sleeping through the night..

Meghan - posted on 02/25/2009

My 8 week old is not sleeping through the night either. Have patience. I know its hard but most babies don't start sleeping through the night until 3 months because thats when they are allowed to start having cereal.

Zowie - posted on 02/24/2009

I think all babies are completely different first and foremost. So all I can tell you is my experience. My little girl is now 10 weeks old. for the first 8 weeks she has been doing 5 hours then 3 hours. But for the last 2 weeks I have noticed she sleeps 7-8 hours while swaddled but only 4 hours when not wrapped up.

But then my friend has a bub who is a day younger than mine and he sleeps 12 hours!!!

It really is amazing the difference between babies

good luck

Rebecca - posted on 02/24/2009

i have been trying to get this to happen myself did anything work for you i need help

Chantal - posted on 02/24/2009

My baby is now 2 months and 2 weeks and sleeping through his nights. But two of my other children didn't sleep through the night until one of them was 9 months and the other was well over a year old. You just have to tough it out. They say that a 2 month old is too young for infant cereals, be careful to his little tummy.

Nicole - posted on 02/24/2009

Quoting Olivia:

For those of you who bathe your 2 month old babies before bedtime - do you really bathe them every night? Doesnt that dry out their skin?

Yes, I do bathe him just about every night. The water out here is pretty dry, too. I found that just a tiny bit of baby lotion and he's totally ok, and loves being massaged/touched. It helps to calm him, so I definitely take the time to do it. It doesn't take all that long. 5-10 minutes in the tub with a few inches of warm water, talk to him, sing to him, splash some water on him, scrub him down real fast (it's not like he can get very dirty at this age) and he's good. If you're worried about drying out skin, every other day is probably fine. I just do it cuz he likes it and I really enjoy when he doesn't smell like spit. Plus it makes his hair all fluffy. :-P

I know many pediatrics and nurse practioners advise against using lotion, and that in the very beginning it can cause more harm than good. I don't use it every time. But especially if you're in a warm climate or a really dry one (I'm in a valley in Idaho where there is very little moisture), after testing out a little bit of skin to see if your baby reacts to it in an odd way and going from there can be really helpful for bonding. Babies just loved to be touched.

This is my first baby, so I'm no expert. I just know this is what works for us. :-)

Hope this helps!

Kayla - posted on 02/24/2009

my son hates to be swaddled..

Rachel - posted on 02/24/2009

My 11 week-old baby son usually sleeps at 9pm till 3/4am after his last bottle....then another solid 3-hourly feed till the next morning...i consider myself to be a lucky mom cos at least he sleeps for 6 hours, only thing is that i hope his stretch would be from 12midnight to 6am.. not 9pm to 3am...keke.... i do not bath him, nor feed him more for his last feed, and i guess it actually depends on each individual baby and how they react to their day/night routine.....speaking of sleep routine, we did not train him the difference so again its up to individual baby....but my son is more alert and sleep less in the day time, which makes it more difficult for me to do my daily chores. Sometimes i didnt even have the time to finish my instant noodle (laughs) and he is awake already....

Aimee - posted on 02/24/2009

It all depends on how much they weigh (from books I've read). At 12lbs they should be capable of sleeping through the night. The smaller they are, the smaller tummies they have to hold food. Isabella is 9lbs now, and sleeps 4-5 hour stretches at night, feed then sleep again. In the day she eats every 2 hours with a nap in between.

Olivia - posted on 02/23/2009

For those of you who bathe your 2 month old babies before bedtime - do you really bathe them every night? Doesnt that dry out their skin?

Olivia - posted on 02/23/2009

I found 3 things that work pretty well. 1) Play with them in the evening so that they get enough stimulation. This way, by the time bedtime comes, they will no longer crave it and be ready for bed. 2) Like Nicole said, make sure they eat well all day - but don't nurse too often because its better that they eat longer. 3) I take 2 blankets, roll them up in the shape of a U, and put one over her head and the other under her feet. This way she is surrounded by a little "cacoon". Then I take a blanket and tuck it under the rolled up blakets with her in it. The trick is that she is bundled up and sort of feels like she is being held. This works better then swaddling and it helps her fall back asleep on her own if she wakes up at night. This trick in particular worked WONDERS for me

Nicole - posted on 02/23/2009

Forgot to mention that he's 11 lbs now.

