What age should a baby be sleeping through the night??

[Tangas]

my friends babies are all sleeing through the night. Yet my 6mo DS will only do it once in a blue moon. It seems to be only when he has stayed the night at someones. When I get him back he goes through the night for about 4 days after! after that he goes back to his old ways! I know he is capable of going all through- so what am I doing wrong??

Is there an age where they should be big enough to go through?

how long is a piece of string?

Agree with NP - really difficult to define an 'age'. I thought my DS was an angel when he started to sleep through at 8 weeks but then teething started......!

He is now 2.3 and still has the odd wakeful night!

Sorry, we're not much help are we?

Eek mine is 3 and still does not sleep. I am unsure which was worse the crying of a baby or the constant "Mummy I need more water" 5 times per nights

snap nailpolish you beat me to it

DD1 was about 9 weeks when she went 8-8
DD2 was a year

however both will wake up during the night very rare we get a night where at least one doesn't get us up with random crying but the key is a pat on the back adn a shush gets them back to sleep

It really varies with each child, ds1 was 2 weeks ds2 was 18 months and only because I finally did controlled crying

forgot to add last night DD1 (3) got us up with "theres a firework in my room" "theres a scary face with eyes in my room" and "I want socks on"

I really dont think there is an age. My first slept through from 6 weeks, and even now, four years later, needs 12 hours sleep. My second slept though from 8 weeks, but stopped doing so at 8 months and didnt start again until about 18 months. And my niece is 6 months old and to date hasnt slept longer than 4 hours at a time day or night.

think the average 6mth old wakes 2 or 3 times a night. sorry. mine slept through at 8 mths, but still wakes if he's teething. or ill. or had a nightmare. etc!
sounds like yours can though, so maybe you should look into what the differences are if he's staying the night somewhere else...

Oh, last night we did not have fireworks, we had "pumping in my bedroom"!!

My first however, slept right through from around 4/5 months I think but then was quite restless when teething, ill etc.

Well DS is defffently teething, so, that might be the cause!! I dunno just get through one phase everything settles down. Then its no to the nxt one and everything is ballsed up again!
The only differance with him staying out at night, is that he has really late nights (strange place)gets tird and sleeps better. but i don't want to be having late nights with him as he gets grumpy!! I reckon there's nothing i can do about it!!

I bet your friends babies aren't all really sleeping through the night . So many people aren't honest about what their babies sleeping habits!

sorry - sleeping habits are!

er, 3 or 4 years?? really, people lie about it. and ignore crying babies. and some have ones that do sleep all night, though not as many as say they do. the fact that he sleeps through elsewhere though suggests that perhaps something at home is waking him. or that he knows when mum is not nearby and so its not worth bothering wailing

Ha Ha, we've had one 'night' since my almost 14 monther was born. That 'allnighter' was only until 5.30 too so not sure it really counts in my book. Funnily a friend of mine whose perfect sleeper has been more wakefull since turning one that ever before and mine has settled down so I grin inside at people who say they've got perfect sleepers. It's never a guarantee. Best thing is to not listen to people who bang on about getting loads of sleep. You're not doing anything wrong. It'll get better with time.

Ha, my dd2 (8mths) manages 7-5or6am, will have another couple of hours after that if I give her a bottle otherwise will fuss and sleep for 20min at a time with a dummy then up at 6.30-7am. Dd1 (9yrs) still gets me up in the night!!!! Probably 5 out of 7 nights, has eczema so when wakes and wants the loo needs to scratch skin and then wants me to put cream on. So in theory dd2 much better but to combination of the two is killing me - lol!

My friends babies are all sleeping through the night. Mine at 10 months still gets up about twice to BF.... Although that is a LOT better than the 1/2 hourly to hourly wakeups that she did from birth to 3 months

I'm now co-sleeping and having quite a lot of sleep, I'm being very relaxed about the whole sleep thing now (after spending far too much time stressing and twitching about it!). When people ask - I tell them that she sleeps brilliantly (unless they are having a rubbish time with sleep - then i say the truth!).

She'll sleep through when she's ready.

Remember that some adults are good sleepers and others not so good! And children are just the same.

DS was 15 mo before he reliably slept through but at 2.4 we still have fairly regular 3am wake ups. Sometimes he'll get himself back to sleep, sometimes he'll need a bit of help from me or DH.

DD is now 16 weeks and apart from the usual 4 month-itis, she shows signs of being a better sleeper than her brother. She LIKES being asleep and only wakes for brief feeds rather than hour long grizzles & chats, so I am optimistic for the future. But I still have no expectations of getting a full night's sleep for another few months.

dd1 (now nearly 6) didn't sleep properly though the night til she had done teething! have the odd nightmare now and then but generally ok.
However, dd2 (20 months) has mostly slept really well from day 1. Have random moaning most nights but it's ususally just rolling over or temporarily misplacing teddy!
My nephew at 3 yrs still doesn't sleep through. Just goes to show how different they all are. Don't go beating yourself up about it - you are not doing anything wrong.

Babies that sleep through the night at whatever age don't necessarily continue to do so. My friend trained her baby to sleep through the night using a certain method, but a few months later the fun started. Now she is up for 2-5 hours every night, aged 14m.

Remember the golden rules:

a) Your friends may be stretching the truth somewhat
b) They may be in for a shock when dream baby decides to be wakeful and they're not used to it
c) Their next child might be a total non sleeper (well you can hope...)
d) ALL the children will sleep through eventually and according to their own timetable

Nine unlikely tails, in my sleep deprived state I do not believe dd will ever sleep through. Please convice me otherwise

She never sleeps through and a good night is 5 or 6 wakeups, and a bad night is 3 to 4 hours of refusing to go to sleep

Thank god its not my baby being difficault.. And it's not that i'm doing anything wrong!!
Sometimes ireally wish that babys came with a remote controll!!! HE HE

yep i was one of those annoying mummys saying "oh my baby sleeps so well 7-7..
he is now 11mo and in the last 6 weeks his sleep has gone haywire - squealing all evening, then sometimes up for hours in the night. Keep telling myself its teething and hoping it will improve at some point! DH currently pacing the floor with ds as i type..
its good to read all those messages saying "it will get better" because when its your first you kind of imagine the next 20 years being like this
p.s. i was talking to a guy with an 17 yr old the other day and he said that its worse lying awake at 4am wondering where on earth your child is!

Fizzbuzz of course your dd will sleep through sometime and it won't be that long in the scheme of things. I know it feels a loooong time at the moment though. My DS is just the same as yours at 13m Actually that's not quite true - he was getting a lot better until teeth and a vomit virus struck. Instead of 40 mins between wake ups we were getting 5 hour stretches with no change in routine/what we were doing. I think with some children it just takes longer, unless you are prepared to do CC (which we aren't).

Straight away if Claire Verity's got anything to do with it.