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Sleep

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Original poster

If your baby slept through from a young age (8-12 weeks ish), what did you do to achieve this?

30 replies

marzipananimal · 23/08/2013 11:32

I would consider sleeping through to be from 10-11pm to 7am roughly.
Did you teach them to self settle? Restrict night feeds? Offer water instead of milk? Put them in their own room? Anything else?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

JuliaScurr · 23/08/2013 11:40

mix fed from birth - bf in day, ff at night - it's more filling

we lived in a studio flat, dd in moses basket

but I do believe it's (probably) just luck tbh

AmberLeaf · 23/08/2013 11:43

I got lucky?

On balance, I have one that rarely sleeps through aged 10 so...

SmileAndPeopleSmileWithYou · 23/08/2013 11:45

My DS slept from 11pm - 7am from 7 weeks old. Then started to bring his bedtime forward on his own until he was sleeping 7pm - 6am (with a 10pm dream feed) from about 3 months.

From a couple of weeks old was to put him down to sleep and self settle. If he got a bit restless I would stroke his cheek or sing to him to help him settle and reassure him I was there.
We have a pretty consistent bath/bedtime routine too which helps him calm down as he has turned out to be a wiggly, active, enthusiastic little monkey.

He is 9 months old now and still sleeps through no problem. He also goes to sleep on his own, in his own room. He dropped the dream feed naturally at about 5/6 months.

I'm a believer that children know what to do and you can assist them in some things but they will either sleep through or they wont.

In my experience, food doesn't help them sleep through if they are not ready to.

extracrunchy · 23/08/2013 11:45

Luck - and then it all went out the window at about 10 months, which is apparently not uncommon!

SmileAndPeopleSmileWithYou · 23/08/2013 11:46

Sorry, should have been we put him down to sleep

SmileAndPeopleSmileWithYou · 23/08/2013 11:47

extracrunchy I'm waiting for that, I think its coming. Seems like its been too easy until now...

forevergreek · 23/08/2013 11:48

I never fed before sleep so they didn't associate sleep with food ( apart from during night when very small)

So for example bedtime routine at 12 weeks was:
10pm feed, bath/ wash, change, massage, Moses basket, lullaby. Roughly asleep 10.30pm. Before 10pm in eve they ate/ slept/ played or whatever. Slept roughly 10.30-7am. Fed on demand throughout the day

It was so much more relaxing as no pressure on 7pm bed, then waking, feeding again, resettling.

They slept in Moses basket in living room until 7ish months. Until we went to bed

mrscog · 23/08/2013 11:49

I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice on here, I think there are things you can do to start to encourage self settling, and there's also luck involved. However, I feel it's important that a couple of the things you mention (water instead of milk and sleeping in own room) go against safety advice for such young babies.

Ilovemyrabbits · 23/08/2013 11:50

Sorry to say this, but luck. DD slept in moses basket at the bottom of the bed for the first couple of weeks. Then I put the moses basket in the cot. Then moved the basket out and she was put in her cot for bed times. she slept through from 6 weeks old. I thought there was something wrong with her. She's 12 now, though, so clearly that was my imagination!

She has always slept through. We had a little trouble with her getting out of bed when she was around 2, but I did the quick return method, staying only briefly to reassure her we were there, but insisting that she went back to bed on her own. We had about 3 nights of broken sleep when she was 2 and that was it, really.

BackforGood · 23/08/2013 11:52

Just luck. Well, I had 2 that didn't, but then my 3rd slept from about 11pm to 6.30am on the first night she came home from hospital - we were so scared when we woke and realised she hadn't.
She did wake occasionally, but mainly did go through for 6 - 7 hours most nights - it was heavenly - but nothing we'd done differently from the first 2, it's just luck.

mrsbeano · 23/08/2013 11:54

Luck. We did everything 'right' but ds was having none of it. Not up every 45 minutes or anything but didn't sttn until I night weaned at 7.5 months. He self settled in his room on his own from 4 months, put down wide awake.

Lower your expectations and you might be pleasantly surprised. I drove myself mad doing everything right but DS didn't read the websites and books that I did.

Iwaswatchingthat · 23/08/2013 11:57

Dd1 slept through from 6:30pm until 6am at 12 weeks and was exclusively breast fed. I fed her non stop all day long, left to right, left to right....and particularly between 3pm and 5pm. Bath at half five, big breast feed at six then put in cot (never had a Moses basket). She slept well ever since apart from a few nights teething or when unsettled in a hotel etc. She has always been calm and easy going.

Dd2 slept through in the same time slots from about 7 weeks. Again breast fed. But at about four months she started to wake again and rarely slept well since.....she is now 7 years and sometimes still shouts in the night for a cuddle!

So I think it is more the luck of the draw!!!!!

DragonsAreReal · 23/08/2013 12:01

I ff and did 4 hourly feeds until 6 weeks for dd (thats when she stopped waking for 2am feed) and ds was 4 weeks when he slept 10pm till 6 am.

