has had LOs that just sleep through when they're ready? How likely do you reckon it is?

At 9 months old my DD started sleeping through without any "training". She was EBF and used to wake anywhere between 1 and 4 times a night. I have always fed her if she wants it. However, she still goes to sleep on my lap before I put her into her cot at 17 months old.

We didn't want to do any of the "training" as we don't believe babies should be left to cry. It was also the easiest option and thankfully DD sorted herself out.

It was hard going though and I thought I'd never get there. If DD's not well or having a growth spurt/horrible teething she sometimes wakes and if she won't settle then I bring her back into bed with me where she quickly goes back to sleep.

I believe in comforting a baby/toddler when they need/ask for it and we now have a bright, happy and quite independant 17 month old.

Whilst she drops off to sleep on my lap she now sleeps 7pm to 7am. If she wakes in the night we can hear her murmuring or a bit of a sniffle but then she settles herself back to sleep.

But it took until only a week ago to sleep until 7am she used to wake between 5.00am and 6.30am. Now we do lots of walking and running around she's tired enough to sleep 12 hours.

So if you choose this route, it can work.

Oh good, that's exactly what I wanted to hear! We were lucky with DS1 that we didn't need to train him in any way, and the thought of letting this one cry makes me :(

Yup, both dc slept through when ready. At v different times.

No sleep training here either. I had early wakers for a while but it all settled down. Couldn't really tell you when it happened. I can tell you that dcs are 2 & 4 and I can't remember the last broken night I had.

Not boasting btw.

Mine shad no 'training', if they woke for a feed at night we fed them, dc1 slept through at 7m and dc2 slept through about 18m, but he was waking only once a night from about 6m for a feed and we twiged at 18m he was just a greedy chugger who would drink a pint of milk if it meant a nice warm bott;e and dark sleepy cuddle! When we gavce him milk from a sippy cup rather than bott;e after 3 nights of waking for a feed he slept through

no sleep training here and DS is a pretty good wee sleeper and goes to sleep by himself fine (27 mo).

i quite miss cuddling him to sleep sometimes!

dc2 due in about 4 months so we'll see how that goes. :)

Reassuring, thanks. I must admit part of this is trying to get the maximum amount of sleep, especially as I'm back at work. Don't fancy all the cuddling and patting and bottles if a quick booby cuddle will do the trick in a few minutes. Plus the more feeding I do the more chocolate I can eat.

Yes! For the first time at 8 months, then more regularly from 9 or so months! It'll happen, good luck!

I have 16 month old twins. DTD slept through by herself by 9 months dropping her night feed without me doing anything.

DTS however is still waking up 3 times a night and then up for the day at 05:00/05:30am which is painful. I am seriously considering sleep training as I have not had more than 5 hours broken sleep for months. I keep hoping he will get better at sleeping but so far it's not happening. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep going like this.

I guess some babies are better at sleeping than others.

DC1 slept through at 3 months all by himself, went through a regression for a couple of months, then back to sleeping through the night at 7 months (except for teething). DC2 is 1 tomorrow and has never slept through - still wakes between once (on a good night - for a bottle feed) and 3-4 times (if teething). Am still waiting for her to sleep through by herself and wondering if it will ever happen. Haven't had the heart to sleep-train her though.

I've always taken the easiest route with regards to everyone in the house getting as much sleep as possible.

As I put earlier DD is a great sleeper with no help from us at all. But, if she does wake up and she won't go back to sleep in her cot, I don't faff about with rocking or cuddles or anything, I whip her into our bed and she settles down. This has not created bad habits and she probably sleeps with us 1-2 nights a month.

It if works for you continue to feed to sleep and definitely enjoy the chocolate.

I can't do training, or routine, or anything requiring any effort really. I've always just popped thebaby on the boob as soon as it wakes I. The hope it'll go back to sleep quickly. I can't remember clearly but DS was definitely sleeping through by 6ish months. DD is a wonder and has been since about 9 weeks, she's 22werks now. Keep waiting for her to regress but fingers v tightly crossed she's not yet. And by sleeping through I mean early eve till morning. Please god let it last

It happens naturally IMO, my dd started sleeping through after a bout of d&v, gawd knows why, but I put her to bed when we got home at the usual 8pm, expecting 12am wake up, never happened. She generally slept through from then on (she was 4 months).

