When did your baby start sleeping through the night?

lulu72

Member
Hi Mommies,

I know answers to this will be across the board, but I'm wondering when your babies started sleeping through the night. My questions are:

1. Was it when they hit a certain weight?

2. Did you have to let them "cry it out" for a few nights?

I have a 13 week old boy who is 10.5 pounds (he was a preemie and only 4lb 12oz when we brought him home) and he is still waking for one 3am feeding. It seems like most of my friend's baby's were sleeping through the night by this age. So, I'm just curious what others here have to say.

Thanks Ladies!
 
oh my word!!! any baby that sleeps thr the night at that age is def not the norm! it is totally normal for a baby to wake to feed!
julia is 7 mon and is just now dropping that early am/late night nursing.
our 1st....well, we just didnt know what we were doing - she didnt sleep thru til 1.5 years!
our 2nd was about 6 months.
we do use cryitout WHEN NEEDED! but at your babes age i would say feed away!:D
 
My first 2 kids slept through the night at 6-8wks. Yes, no kidding! My third...she's a year next month and not sleeping through the night yet!! I think it varies with each child, obviously! I do not use cry it out...but 13wks is too young to use it, even if I did it.

Jessica
 
It took about 2 months to get a 6 hour sleep at night for mine. I was meticulous about making sure that she slept in her crib at night, and I was not a weenie about rocking her to sleep and whatnot.
 
waking once at that age sounds fine to me. I'd always feed them if they are hungry. they know when they can go longer without food. I can't wait till its only once. my 3 week old wakes every other hour to eat.
 
Well, my baby was born at 9 lbs...

He is now 9.5 weeks old and 13 lbs 10 oz and 25.5 inches long(!!!) He has been sleeping thru the night for 3-4 weeks now. Yes - for real. He currently goes from about 8 pm until 5 am. I know, it is crazy. He is bottle fed but i must say - he is a poor eater in my opinion. I think his weight is a result of his length - he is not that chubby but is long. In any case - he eats about 25-30 oz a day (that I give him) but spits up a lot. I honestly dont' know how much he actually gets in. He is a calm, non-fussy baby. He doesn't wake, cry, feed at all in the night anymore. It is quite nice. I have no reasons as to why - it is just him.

Good luck!

Clarissa
 
When my girls were newborns, I asked this question a lot and based on responses from other moms, I found that the magic number seems to be around 12 pounds (a belly full of cereal also helps the process). My girls were about that weight when they started sleeping through the night.

I would ask your doctor, but I don't think you should be letting him "cry it out" in the middle of the night. If he wakes up hungry, you should feed him.

The 12 pounds is just a guide (light at the end of the tunnel). I wouldn't force him to sleep through the night if he isn't ready.
 
My first daughter was a preemie. She weighed 3 pounds 5 oz. She was 9 weeks early. She didn't start sleeping thru the night until she was almost 5 months old. She would get up around 4 am and need to eat. If your baby wakes up and doesn't go back to sleep in a few minutes, feed him. I read somewhere that they can't sleep thru the night until they are 11 pounds which based on what other people are posting may not be true.

My second daughter slept thru the night at around 2 1/2 months. She was a bigger baby though. She was a preemie too but was very colicky so my DH would always stick a bottle in her mouth because he was convinced she was always hungry so she gained weight faster than our first.

The cereal helps them sleep thru the night but we didn't start that until they were 4 months old.

Good luck.
 
My answer is complicated.
He slept through for the first time at 8 weeks - and did that for about a week. Then went back to waking 1 or 2 times/night.

I don't think we stopped night feeding him until he was about 4 months. From 4-6 mos he slept consistently through the night for 12 hrs straight. Then went back to waking again, usually 1x night.

I've found that when his sleep pattern takes a weird turn, it's because he's going through something developmentally ( sitting, crawling, walking, etc...)

Every kid is different, and she'll tell you what she needs. I have friends whose kids are 18mos and they still wake up 3x/night. (I hope you don't fall into that boat!)

We never did much of sleep training. But we never really felt the need to, either. Getting up for a 10 minute feed or rock was much less painful than listening to him scream for half an hour (the whole time, I'm awake anyway listening to it). But Mason also never fell into a pattern with that either. After a couple of nights, he goes back to sleeping through.
I tend to follow his lead. But now, at 11 mos, I do have a 1x/night rule. I won't go in more than that.

A great resource for moms is www.mamasource.com. You can see what TONS of other mothers do for all kids of situations. It's been a lifesaver for me.
 
I agree with others that STTN is not to be expected at 13 weeks.

My son is 8 months old and still wakes up once/night :(. He goes to bed around 7:30, wakes between 2 and 4 (either for some love, pacifier, or because he is truly hungry--he can sometimes polish off a bottle in record time!), then is up for the day between 6:30 and 7:30.

I'm very close to CIO...I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it.
 
For all you moms who have kids that wake during the night...

When they cry do you get extremely hot? I break into a sweat if they wake up at night. Most of the time they fall back to sleep and don't need me. My husband on the other hand sleeps right through it. I do not know how he can't/doesn;t hear them. For me I am really, really hot if they cry. Is this weird?
 
Just remember that premies are behind full-term babies....so you can take the "normal" sleeping through the night and add weeks that she was born early....looking at gestational age is a better predictor.

With that said......my 3 & 5 year olds rarely (if ever) have slept through the night. They each wake up 1/2 way through the night and make their way into our bed to cuddle. We have a queen sized bed,...but with twins along the way,...we are going to have to find a way to break this habit!!! LOL
 
For all you moms who have kids that wake during the night...

When they cry do you get extremely hot? I break into a sweat if they wake up at night. Most of the time they fall back to sleep and don't need me. My husband on the other hand sleeps right through it. I do not know how he can't/doesn;t hear them. For me I am really, really hot if they cry. Is this weird?

Oh yes! You're describing me exactly! My temperature SOARS and I'm wide awake if he's crying. It's like an involuntary response!
 

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