When could your baby link night time sleep cycles if you didn't sleep train?

[CasaMundi]

Mine is nearly 8 months and has woken hourly for help getting back to sleep since 4 month regression. I don't care if he sleeps through the night but even a 2 hour chunk would be nice! I was able to use gradual retreat with his sister with few tears but he has a different character. I'm wondering when did your baby start to link cycles independently if you didn't use sleep training to get them to self settle?

You probably will hate me for saying this, but at about 4.5m.

I was worried that his feed-to-sleep association would stop him going for longer chunks at night, but he started to phase into longer sleeps after 3 weeks. His naps are also erratically improving.

What seemed to get him going in the right direction was practicing settling in his pram through the day. I pushed him around til he was drowsy, then stopped and retreated for the last bit of falling asleep.

Weirdly, teething coming on actually helped improve even more, because he needed anbesol to get over the soreness but it also made him sleepy so he dropped the odd night feed.

The cosleeping might actually wake him up too, because the nipple is right there. I sneak out after the final night feed sometimes, and if my son just has my husband there, he knows there's no chance of milk! So he sleeps longer.

Oh and I have dropped a tog and a layer from the sleeping bag! Might just be the teething temp, but he seems happier than way.

Oh goodness, those last few posts won't have made you feel any better @Brightandbreezey ! I can indeed offer you hope. My little man is now almost 15 months. Last night he slept on his own floorbed, without waking once, from bedtime til 5.40am. I have done nothing different since my last post. He self settles and I have cuddled him or breastfed him for every wake. The night before he was up nearly hourly (though does have a stinking cold), then last night slept through. I can't explain it, don't expect it to happen again tonight, but if it can happen once, it can happen again!

I'm so pleased to hear this! I've been meaning to ask how you're getting on. Our sleep is still mixed because we've had a lot of illness, but when the stars align we too still get some sleeping through.

Congratulations and I hope you get it again! Xx

my baby has slept with me since birth and has been sleeping 8 hour stretches since 4 months old. now more like 12 hours- he's 2 now.

My little girl also improved a bit at around 10 months. Naps are still only half an hour, but I can deal with those. She started to manage 3 hour (sometimes longer) stints at night. Some nights are not as good though. I try not to look at the time or count the wakes if I can help it. Especially right now as we are deep in teething pain. Why do they sound SO loud at night!?! She woke for the day at 4.39 this morning though 🫠. The man at a chippy told me I look tired.... I know, chippy man, I know.

My almost three year old still wakes at some point overnight and joins my partner. We've just accepted it to try and maximise any sleep we can get.

Thanks so much for replying!! And offering that little bit of hope too! That sounds amazing - so pleased he slept for you!!
Does you DS generally sleep a bit better then? Or was that night a one off? I hope it’s generally better for you and you can get some chunks of sleep!!

@Brightandbreezey he started occasionally doing 2 or 2.5hr chunks whilst cosleeping from 11 months. At that point I was lying beside him for him to go to sleep - haven't fed him to sleep since he was about 6 months. The frequency and length of sleep gradually increased so we'd sometimes get 3 or 3.5 hours. In January when he would have been nearly 13 months I finally got him self settling. It the end it was relatively easy to slide myself off the bed and out of the door. I was very disappointed when it really didn't make any difference to his sleep at all. Since then we've had ups and downs. When he's poorly or teething he can still wake hourly (and sometimes it feels like he's always poorly or teething!). I've also found it more difficult to cosleep with him recently as I've felt more disturbed by his snuffling and he's been moving around a lot more even when he is asleep. I've been gradually trying to breastfeed him less overnight but he has been far from a willing participant in that venture! The night before last was completely out of the blue - he'd never slept for more than 3.5 hours before that. Last night he went back to a more usual performance. He slept 8 til 10.30 when I went to bed. He was then very disturbed in his sleep and struggled with a blocked nose til about midnight but after that slept in two decent chunks til 6. He also accepted not being breastfed overnight so that's a change. Honestly I'd still agree with the premise of this thread. You don't need your little one to sleep through. You just need some decent chunks. Once you get a three hour chunk of sleep you will feel so much better. I really do know how awful it is!

Thanks so much for the update! It’s interesting hearing from other mum’s in similar situations!
Yeah I do get the odd 2 or 3 hour chunk and if I manage to sleep during this time it really does make all the difference! It’s just the not knowing whether it will be 45 minutes or 3 hours!!
Again thanks for taking the time to update! Hope things get easier for you 🤞🏼