When should I hope/expect baby to start sleeping through the night?

[esgill]

She’s now 7 months’ old and still waking up every 2 hours to feed. She’s breastfed.

Any suggestions to encourage her to sleep longer stretches are welcome too. I’m exhausted…

Co-sleeping? Mine started sleeping through only at 17 months. The only way to survive was to co-sleep so she slept longer stretches between feedings.

We sleep trained - it worked.

Ferber method with DS1, gradual retreat with DS2. The waking every two hours thing was hideous.

Cosleeping seems to work for some but for us, it was even worse - still waking every 2 hours but also being kicked and whacked in the face in between

My first slept through at 8months, my second is 18months and has only slept through a handful of times.

daughter slept 1 hour every 24 hours from birth until over 3 years old!

Anywhere from pretty much day 1 to about 7 years old!

Mine were bottle fed so I understand this may make a difference. They were big babies 9-10lbs and slept early and scared the hell out of me because I had heard all about the feed on demand being 2-4 hour typical.

From friends who bf they found when their lo tummy was fuller, is she being weaned?

We’ve recently done a course with a sleep consultant who told us 70% of babies still wake 1-3 times a night to feed at 6 months so I wouldn’t be expect sleeping through yet. But equally every 2 hours is a lot and exhausting!

We were in a similar position about a month ago and I was really struggling with the exhaustion but also didn’t feel like sleep training was for us. I was finding it really tough that it seemed my only options were put up with it or sleep train, but feel like we’ve found a happy medium

We've worked on our day routine to try and reduce any overtiredness, and DH has been rocking the baby back to sleep every other wake up as we thought a lot of the wakings were habit rather than hunger. We’ve now had quite a few nights with just 2 wakes and can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel

Mine slept through reliably from four and five months when I stopped bf, gave them porridge at bedtime and put them in their own room. And they never ever came into our bed.
This was 20 years ago now so probably frowned upon but we all slept great.

@BrendaSmall if I have read that correctly how are you still alive?!

DS first slept through (11pm - 6am) for 2 nights at 3 months. He then woke every 45 minutes from 4 months to 6 months, and then wanted to be held to sleep until he was 9 months old when we did some sleep training. He then woke just for 1 or perhaps 2 feeds a night until he was 15 months, when he slept through.

What does this mean? You're saying your child sleeps one hour a day and has done since birth?

Ok...

Anyway, OP, we sleep trained closer to one year old. Once weaning is well established you can give a supper of something filling like porridge and then night wean offering only water from a sippy cup at night and a lot of cuddles until they accept that's what happens at night now. Then they stop waking because they don't get milk anymore. Takes a few days and then they're fine.

Eldest slept 12 hours a night from 3 months.
Youngest ... rarely more than 3 consecutive hours, waking 3 - 4 times+ for 3 years.
It"s a lottery.
They survived. I survived ... just.
Now I adore them.

Try her in her own room if you haven't - that was the game changer for our eldest. She went from waking every two hours one night in our room to sleeping 11 hours straight in her own room the next.

Obviously it didn't stay that good but it was a step change, and she was so much happier in the day too. When you're up every two hours everyone's exhausted, including the baby!

I think @esgill rather than hoping for sleeping through the night maybe you can try and introduce a different way to settle rather than a feed? Every baby is different but I don’t think 2 hourly feeding is really needed at this stage
i also breastfeed and my daughter is 7 months and was doing 2 hourly wakes. I got my husband to attend at 2 hour mark and I set my own boundary of 3 hours for a feed. She settled with him although took longer and stopped waking 2 hourly. She now averages about 4ish hours so is waking about twice at night. (Sleeping from about 7:30pm to usually around 6:30/7)
it wasn’t nice to hear her complaining with my husband but I put myself in another
room for a few nights because otherwise I know I would have said just give her to me and end up feeding! So on the first night she woke up at 2 hours and he settled her then she woke up about 1.5 hours after that which I concluded was over 3 hours since feed so I fed and then she woke up at 2.5 hours ( he settled) she then woke up 1 hour after and I fed. Erc
the only reason I’m saying the pattern is because in the first night she woke up more than usual but I guess it’s because it was new for her not to get milk. But it did work even if day one looked like it wouldn’t.

Our DS was about 14 months when he was ready to sleep through. It was tiring but I just didn't want to force something until he was ready.

I've got a nearly 6 year old who still doesn't reliably sleep through the night. At 4 years old they were still waking 4+ times a night and we have spent a lot of time over the last year doing a version of sleep training that basically amounts to bribing them to stay in bed.

We have now managed to get to a point where if they do wake up at worst they sneak through and get into bed with us rather than screaming their heads off and waking everyone up.

No issues with siblings- just one very poor sleeper in the bunch. It's personality.

Just sleep when you can. DS slept from about 11.30 to 6ish from five weeks. We hit trouble when we tried getting him down at 7/8. He only ever needed 8/9 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. We cottoned on when he was about 3 and went with the flow. It was better for all of us to let him stay up until 10. He's nearly 30 and it hasn't changed - both owl and lark.

DD woke every two hours until quite late, punctuated with the horrors of rank ears. I lusted for five hours sleep. You can do anything on five hours sleep. Things got better at 20 months (grommets) and she slept through from about 5.

DH and I got no sympathy from our mothers. We too were poor sleepers - as we were regularly reminded.

This. 100%.

Sorry, both of mine slept through from 3 months old. I'd love to share the secret, but there isn't one. They just started doing it. Both formula fed. Both had dummies. That was the only consistent thing. One was moved into his own room at 3 months, one stayed with us until nine months. One never napped in the day. The other had long day time naps. Both were cuddled and fed to sleep so not even like they were 'taught' to self settle. There is no silver bullet.

DS has just started sleeping through. He turns 3 this month.

Hard to say. One of mine woke every 2 hours until he was four years two months. The other slept through from 9 weeks. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

She's waking up because she's hungry. She needs something filling, maybe a wee bit of baby porridge, before bed, to satiate her.

At 11 months our eldest was still waking to feed through the night for milk and I was just beyond exhausted. So we decided to send my husband in to settle him instead of me and after a few very hard nights he started sleeping through the night or at least not screaming if he did wake as he didn’t need milk to get back to sleep anymore. Might not be an option for everyone but it worked for us. Good luck!

You must be knackered OP. Mine slept through from 3 months 😱

Mine were EBF. Both had some nights of sleeping right through before 6 months (felt like we'd won the lottery!)

But there's a big difference between not sleeping through and still wanting one feed in the night, to waking every 2 hours! Waking every 2 hours is unusual even for a newborn.

You'll have to try a sleep training method otherwise this is going to break you.

A thousand years ago ('98) sleeping 'through the night' was considered 5 hours!

Yes she slept 1 hour and that was it!
it was very hard