Did your baby sleep through early?

[aloha]

ie 8 hours at night before 12 weeks (I don't expect miracles). If so, do you think it was just luck/genetics, or did you do something to make it happen....and if so, what?
dd is a much better sleeper than ds (does three and three and a half hour stints at night which seems like a miracle compared to ds's totally erratic sleep cycle - woke every 20mins some awful nights!) but obviously any tips would be appreciated!

He did... and now he doesn't! Not sure what we did although ds has always had a tendency to cluster feed himself in the evenings. Once he is "full" he drops off. Just in the middle of the four month growth spurt so pretty bleary eyed at the moment. Am hoping things will settle down again soon.

Would have to come down on the side of luck rather than judgement, so sorry, no handy tips!

I am happy to say that my ds slept through 7pm-7am from 7weeks(he's now 6.5months).
It was difficult at the beginning as he is my first, and I took all sorts of advice and tried it all. The key-in my opinion-is to use controlled crying. It may seem harsh to begin with but it gets easier, and above all IT WORKS!!!
We used to put him down to sleep at 7, then as he cried, we went to his cot side to let him know he wasn't alone. The important thing is not to pick them up at all. Repeating this at 5-10 minute intervals and then leaving the room. Eventually baby will realise the noise is not working! And will fall asleep. The time he took to get to sleep every night got shorter and shorter. Now he realises cot=sleep. |Of course if they get in a silly state then don't just leave them there!

think DS will just about fulfil the criteria - sleeping 7 hours per night at 6 weeks.

I suspect it was a huge dose of luck but factors that may be relevant are:-

1)depression/anxiety during PG (allegedly babies of mums suffering PND are more likely to sleep well - this in Health Surveillance Handbook - the HV's textbook!)
2)8 day hospital stay after birth, further three days at 2 weeks - think DS must have got used to having to sleep through lots of noise
3)Not picking him up straight away, but stroking him etc to reassure him in Moses Basket if woke up crying briefly, to help him settle himself to sleep - but will only really work I suspect if baby is a good settler in first place
4)Having DS sleep in moses basket in living room in day, moving him to our bedroom only in evening

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lol at 6.43! I know the feeling!! Hope you enjoyed your sleep!!

Just luck I think, ds1 and ds2 slept "through" from about 8-9 weeks. Well I say "through" but it was more like a bit longer than the 4ish hour feeds so probably about 6 hrs or something. An 8 hr stretch came when they were about 12ish weeks IIRC

Ds3, on the other hand didn't sleep through until he was way over a year. I was still doing 2am feed for him when he was 11 month and an early (4-5am) morning feed at 14 months. He's 17 months now and thankfully sleeps 11+ hrs a night. At last!!!

it truely is the most wonderful feeling!

dd woke every 3 hours for the first two week - feed then straight back down. Then every 4 hours after about 6 weeks she was sleeping through after her 9 or 10 pm feed. I was a dreadful sleeper, apparently.

I was al little unenthical though in my approach to dd - she was bottle fed and went in her own room (and large cot) straight away with no light. I used to feed her in the dark and in silence when she was waking. I have to say I think the routine helped a lot with getting her to sleep through.

somebody told me that it is nothing to do with age, it all goes on weight! This is absolute rubbish though as my DS1 was 3 [yes, 3 years] DD was 3 weeks [I don't know what i did differently] and DS2 was 9 months, he started the same week as i stopped breast feeding at night, i offered a cup of milk and he refused it. After 2 nights he diddn't bother to wake up anymore, he was obviously waking for comfort rather than being hungry.

DS sleeping 7-7 at 9 weeks.

Now 2.5 and still has 2-3 hour nap in afternoon and sleeps 7.30-7.

Nothing to do with our great parenting. DD didn't sleep though the night until she was 1 and can still have off nights (or early mornings).

I think it's down to the individual I'm afraid so no tips here.

I think alot of it is luck. DS1 slept for 12hours from about 9 weeks and now (at 3y) is a little b about styaing in bed at night. DS2 didn't sleep all night at all until I stopped bfeeding at 13m and now, 5 months later, will sleep for more than 12 hours at a time!

Both of mine have slept done 12 hours stints pretty early. DD was 8.5 weeks and DS 13 weeks. I think a lot of it is genetics and luck, I am a superb sleeper Both were horrendously noisy sleepers and got evicted pretty early on once it got to the stage that they were the only ones left in our bedroom in the morning. I was also so tired in the middle of the night that they didn't get a lot response from me, just a cuddle and milk and night feeds were always in a dimly lit room. During the day when they were little they slept downstairs, night time upstairs. For DS I had one of those things from Blooming Marvellous that was noise activated and made sea noises or something.

ds slept 9 hrs at night by 3 weeks old and was sleeping 6.30-7.30 by 9 weeks old . god knows why!!

at 4 1/2yrs he now sleeps 8ish-7/7.30ish.

Aloha - I'm so pleased you've got a better sleeper this time!

dd was much better than ds, but she is the older one so ds was a bit of a shock to the system. With her I used to space her night feeds out with a dummy - whenever she woke up i'd give her the dummy a couple of times and only feed her if she spat it out 3 times + (Did this after about 3 weeks i think). She woke once a night from about 6 weeks and slept 12 hours from 3 months.

I think 8 hours before 12 weeks is a bit optimistic, but fingers crossed!

PS my mum says my brother slept 10 hours from 6 weeks. Trick seems to be to have 4 other children and to put the baby in the room furthest from you own...

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dd - 12 hours at 6 weeks (although first time at 11 days - 1 off)

ds - similar times at 9 weeks

I personally put it down to feeding on demand and proper burping

dd3 slept for 8 hours last night - she is 7 weeks. Unfortunately the 8 hours started at 1.30am, but at least I know she can do it! My other 3 all slept for 8 hours by 12 weeks. I don't know why - the one thing they had in common was constant breastfeeding all evening, which is pretty exhausting and limiting, but worth it to get a good nights sleep.

I think we were really lucky - both slept 12 hours a night at 6 weeks! dd1 continued this but dd2 has for the last few months been waking up in the night (she is 20 months) and because we are wimps and didn't want to wake dd1 we have been bringing her downstairs and giving her a bottle (which she drains), but last week we started with controlled crying and she is getting the message. I'm hoping the waking up will peter out fairly quickly now! (famous last words).

NO

still not and he's SIX MONTHS

GRRRRRR

feeling a bit sore about the whole SLEEP issue today.

grumble grumble...

Dd slept through the night from 6 weeks - which goes to show the old adage of breastfed babies not sleeping through is nonsense. She was also a small baby, so she went against that theory too.

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Both mine slept from midnight to 6amish from about 3-4 weeks, then from 10-6.30 from about 6 weeks.

They were both big babies though (9lbs 8oz each) and I think its just a function of tummy size that they slept through.

They were monster munchers in the evening though - really used to like to stock up.

DC1 breastfed, DC2 breastfed to 6 weeks and then formula fed.

As soon as I started them on solids at around 14 weeks they slept from 7-7!

Nope - took nearly 10 months to do so. But now sleeps from 6.30pm to 7.00am. Bless.