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?!

Yes. My DS I always had to wake for feeds around 3 months he was a good weight and HV said to stop waking him for his feeds and let him sleep through. He's slept through since and is 11 months now. At 8 months for two weeks he kept waking around 1am and settling again about 2am but thankfully that stopped!

My daughter started sleeping through (11pm to 5-6am) at 6 weeks, but that probably does not happen to a lot of babies.

Both mine literally, no exaggeration, started sleeping through the night regularly 7-7 the week before I returned to work both times, one was 9 months the other 8. Very bizarre (and appreciated!) One was a one night waker prior to that, the other was 2 hourly, they both became excellent sleepers long term.

I would have recently switched from breastfeeding to formula for both though (for the night feed).

I didn’t think it possible after my DS woke every 90 minutes to 9 months, then every 3 hours until 2.5 years.

But my daughter (fed and routined in the exact same way) slept 4 hours from birth, 6 hours from 6 weeks and 10 hours from 12 weeks. She is now 14 months and sleeps 6:30pm to 7am every night without fail. I don’t think I’ve got up to her during the night since she was a few months old.

My DD slept through 7am to 7pm by 12 weeks. It took my DSs years to get to that point! All of them breastfed.

Mine did from 8 months, 7-7. Before then he would wake once for a very quick night feed and would settle immediately back to sleep, 7-7. I did have a very strict routine (GF - hated on Mumsnet) but it was probably mainly down to luck. No sleep regression.

None of my three did. But I never left them to CIO

DS from 6 months, occasionally will wake up for one feed but goes right back off. A little blessing. Pg with #2 and hoping they're the same

Yes, from 5 months. She sleeps 7-6:30 without calling out for us.

No-one, not even adults, sleep all night without stirring. We just go back to sleep without noticing. My baby must wake up and self settle quietly because she ends up in all sorts of odd positions in her cot. Every time I look on the monitor she's somewhere different!

All three of my babies dropped their middle of the night feed (or stretched it out till later by about 5 weeks, so they were sleeping for 5-6 hours. They dropped their 11pm feed a few months later.
All of mine were FF though (apart from a couple of weeks of BFing the eldest) and I found it was quite easy to get them into a routine of feeding and sleeping.

They can do, it depends and it's largely down to luck rather than anything else! DS slept through from 5 months, 6pm until 7am.

My baby has done 5 hour stretches since 6 weeks old. Now at 10 weeks old we're getting the odd 7 hour night. I've never done any sleep training, she's fed whenever she wants.

I did read somewhere that medically speaking, 5 hours is considered "sleeping through".

Both mine from 12 weeks from 11 to 7

DD slept in significant chunks from 2 weeks old, and by 12 weeks was straight through from 9-6. I don't think we did anything specific, aside from bath, bottle, story, bed.

DD is now 4, and sleeps 11 hours a night. I appreciate that I am very lucky with her sleeping, my friends children are terrible sleepers and are regularly up for the day at 4.45!

DSs are 4 and 7 and we still probably get woken two or three times a week. To be fair it’s often now one of them talking or walking in their sleep (I do the same to this day). Neither of them have ever been good sleepers. But they eat well and are otherwise healthy. I used to joke that I expected DS1 (woke every 45 minutes from 3 months to 9 months, when he moved to every 1.5 hours) to go into a crazy city job and keep me in the manner to which I wished to become accustomed because he clearly needs no sleep at all.

If we're talking 10-12 hours, then my first was about 30 months and 2nd&3rd were about 9 months.

DC1 woke 4 hourly for a feed and continued the pattern after weaning throughout childhood.
DC2 was horrific for the first few months but slept through from 6-7 months .
DC3 had more wake ups than DC1 and like them kept on waking for years.

Our DD slept from 10:30 to about 6 from 11 weeks. Of course there were nights she woke up for a feed at maybe 2ish but they became few and far between quite quickly. By 16 weeks she slept every night and has never woken up during the night from then on unless she is sick or teething. Now she is 18 months and sleeps 7-8 every night without fail. I did use some sleep training methods (sooth in the cot, no bottle or dummy to sooth) but she just did it herself one night (and scared us half to death in the morning as I thought she must be dead). I formula fed too so she would just wake for the bottle twice a night and then go back asleep. Myself and DH shared feeding if he wasnt in work the next day. He did the 5am feed most mornings. I was never sleep deprived.

I am pregnant on DC2. I am under no illusion. DD was an anomaly. I am in for a real shock with this one.

Mine is almost 20 months old and just started sleeping through the night. He used to wake up every 3 hour for a feed until 9-10 months (but he was a tiny premature baby, if that is an explanation). Then he woke up at least 2-3 times per night (at that point he ended in our bed most nights) and now it's once (but very briefly, just until we get there and we put him back to sleep, it takes like less than a minute) or often it's uniterrupted.

Mine did. From about 8 weeks. 6-6, 7-7, then 7:30-7. However... it was just luck and the majority if the time. We'd get a run of 'bad nights' every month or couple of months.

She's 5 and like a pp, keeps waking up, more nights than not, since lockdown and seemingly has no resilience to get back to sleep alone. She cries and generally makes a scene until she gets to sleep with one of us. She was never very good at being alone or playing for 5 minutes in the day as it was. Now she won't at all. Must be anxiety. So to protect my sanity, I give in and make it worse. I spend my evenings doing housework very quietly until she wakes up.

I have always cuddled to sleep. I get in her bed and leave when she is asleep at bedtime. That isn't working now, especially after she's woken up. I feel like I have a very vocal newborn.

DS did from 4 months.

Although now he’s 7 he’s started waking up in the night and finding excuses / ridiculous fibs for getting out of bed.

I reckon it’s karma

Yes, dd2 stopped wanting a bottle overnight about 8 weeks old and now at 18 weeks usually goes overnight without any input at all.

Pity the same cant be said for her big sister who is still up regularly through the night at 3 years old!

I honestly think it is totally random whether you get a good sleeper or not.

6 months got a lot better then by about 8 months I got 7-8 it’s stayed the same. Dd is 18 months and slept till nearly 9 this morning

@Sonotech

None of my three did. But I never left them to CIO

Neither did I but my son still slept soundly and reliably from 7pm-6am by 13 weeks and basically never stopped. Don’t assume that everyone whose babies sleep are monsters who abandon them. Some babies just sleep!

My daughter on the other hand, did not