Do babies really sleep through?!

[itsadressinggown]

Do babies really sleep through before the age of 1 without night waking, as in completely sound asleep, no bottle or comfort needed from putting them to bed until the next morning?!

Ds did it from 8 months. Dd was 6 months I think

DS did from 8 months - but that was when we did (gentle) sleep training...

It depends on your definition of sleeping through?

My son would go from about midnight till 6am by 4 months. I classed that as sleeping through

I didnt think it was that likely, my first baby certainly never did it. However, my 10 week old has done it a few times. The other night she slept from 8.30pm to 6am with no intervention at all. Fingers crossed she does it more often!

Mine did from about 12 weeks, even before that she only ever woke up once a night wanting feeding. She only used to wake up if she was unwell and I remember during a couple of weeks where it was really hot she woke up twice. All babies are different though, my friends and family think she was fairly unusual in this, she's still a good sleeper now so I think she just likes it!

DD did from about 6 months but not consistently until about 15 months (maybe once a week to start and gradually more).
DS was 9 months the first time and around 17 months when consistent.

My 9 month old sleeps 7.30pm to 6.30am and has done reliably for a month now, since she got through the 8 month sleep regression very hit and miss before that!

Out of my four children the only one to sleep through before the age of 1 was my second, she was sleeping through the night from 8 weeks! They were all breastfed and had the same routine too.

Yep. DD did (10.30-7ish) from about 9 weeks. We were so (maybe too) obsessed with routine, although before this sleep was very, very difficult.

She was swaddled, with a dummy, white noise and a totally blacked out room (our room). She was formula fed at this point. If she woke in the night I would only feed as a last resort if she didn’t settle with dummy / being patted etc, and would try to only ever settle her in her crib.

I never cuddled / fed / rocked her to sleep, but did some gentle patting etc in her next to me crib.

I suspect some of it was our techniques and some was just her personality / luck. Am expecting again in August so will see!

DD is 11 months old and has been waking twice in the night for feeding for the last month, it used to be once so we've regressed!

In my experience waking twice is very good indeed

They aren’t designed to, no.
There is a weird preoccupation people have with babies and sleep. They are meant to wake up, some don’t but the majority do but it’s a weirdly aspirational thing for society.

But it’s not forever! Probably....

We didn't get down to twice a night til this month and she's 14 months! It was three times last night, 10 the night before. One night waking is my holy grail, don't even believe in a sleep-through any more. I only believe in coffee and haribo to survive.

It depends on what you think through the night means as per pp.

DS has slept some definition of through the night since 4 months. He's now 11 months and usually does 7.30 to 6.30. However he had me up at 3am for cuddles today.

I'm sure these magical sleeping babies are a myth. My older dc don't sleep through until they were 2 and a half. And I'm talking hourly wake ups before that. I have a 3 month old too who wakes about 2-3 times a night and is my best sleeper so far. Not expecting it to last though.

Tbh I think most babies who sleep through have been sleep trained which is something I won't do. Sleep is developmental.

I know that sleeping through isn't a milestone or something babies should be doing though, was just curious if the majority of babies actually did or not.

Sorry that should say my 2 older dc didn't sleep through until they were both 2 and a half.

My friends and I had our first baby within a week of each other. Her baby slept through consistently from 10 weeks (even before 10 weeks she'd only wake up once around 11pm)! It was 8pm to 8am every day. There was no 4 month sleep regression or disruption caused by teething. She just assumed all babies were like this and couldn't understand why I was such a sleep deprived mess. I often wondered why her DD slept so well from such a young age. Of course it could just be luck. Her DD was extremely big and heavy from birth and only got bigger and heavier very quickly from birth. She called her baby Michelin baby. I wonder if the baby simply didn't need to wake for night feeds because she was big enough already! When my friend had her second she finally understood how I'd suffered with my first!

My 14 month old has never slept through. The longest he’s done is an 8 hour stretch in one go.

He sleeps 7-11:30ish in his cot, then we put him in with us and he sleeps til 7:30ish when he wakes up and feeds. Not too bad.

Our of our NCT babies (8 of them):

2 sleep through, 1 was sleep trained, 1 not
1 is up about six times a night
The rest are up 1/2 times

Hope that helps!

Out of my personal sample of 3, one did from 3 months. 1 took 2 years, 1 took 4.5 years 😰

Yes, but not consistently. DS slept from 11pm to 6pm at 4 months and we were feeling massively smug. Then we hit a sleep regression at 6 months and he went through a month of waking twice nightly. Then about 7.5 months he started going down for all-nighters again....

Neither of mine did. My eldest got there shorty after the age of 1, with some very gentle sleep training. But may not have done as quickly without that.
My just turned 2 year old has slept through twice. Once about 6 months ago and the second time was last night, 10-7, and I feel like a new woman this morning 😂 I haven't done any sleep training this time. Theres a huge age gap between mine and I don't view children's sleep in the same way anymore. With my eldest I thought that I had to get them sleeping through as the baby books had all this info about the importance of sleep and how to achieve it
Speaking to others, it's lots more common than I thought for some children to not sleep through. So we're just rolling with it. But to be fair my youngest's sleep isn't dreadful. Just a few wake ups and normally co sleeps from around 1-2am. If things were a lot worse we might have been a bit more proactive by now.

None of mine did. DD1 was 3.5 years, DD2 was 15 months and DS has just started sleeping through at 17 months (but gets up at 5am).

Yes all mine have slept through by 13 weeks. My friend has four but one doesn't sleep through at all yet. I have a 5,3 and a 5 month old now and they all sleep from 8pm-9am.

None of my three did. DD who turned one in March still wakes a billion times a night