When do babies REALLY sleep through! Be honest!!

[HJ82]

So far on this 8 month journey of parenting we've tackled the usual sleep issues, cat naps etc. Night feedings etc, still going strong... slept through once at 6 months. Hasn't since. Anyway, long short of it. Every mum I know has the same stories. Multiple wakes, screaming sessions middle of the night, co-sleeping till 2years old on boob in bed... etc etc. Heard it all. We've done gentle sleep training and baby responded well but then hits a new phase or gets sick and it all goes tits up.

So tell me, when did your babe ACTUALLY sleep all night long? Like the 7-7 dream

@PorpentinaScamander I should have been more clear. What I meant was not needing you to help them go back to sleep. Not waking every hour or 2 or 4 crying till you feed them, cuddle them etc

@Dinosauratemydaffodils feeding aside, you still have to get up through the night assuming you just have a different sleep association to help them get back to sleep? If they are self settlers why do you need to get up?

1 year. It was like he received a memo on his 1st birthday.

It depends, they are all different but basing it on the aged my DC and DGC slept through it will be sometime between the ages of 8 months and 2 and a half. But even then not regularly. There were still broken nights when they were ill, had nightmares. Or just unsettled for some reason

feeding aside, you still have to get up through the night assuming you just have a different sleep association to help them get back to sleep? If they are self settlers why do you need to get up?

Because I don't want them waking dh or the other one up with their bouncing about/talking to themselves loudly/singing choruses of "we will rock you". We tried them in separate rooms and that was a total disaster so for the moment they need to share.

Also if they are screaming, I have no choice but to check on them because I don't know why they are doing it. They might be afraid, scared or ill. More often than not, it stops before I get to their bedroom door but I still need to get up. Dd also has a bad habit of throwing her duvet/Mog/pjs out of her cot so I need to check she's not cold.

They fall asleep every night on their own, they just don't stay asleep all night.

DD slept through straight away. Nothing I did... it's just the way she was.

@HJ82 yes sorry I know that really. I actually can't remember. DS2 used to come into my room and wake me up for a 'star wars quiz' (or similar) when he was 7 or 8. He did have a phase of 'sleeping through' prior to this.
Hes 13 now and I honestly can't remember when he did and didnt sleep. These days he's almost impossible to get out of bed

I hope you start getting full nights soon

Started sleeping through around 16 months.

Reliably 7-7 from 18 months. No sleep training though it just started happening.

Both DC from 12 weeks from when we went to bed about 10 or 11 to 7 am in the morning

Around 6 months for both of mine, after sleep training (ie bootcamp)
But of course not when they are unwell, which is A LOT for the first few years.

DC1 8 months
DC2 7 months

Bar teething or illness, they both slept through once weaned.

@peonypower yes, we just did training as she was doing great but then had a bout of illnesses, now won't settle without boob 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'm afraid I'll have to sleep train after every illness etc, what's the point? Did yours just self settle fine after the illness?

DD1 - 15 months
DD2 - sleeping through, what’s that? She’s 3.5

bruffin
Do you think this way is the way to go?

We did this and definitely were the first parents in my NCT class to get a good nights sleep.

My baby came to bed at the same time that I went to bed for many months and it didn’t result in “sleeping through”. You were just lucky, sorry, it wasn’t a secret trick

11 months old - right about the time I stopped breastfeeding. It was no picnic getting to sleeping the whole way through. In hindsight I should have withdrew night feedings sooner, but I was a first timer and during the night you cave in because it means an easier night.

We did controlled crying and the results were fairly instant. There was a bit of back and forth, you have to allow for teething and the fact they do need comfort at times. We never bothered with a dummy so I was conscious that I was the dummy.

Getting them to sleep all night is and can be very difficult and emotionally taxing, but once you're at the end of it - what a relief!!

Good luck!

@HJ82

I'm afraid I'll have to sleep train after every illness etc, what's the point? Did yours just self settle fine after the illness?

Yeah - you have to. Just have to be as consistent as you can. Allow for illness but even in illness try to keep everything the same as possible. No bed sharing etc. It'll be easier each time.

DD only started sleeping through (but never 7-7) after I stopped breastfeeding at 2. She does occasionally wake if she has a nightmare or if she is under the weather but that is rare, but I still don't feel well rested 18 months on, 2 years of sleep deprivation absolutely destroyed me.

I didn’t sleep train and he often comes in with me when ill and then when he’s better he just goes back to normal again. Perhaps that’s the advantage of a slow developer in terms of sleep.

DS would sleep through 50% of the time from 5 months old. By 8 months he was sleeping through all the time other than illness and teething (which still feels like 50% of the time!!!).
He has only slept 7-7 a few times though. It’s more like 8pm-6:30am ish.

Mine consistently slept right through from 7-7 from 11 weeks - t'was marvellous! However - I appreciate it was freakish good luck, and had to lie to other parents and pretend I was also having to get up at night because they thought I was making it up

About 18 months to do 7.30 - 7.30 consistently. We had patches of a couple of weeks at a time before that but they always got interrupted by colds, teething etc.

I stopped bf at 14 months and tbh there was a significant improvement in DC1 sleep from that point on.

Baby one was a dream 10-6 at 6 weeks old.

Baby two FML, we spent 4 months having to wake her for health reasons to give feeds during the night (doctors orders). When we were given the all clear to let her sleep through she stopped sleeping. She is 5 (that's years not months!) now and still doesn't sleep through, two or three night wakings but she wont get out of bed and come to you, absolutely pained sobs until you're there.

Actually, I tell a small lie she has slept maybe 4 times for an 8 hour stretch and I haven't properly slept because I am panicking something is wrong 🙈

DC1 - 8 weeks
DC2 - 1 year

DC1 was a beautiful sleeper until she reached 3.5 years and then she woke me up every night until she was 9, so...

4 years and still waiting 😬😢😴