So when did yours REALLY sleep through?

[moominmama86]

Am feeling very despondent about ds's sleeping and need a bit of encouragement! He's now 6 months and all I seem to hear from everyone around me (hv, mum, strangers in the street) is 'Oh, he should be sleeping through by now' etc, etc... well, he isn't and I can't believe he's the only one! He's still waking to feed twice a night and what makes things worse is there's absolutely NO pattern to it at all. Am really reluctant to do controlled crying but feel as though I am depriving both myself and, more importantly, ds, of decent sleep if I don't.

What age did your ds/dd really sleep through (i.e. 7pm-7am or similar)? And did you sleep train or not? I know I can't be the only one but sometimes it feels that way!

DS2 - about 6 months, unless he is screaming blue murder i leave him or try and put him back to sleep.

He has flu at the moment ( 7 months ) and everything has gone pear shaped...

Mine slept through at around 9 or 10 months. 3 of them were sleep-trained (controlled crying - going in every 5 mins or so); the 4th did it fairly naturally. The key to each was to stop feeding at night. They have been perfect ever since - only wake in the night now if they are ill.

You are by no means the only one - most of my friend's children did not sleep through at 6 months. One of them is 5 years old and still doesn't sleep through although he has not been sleep-trained at all - he's allowed to come into parents' bed and gets given bottles (still!).

"Sleep through" technically means an uninterrupted 6 hour stretch, which is what people sometimes really mean when they are talking to you. My children sometimes did it from 1 week old, but didn't consistently do it until 18 months. As for 10-12 hour stretches, DS was just over 2yo and DD (who is now 26 months) still doesn't do it.

Well, you did ask!
We did do control crying with my eldest; My experience and that of most of my friends was that It works for a while, then something (jetlag, illness, fireworks season terrifying child, etc.) throws the routine, and you have to do it all over again. After a few years, you give up.

Now, 6 people are going to reply to say that they only ever did sleep training once with their child and it was fab grand easy for them, but that's not my experience. The only fans I know of sleep training in real life will typically confess to things like.... leaving their kids to cry alone when fireworks go off, for fear of starting a "bad habit". My aunt and uncle left their youngest DD to go 12 hour stretches from 2 months old, and reckon that starting at very young ages is the only way to make sleep training easy. Not saying that's all wrong, but not what I can do.

All 3 of mine slept from about 10pm till 6/7/am (which was fine for me) by six weeks, but I think it was pure good luck rather than anything I did. I certainly didn't do sleep training although I did try and make bedtime different from daytime sleeps i.e. moses basket in bedroom rather than carrycot in living room; bath before bed etc. Also I always put them down to sleep whilst still awake rather than having them fall asleep while feedint or in my arms and then putting them into bed.
I am now expecting number 4 and am prepared to get my come-uppance with the child from hell that is still waking during the night when it's five

DS1 was 26 months before he went all night, 8.30 - 6.30, I put it all down to badhabits we helped to form. This one will be different

At 6 months she was sleeping 7:30pm to 8am with 3 night feeds and waking up more as well. Started controlled crying to stretch the intervals between feeds. She slept through for the first time from 7:30pm - 6am at 8 months (and 6am was "morning" - no more sleep - that was almost worse than a night feed at the time). By 10 months she was doing 7:30pm - 7am but still waking early or waking in the night 2 or 3 times a week. No more night feeds though. But everytime she gets sick she goes back to waking up several times or deciding that it is morning at 5am, and it takes a night or two of controlled crying to get back to normal (there comes a point where I realise she is no longer waking cos feeling ill, but just taking the mick ). At 16 months she suddenly got scared of the dark and nights were awful until we worked out what was going on and got a nightlight. Now at 18 months she does 8pm ish (is very reluctant to go to sleep at the mo) until 7am ish, about 3/4 of the time. Once or twice a week she is awake in the night (for long enough to need us to go in and stroke her head) or decides it is morning at about 6am.

my dds were 5!!!! years not months!!!!!!! I did everything lyou are supposed to do over and over again and again and again so don't despair if it never seems to start happening.

Hi, when our little girl was 6 months we moved her out of our room and into hers and were quite hard ignoring her cries. I was going back to work then and needed my sleep plus was advised by all to be harder. She now sleeps 7.30 pm til about 6am or 7am if we are lucky. We may have to change her nappy or give her a cuddle if she really cries hard but we try to ignore her.

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7 months and slept better at 10 weeks than she does now! Mind I'm back at work and she's had everything in the last month. I'm just trying to feel cheerful about it as she's a lively, alert, charming child in the day. Mind you she's always laughed at yawning and gets plenty of that!!

1st woke up every four hours till he was 1
2nd 6 months

My friends son is 5 YEARS and doesn't sleep thru. He has bad asthma and as a baby, if he cried he had trouble breathing so they could never just let him cry for long. So here they are, 5 years on and he still wakes at least once in the night - think I would get quite firm about it now!

The night that I sleep through, NEVER need a pee for instance then I'll expect my kids to sleep through too.

Zebra I always thought it was a 6 hour stretch too that was 'counted'.

my ds is five months and 'sleeps through' but keeps erratic hours - most nights 10.30 ish to 7, some nights doesn't go down till midnight, others sleeps 10.30pm to 9.30am or even longer. we've tried persuading him to go to bed earlier, but he really won't sleep until he's good and ready (and feeds a lot in the evening ? we are introducing solids but he's still breastfed on demand). Good luck!