Nicole - posted on 02/23/2009

My son actually doesn't like to be swaddled. He'll be 10 weeks old tomorrow. I don't even give him cereal before he sleeps at night. Just a nice warm bath with Johnson and Johnson's bedtime baby bath soap, time to splash and get out his last bursts of energy (which sometimes there is quite a bit of), change him, baby powder or lotion (the massaging before bed I find helps a lot to soothe him), soft clothes, breastfeeding while wrapping him with a fleece blanket, and that's about it. He sleeps for about 5-6 hours before he wakes up, eats again, and usually goes back to sleep for another couple of hours. I find that it doesn't matter how many naps he takes during the day, but when he wakes up, it's play time. I don't let him take evening naps at all. After 4-5pm, he stays awake. Between 6-9pm is the hardest, but it pays off if I keep him up.

Laura - posted on 02/23/2009

My daughter started sleeping through the night a week and a half ago. We had in clothe diapers, by fluke put he in disposable and that did the trick. She also is a stomach sleeper, her back was out of place and had knots in her neck so this was the only way she would sleep right from the get go. Ant time she is on her back to sleep she wakes up 1-2hrs later from flinching in her sleep and waking her up. So I'm glad she sleeps on her back cause my 3 almost 4 yrs doesn't sleep through the night yet, consistently.

Jennifer - posted on 02/23/2009

My little 2 month old has been sleeping through the night for several weeks now....My two year old daughter has very rarely slept through the night....It's just up to the child....I think 2 mo. is too little for cereal too......it's not always about having a full belly to sleep

Sharisse - posted on 02/23/2009

my little boy goes to bed at 9 n he dont wake up again til 8am the nxt mornin. i put a extra scoop of formula in his last bottle n crushed up rusks. it works a treat. hes been sleepin straight through for 6weeks now n he is only 9 weeks old. gud luck every1 xx

Jaimee - posted on 02/22/2009

My 10 week old has just recently gone from sleeping 4/5hrs a night to sleeping around 7-9hrs a night and I put it all down to our bedtime routine.
I start getting him ready for bed about 7pm. Give him a small feed, bath him, massage him, give him a big feed and then put him into bed.
He doesn't always settle straight away and can sometimes need a series of small feeds before drifting into a deep sleep but once he's there he'll sleep right through until 7 or later.

Heidi - posted on 02/18/2009

Ava goes to bed around 10-11pm and sleeps for about 4 hours, then wakes up and eats and then sleep for another 2 hours, wakes up and eats and then sleeps for another hour or so.

Mariela - posted on 02/18/2009

I am lucky my daughter sleeps about 6-8 hours at night...but with my first daughter she didn't sleep through the night until she was almost a year old.  My lactation consultant says that 80% of babies sleep through the night by the time they are 3 months.  My first daughter just happened to be in the 20%.

Sharon - posted on 02/18/2009

My son is 2months now and most of the time i try to keep him up during the day a lot and play with him so he would go to sleep at night. He now wakes up every 4 hours either for feeding or if he is wet. It will get better soon. Also try to help them with their days and nights, like having lights on during the day and towards the night have it dark with a night light. hoped that helped

Heather - posted on 02/18/2009

have you tryed giving baby a bath after her last bottle for the night..i do it all the time and it works great..my son is breast feed but i feed him and then bath him all starting at 8pm and he will sleep until 6am..sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night but i just change his diaper and rock him and then but him back to bed that works..but the trick is to have the lights on real low so you don't really wake the baby..good luck

Sarah - posted on 02/18/2009

My two month all sleeps for about 4 hours at a time at night. Sometimes she'll sleep for a solid six hours. What I've been trying to do feed her closer together in the night time (maybe every 1.5-2 hours) and then have her 1am feeding be breastmilk/formula mix - that usually gets her through until 5-6 am.

User - posted on 02/17/2009

I would recommend a book called Babywise! It has been amazing and worked for all 3 of my boys who have slept through the night since 7 weeks old. They are now 4, 2 and 2 months old. And this is 9-10 hours a night!

Holly - posted on 02/17/2009

At two months old my ped told us to not allow our son to wake up and eat less than 6 hours from his last feeding. So if I feed him at 11:30pm, he is not allowed to eat again till 5:30. This has taught him to fill up and he now sleeps from 11 till 7. If he does wake up, I just go in and hold him and calm him down. The only difference is that I am bottle feeding - not breast feeding. So he fills up easier. As for swaddling - my son HATED it! He slept better not swaddled than if he was

Lindsay - posted on 02/17/2009

My 2 month old sleeps from about 10 p.m. until 3 or 3:30a.m. (5 hours is considered "through the night" I noticed he sleeps much better when I do a solid bed time routine of keeping him awake from about 8 to 9:30 p.m. , giving him a bath in the "bed time bath" by Johnson & Johnson, and then I let him breastfeed right before I rock him to sleep at ten... kind of a "top off" to keep him full and sleeping longer. I have read that babies really respond to a bed time routine. It's worked well so far!

