What do you count as 'sleeping through'?

[Bellabelloo]

I was at a baby group today and one of the mum's kept saying how her baby is sleeping through at 6 weeks. I saw her later and asked how she managed to get her 6 week old to 'sleep through' only to find out that she puts the baby to bed when she goes to sleep at midnight - and then the baby usually wakes up at 5am and they get up and start their day!! I see that as putting the baby to bed in the middle of the night and getting up in the middle of the night!

But it got me wondering....this acclaimed 'sleeping through' that we all wish to achieve, what bedtime/wake up times does it actually mean to you?

I take it to mean that baby is sleeping sufficiently long that the parent is getting at least 6 solid hours.

I would have said my dd was sleeping through when I put her down around 7pm or 8pm and then she wouldn't get up until at least 5:30am or 6am. When she started to sleep through I might get have had to settle her with a dummy at some point during the night but if I'd have had to feed her then I wouldn't have classed that as sleeping through.

For us, that luckily happened from when dd was around 12 weeks old. Before that she would have wakened once at night to feed (around 2am or 3am) and before that two night wakenings to feed (around 11pm/12am and then again around 3am/4am), and I definitely wouldn't have called that sleeping through.

I would never say that she sleeps through at a baby group though unless someone specifically asked or it seemed appropriate to say it, I worry it sounds like I'm showing off or something especially if the person you're talking to doesn't have a good sleeper!

6-6 or 7-7

I used to feed at 10.30 and he'd go to 6.30.

But then when he was a toddler 7.30pm to 5am (and nothing made him go later even later bedtimes).

Even as an older child 7am. Was pretty much 17 before he'd lie in like normal teens

I considered sleeping-through to mean:

I put her to bed at 19:30
She slept until 7am

BUT - she may have woken from time to time in that period, but nothing that needed anything other than a quick reassure from me (hand in the crib and some shushing). i.e. I could stay in bed from my bed time until 7am.

Of course if she'd woken for reassurance fifty times in that period, that wouldn't be sleeping through, but if it was once or twice, I consider the job a good 'un.

I see it as sleeping through once my night is no longer regularly disrupted. For DD1 that was aged 2 (she was a terrible sleeper but now goes 6:30-7 and sleeps like a log so I don't mind too much)

DD2 is 6 weeks old and ocassonally goes from 10pm - 3:30am. This is 5.5 hours but I wouldn't class it as sleeping through until it doesn't disrupt my sleep - so not until she wakes up after 6am, having gone down before I go to bed (pre-10:30/11pm)

I used to put mine down at 7pm then wake again at 10 for medication. She would then sleep until 7. I used to call this sleeping through.

Although to be honest I wish I had never bothered as it just upsets people. When I have this baby, it doesn't matter if she sleeps 12 hours solid from day 1 - I am telling no one no matter who asks!

Oh and just to be clear I don't mean I announced it at baby groups. It was asked regularly. People are keen to know it seems

I think I'd call.sleeping through 11-5.30 or 6. Ds is about 50/50 at the moment as to whether he wakes for a feed in the night. He goes down around 7.30 and wakes for the day at six if he hasn't had a night feed and 7.30 if he has

I think the "official" line of sleeping through is 4-5 hours of unbroken sleep.

I would say 7-7 or 6 at the very earliest.

People seem to be obsessed with asking how everyones babies sleep.

Although she slept 10-6 at 4 months and I recall saying she slept through then.

I'm with you OP! Mine were good sleepers, so I felt bad at baby groups.

Ds1 - 7pm - 7am consistently at 14 weeks.
Ds2 7pm - 7am, with quick bottle feeds at 10pm and 2am until 6mo.

I remember being at my wits end with ds2 and telling people he's waking twice a night. Apparently the 10pm didn't count as "in the night" but when I was going to bed at 9pm it was twice Tbf, dh would do the 10pm during the week, and the 2am at weekends, so I'd pretty much always get 5-8hrs solid a night (do the 10pm one on weekends and go straight to sleep, then not be needed until the 7am feed).

I'd class it as: when I go to bed till a 'reasonable' hour of the morning. Basically, if I get my usual night's sleep then that's 'sleeping through'. With no wake ups. For me that would be about 10-ish till at least 6. Midnight to 5 is pretty rubbish! The old 7-7 seems a rather stringent definition to me.

A miracle! X

7 til 7 or thereabouts

I'm with the Mum at your group. I was thrilled when dc3 came along and would sleep from about 11 / 11.30 until 5am. A WHOLE BLOCK of solid sleep - never had that with dc 1 or 2, so I called that a win

I class my DS2 as sleeping through. He goes to bed at 7 ish, we feed him at 9.30 and then he sleeps till about 6.30.

7-8pm to 7-8am without waking at all

DC3 did this from 7 weeks old.

I consider sleeping through being asleep/ going to sleep when I do and waking up ridiculously early but definitely at a morning time after 05.30.