Both of my boys started sporadically sleeping through at 6 months, we didn't train them, or stress about it tbh. The sleeping through grew from there, with backtracks, even now at 8,5,2 we are not 100% guaranteed a peaceful night, but they are slightly easier to put back down.

We have never really done any sleep training, apart from maybe once, when we were staying at my Mum's and dd (about 18 months) just refused to go to sleep whatever we did. We tried bringing her down to quiet her, we tried going in every few minutes, we tried laying her on the bed with us. In the end we just ignored her yelling and she eventually fell asleep. I think that is the only time I have used any sleep thingy. I am too soft, but in that instance there was nothing left to try.

My ds2 woke up tonight screaming blue murder, I took him downstairs for a bit, he was fine, he didn't want to go back to bed, but he eventually did about half an hour later. I have always found it easier to just lift them tbh when they do this, I would have taken him into our bed, but dp is fast asleep and it would have woken him up. I don't really want to set any precedents of waking up=sleeping in Mummys bed either, I value my space too much.

The power of positive thinking! Last night for no obvious reason she only woke once between 7.30pm and 6.30am. Hurrah! A step in the right direction...

And happy birthday to DC2 pink peony!

No training here. We night weaned from the breast at just over a year. DD continued to wake for a drink of water once, maybe twice a night. Now she sleeps straight through.

The only time we've had tears at bedtime is when she's been poorly, twice in total (she's just turned two years old). Last night she was tired a little earlier than usual so she asked to go to bed.

Like a PP we've done what we needed to do to get maximum sleep for all of us, so we've coslept - side car cot to just under a year, in our bed since a year. It worked for us and I've never understood the 'knackered parent' thing as we've always had enough sleep for all of us. The gentle method worked for us though I appreciate that cosleeping and bfing aren't for everyone.

I never trained DS. This meant he was still waking for a couple of night feeds until he was 1, and then one night feed until he was about 1.5 which was a lot later than many of my friend's babies. He now (2.5) sleeps through 7pm -7.30am most nights although we do have the occasional nightmare / kicking off the duvet issue!

All in all it was pretty easy BUT some of my friends had babies that woke for hours every night and if DS had been like that I would definitely have trained or just worn earplugs as it was DS wailed, slurped 7oz milk, then passed out within 20 mins so wasnt that much of a problem. We were lucky.

faff that's brilliant. Fingers crossed for tonight.

I never really sleep trained either - did a tiny bit of pick-up put-down with DS1 to help him learn to self settle, at around 14 weeks. DS2 worked out how to self settle pretty easily, and I never sleep trained him at all.

Both mine slept through the night (by which I mean from 7-7, with dreamfeed at 10/11pm) from 8-9 weeks. They did 7-7 without the dreamfeed from about 6 months. DS1 never regressed at all; DS2 did go through the 4 month sleep regression which resulted in wakings for a few nights, then slept through again. Obviously we do get occasional night wakings during periods of illness, teething or if one of them has a nightmare, but they always settle down again once that phase is over.

So I would say yes, it's possible but I do think that it varies baby to baby and it depends on how they learn to get to sleep and so on. If you have a baby who is able to self settle then yes you may well find they sleep through once they are ready with no need for sleep training at all.

Just my opinion of course, but if one thing made a massive difference to our LOs and sleep was being moved to their own room by 4 months. It was around that stage that they started going through more clearly defined 45 minute sleep cycles, and we were definitely disturbing their sleep whilst they were still in our room. I'll never know, of course, because we moved them (had no choice as outgrew moses basket, and our bedroom too small to have cot in it), but I'm as sure as I can be that had we left them in with us we'd have continued to disturb them, they would each then have started to wake regularly through the night and all could have gone haywire...

Just wanted to round this one off to say that yes they do!!! In DD's case she was just hungry - once we got her properly on some solids she started sleeping through straight away. So don't sleep train too early, people...