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Do they grow out of night wakings without our "help"?

5 replies

latchmeregirl · 07/02/2008 22:10

Ds (8 mo) is on a slowly improving night time pattern but improvement is very slow - he still wakes up twice a night wanting (and I think probably needing) a feed. When I mention it to people they usually say some variant of "you need to do controlled crying". I'm not particularly bothered by his sleeping patterns at the moment, even though I'm going back to work next week - it's relatively easy to deal with and I'm coping fine with the broken nights.

Now, I don't have anything against cc per se (we used it very successfully with dd at 12 months when her sleeping became impossible to manage) but I do feel that given time he'll just work it out on his own and therefore there's no point putting him and us through that now. Plus with going back to work, change in childcare etc he's got a lot to get used to, and he's such a very jolly little soul during the day that he's obviously thriving...

But when I said that to someone today they gave me a horrified look and said that I was crazy to think that he would start sleeping through of his own accord any time soon. So, give me some encouraging words - tell me about all your little darlings who got the message eventually without you having to intervene. Or am I being hopelessly naive?

OP posts:
DontDreamItBeIt · 07/02/2008 22:14

You sound perfectly senible to me. You ds' sleep pattern is't causing you a problem at the moment so why worry.

All three of mine gradaully slept longer, and woke less frequently until they were sleeping through with no intervention from us at all

latchmeregirl · 07/02/2008 22:22

Thank you - perfectly sensible is what I aspire to .

At what age did they start sleeping through, then? I personally don't think 8 months is that old to not be sleeping through but apparently I'm in a minority there (round these parts anyway!).

OP posts:
FrayedKnot · 07/02/2008 22:24

DS stopped waking at night around 13 months, without any real intervention iirc. He had stopped BF so much by then.

His sleep patterns seemed to change a lot around that age. He did still wake very early though (about 5.30) for a while longer.

jellybelly25 · 07/02/2008 22:47

oh GOD please please ignore these people who are making you feel like your baby is odd for not sleeping through... my motto is, if babies slept through why do they have a reputation for waking up so much? its as if the holy grail of babies is to get them to sleep rather than be happy, eat, grow etc...

i had never heard of cc or sleep training when i had my eldest dd (now 8) so i just got on with it and she slept through early at about 3mo, then stopped and started waking for milk at about 6mo or so, then slept again, and so on until shortly after her 1st birthday. From then on she had the odd phase of bad dreams etc and had a habit of sneaking into my bed in the very early morning when she was about 2ish but i was snoring and only realised when i woke up so it wasn't really a problem!

with dd2 (9mo) i have done a bit more intervention, not cc but i did decide not to feed her in teh night as she wasn't really feeding anymore... she's not been as good at sleeping as dd1 but still on and off and i don't expect it to stay the same for any stretch of time. so there you go.

if you're not bothered by it then just leave it!! I honestly think that you will know if you need to intervene because it will start to p*ss you off to have to keep doing it, but as long as you're happy then thats fine and i'm sure it will work itself out.

Dropdeadfred · 07/02/2008 23:00

My dd woke at least twice a night for milk up until she as about 12-13 months. Then hen she was poorly or teething she would often revert back to doing this.
I NEVER denied her milk...not only did she always go straight back to sleep after but I could sleep knowing she wasn't upset or hungry...much better than having them scream or cry imo.

Your little man will not always be waking you up...he's still so little...

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