My DS went 10pm to 7am at 12 weeks ... and 7pm till 7am at 16 weeks ... He was a Gina Ford baby!
I could leave it at that and make you all hate me BUT ...
After he had his first 'lurgy' at 8 months ... we had to do sleep training - and it worked ... 3 nights had it sorted ...
Then again at 12 months ... and at 14 months ...
Then at 18 months (like someone else further down) he developed a fear of the dark - which is not good when you have diligently had black outs just like Auntie Gina says ... Why doesn't she cover that?
Then at 2 he learned to climb out of his cot ... so we put him in a bed and he decided to roam at night ...
Then everything went out of the window at 2 and 4 months when we moved to NZ ... stayed with in laws for 6 weeks ... then rented accommodation for 4 months ... and then when we bought our house poor DS had to sleep in the box room for 5 months while his father decorated his bedroom (yep ... 5 MONTHS!!!) ... the upheaval was enourmous so in that year DS learned how NOT to sleep through the night ...
He is now 4 and I have given up ...
He wakes up in the night (for a cuddle) about 3 or 4 times a week ... he gets a sticker on his chart if he goes through without calling out ...

Well, you did ask

So ... Sleep Training and Gina Ford DOES work but by the time they get bigger they will or they won't .........
Sorry ... not much help ...

I think sleeping through is 7pm to 7am, give or take half an hour or so. My dd was 7 weeks, my dses 12 weeks and 9 weeks respectively. which just goes to show (as far as I'm concerned) that it is mainly down to the genetic makeup of the child since there is certainly nothing magic that I did for any of them. no controlled crying, nothing. but I am a champion sleeper (would happily sleep 14 hours a night with no problem) as are most of my family, and I guess they have all inherited that...

8 months but then we still have about 4 nights out of 7 now (ages 26 months) when he wakes up.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think there is much you can do to help improve sleep patterns but fundementally I think it is to do with the personality of the child (as are most things). If you think about it some adults are fab sleepers - like princess! and some are light sleepers - like me sadly
I'm constantly amazed at the difference in sleep tempraments between friends children. my BF's little girl will sleep for england (and did so ffrom 6 weeks) her second is an awful sleeper and she did nothing different between them.

It will get easier thought moomin

DS was a bf Gina baby and did 10-7 from 10 weeks and 7 to 7 at about 18 weeks I think. BUT in his second year teething happened and sleeping has been all over the place! He is now 23 months and in a bed and each night is different. My friend has her second baby..first slept like my DS but this second is totally different..almost 5 months and still up loads in the night. It will get better though!

Been lucky with my dd so far - she first slept through (from about 10pm - 7am) at 11 weeks, and did this fairly consistently from 15 weeks. At the moment she does 8pm-7.30am (she's 5 1/2 months). I wish I could say I did something special but no, she dropped her night feeds herself! I would agree that to a large extent it's down to the individual child, some are just better sleepers than others. I am waiting for illness/teething to send it all pear-shaped....

My ds did 10.30pm-5.30am at 8 weeks, would sometimes go until 6.00am. I can't remember exactly when he started to sleep 12 hours, but I know that it was blissful from about 6 months onwards!! He had 12 hrs during the night and 2 sleeps during the day. He is still a pretty good sleeper at 3 1/2, but I also put it down to the fact that my dh would happily lie in until 10.00am every morning if he could, whereas I have always been more of an average 8 hour sleeper. I think it's a mixture of genetic make-up and sleep training that probably determines the outcome, I would say mostly genetics though.

My ds first slept through at around 6.5 months. We couldn't cope any more with the lack of sleep (waking every hour for a 5 min breastfeed) We also wanted our bed back and were tired of sleeping clutching the edge of the bed and trying not to fall out. So we resorted to sleep training and it was the best thing we have ever done. He now sleeps from 7pm-6.30pm, has regular naps during the day and is an all round happier baby (as we are parents) We now enjoy him much more as we are not so tired and irritable. Try reading How to solve your childs sleep problems by Dr R. Ferber It gave the best advice (even dealing with the fact that some of us are unable to leave our child crying for long periods in the hope that they will fall asleep!)Good luck!

interesting the different definitions of "sleeping through" - i counted it as going from 10.30ish to 7.00am, i.e. the time i would count as a normal night's sleep for myself. that happened about 8 weeks and the 7.00pm to 7.00am thing happened at about 16wks.

Sorry Zebra - DS sleep-trained at 6.5 mths, and since then has generally slept through from 8pm-around 6-6.30am. If he wakes up, it is because something is wrong (cold, feeling sick, fireworks!). This may go wrong when he goes into a bed, but it works for now. Still too bloody early in the morning for me though, I'd love a baby that slept 7pm-7am!

My definition of sleeping through is that either I don't have to get up or if I do its only to tuck DD back into a comfy sleeping position and go straight back to bed. On that basis I would say that at 7 weeks she started sleeping through to about 5am (from about 8pm). This slowly stretched out to about 7am by about 12 weeks. She is now 20 months and most night wakes at least once but I usually wait for at least 5 mins before getting up (unless she is really bellowing) and 9 times out of 10 she will go back to sleep before then. I don't hesitate to go in if I think there might be a good reason for her crying out. This was reinforced recently when I decided her cries were more heartfelt than normal and went in to find she had vomitted (onset of nasty tummy bug). SO I think you have to trust your instincts on the sleep training thing.

DS slept from 8-6 when we moved him into his own room as he was so noisy and disturbed me, he was 5 weeks old. DD was in our room until 14 weeks old and I suddenly wondered why was sshe still in our room when sleeping through.

I think bigger babies tend to sleep through earlier, DS was 9.12 and DD 9.8, DD breastfed, so don't know how much she fed, DS bottle fed and used to get through 6 8oz bottles a day sometimes!

They have always been brilliant sleepers, never been early risers, even when at 2 years old anf goping to bed at 6.30, lights out 7.00pm, they slept till at least 7- 7.30 .

Can't get them out of bed for anything now they are teenagers either except to earn money or eat!