I did this from a few days old and also always did bath, bottle for 6 and then bed, then feed at 10 if that makes sense. The bath always seemed to make mine very very tired and they went straight to sleep. Cannot remember when they dropped 10pm feed but that wasn't a hard thing for me to do I just did it before I went to bed and they were in my room from their 6pm feed so I had my evenings.

I could not do on demand feeding and never knowing when they would be hungry or waking up.

flowery · 23/08/2013 12:08

DS1 slept through from 12 weeks, DS2 from 10 weeks.

With DS1 we had a fairly strict routine, which worked well for all of us. We did a dreamfeed at about 10.30/11ish.

With DS2 he had a routine as well but slightly less rigid, also a dreamfeed.

Both were ff from birth. Both were in their own room by that time although I do know that is not recommended and as a result would not recommend it to anyone else.

None of those things may have anything to do with it of course!

celticclan · 23/08/2013 12:16

Ds1 slept through from 11 weeks and ds2 from 9 weeks. I followed the GF contented baby book for guidelines on the timing of feeds. Ds1 would naturally wake at the exact time that his feed was due so it suited him down to the ground. Ds2 was not a hungry baby and I always had to wake him for a feed, if I had left it to him I think he would have happily slept through from birth.

Original poster

marzipananimal · 23/08/2013 12:22

Thanks all. Good to know it can just happen on its own. DD is 6 weeks and bf on demand - usually 2-3 hourly in the day and 3-4 hourly at night. She's pretty good at self settling so I'm hoping we'll start getting a longer stretch at night soon!

OP posts:

AnythingNotEverything · 23/08/2013 12:23

DS slept 10-6 from 8 weeks - just starting missing his 2am feed all of a sudden

I think this was complete luck, but I think I help your luck by differentiating night from day, and putting baby down awake. I know some babies just won't do this, but if you can, I think it helps.

I don't think there's a magic formula though.

Mutley77 · 23/08/2013 12:23

Total luck - my first DC slept through from 9 weeks (7pm to 6am) - I almost can't believe it myself!

My subsequent two children have been much trickier - I can't remember much about DC2 but DC3 is waking twice between 10 and 6 at 10 weeks. I have done the same with all of them, i.e. let them find their own way. Both older ones have slept in our room until 6 months and I intend to do the same with DC2 , I have put them " to bed " in our room when they are obviously sleeping deeply through the evening as I figure we may as well get them into the bedtime routine asap (particularly with DC's 2 and 3) - I know this does contravene strict SIDS advice though.

bishboschone · 23/08/2013 12:25

Both mine did and try was absolutely no luck involved . Both very different children . One healthy one not .. I will tell you exactly how I did it of you are Interested .( will be a lot of typing) .

chenin · 23/08/2013 12:33

Both mine did... 12 hours too. One at 10 weeks, one at 12 weeks. What did I do... hmmm like another poster, I ff at night and they both slept in their own rooms.

forevergreek · 23/08/2013 12:36

Marzipan- if you are bf roughly 2-3 hours in day, maybe try roughly 2 hours from say 4pm. It means in 6 hours she may fit in an extra feed and then move more from 3-4 hourly at night to 4-5

SingSongMummy · 23/08/2013 13:57

Sounds like you're doing well so far. Both of mine slept through from 8 weeks in their own room (with movement monitor!). I used to bf then top up with expressed breast milk at the 10:30pm feed which helped. Good luck.

Fairylea · 23/08/2013 14:02

Probably luck... ff both on demand, as much and whenever they wanted. I put each of them (now aged 10 years and one aged 14 months) in their own room from about 6 weeks (yes I know against Sids advice) with baby monitors so I could hear them... I never ever co slept and would do pick up and put down whenever they didn't want to go back down after a feed so they only learnt to associate their own cot with sleep. I put them down the same way in their cot for naps during the day (completely blacked out room etc).

Both slept 7-7 from about 12 weeks and had two good naps a day. But .... neither of them would sleep in their buggy or car seat AT ALL. It has to be the cot! But that'sa small price to pay for good sleep!

toffeelolly · 23/08/2013 14:16

Think it comes down to good luck. My first D's slept through s almost right away, he was best baby ever, had his last feed before we went to bed and slept right through till 6.00. ,he was my first. then dd came along she got up once a night, and was sleeping right through by 5 weeks. Then second D's came he got up once in the night , and was sleeping through at 4 weeks.All my 3 were bottle fed

CityDweller · 23/08/2013 15:57

I'd say luck. My 4mo was sleeping 8-5 from about 8 weeks. The only thing I did to encourage her was a clear bedtime routine (bath then feed to sleep) at around same time each night. Other than that, I bf on demand and she'd usually do a big feed before bed. then it all went to pot at 13 weeks and she's been doing multiple night wakings since then

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