Ashley - posted on 02/16/2009

My little girl is 8 weeks old & goes to bed around 8:30ish & wakes up around 8am, with only waking up once to eat. She has been doing that for a few weeks now. I have not changed anything in the way she eats. I just give her a bath around 7 & try to keep her up for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours before putting her to bed. But sometimes she has her night where she likes to wake up at 4am and play, but it is normal. She will be sleeping all night before you know it, they grow way to fast! Good luck with everything!!

Alana - posted on 02/16/2009

OH my gosh, I am so jealous. My twins are still only sleeping tops 3 hours at a stretch at night. They only take in between 3-4 oz each feeding, as they are still kinda small. My issue is that I cannot seem to get them on a night schedule. Their nights and days are still mixed up. I've tried keeping them up during the day, with playing with them, keeing them in a well lit room with normal noise level and such, but they sleep so sound. When they want to sleep, there doesn't seem to be any stopping them. It's too bad that it isn't during the night when they are like this! I'm hoping that when they can start taking in more each feeding that they will sleep longer at night.

Georgina - posted on 02/16/2009

I am very lucky my little girl started sleeping 5 hours as soon as she went onto formula. As she is such a noisy sleeper it was not until we put her in her own room that she did not wake up at all. With her in the room we ended up getting her up for a feed as she sucks and cries in sleep. She is feeding between 5 to 7oz every 3 to 4 hours. Last feed at 9 to 9.30pm and she is starting to go to bed at 10pm and sleep until 6.30am when my husband gets up for work. Sometimes she goes for longer but there is no rules. We had a teddy with white noise and also womb noises which helped at the early stages of getting her to sleep at night. Also my daughter doesn't like be restricted anymore and likes the freedom of being outstrenched in her growbag. But it is trial and error all babies are different.

Kaja - posted on 02/16/2009

I am having the same problem. My son is 7 weeks and we are up all night! I was told by a friend of mine last night to use a humidifier or a white noise machine. I haven't tried it yet but let me know if this helps!



Kaja

Nikita - posted on 02/15/2009

Hiya, my little girl has been going through the nite for about 3 weeks now. I never changed anything, she was feeding 4oz every 4-5 hours inc through the nite but one morning i woke up to her crying and it was 7am. She has the odd nite she wakes up but is going through 5-6 nites out of a week. Dont get jealous tho - my 21 month old went to bed at 7pm, it is now 1.30am and she has awoke 9 times. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now so I am still sleep deprived!

Amanda - posted on 02/13/2009

My son now sleeps about 5 hours at night. I started supplementing him with formula because he was just eating constantly and I was becoming sleep deprived and causing me problems with depression. So now I feed him for the last time at midnight. My husband goes to bed at about 10 and then gets up at 5 and feeds him again so that I can sleep. This way we're both getting about 7 hrs of sleep which has helped tremendously. He generally goes back to sleep after the 5am feeding and stays asleep for a couple hours. I don't know when the day will come when I can put him to bed at 9 and have him sleep for 10 hours but I don't anticipate it coming for many more weeks! In the meantime I'm just glad he's past getting up every 2-3 hrs through the night.

Holly - posted on 02/13/2009

My baby girl is almost 7 weeks old and she still wakes up every 2hrs to eat all day and night about 5 to 7ozs at a time. It would be nice if she could sleep 4 to 6hrs straight at night without wanting to eat before that. I am also curious when she´ll start sleeping that long cause I´m getting sleep deprived having to get up every 2hrs, haha.

Angel - posted on 02/10/2009

Our baby girl sleeps about 6-7 hours. We make sure to place her in her crib because when she was in her bassinet she woke up so easily. We always swaddle her , turn out all the lights, & make sure she has the white noise. I really think the white noise is helpful at nap time or night time. We notice she doesn't sleep as good without it.  If she isn't well fed she won't sleep past 4 hours so getting a good feeding iin is helpful. Note:  our little one is eating 5-6 ounces every 4 hours.  

Abbey - posted on 02/10/2009

swaddling definitely has helped with my 6 week old.  we bought one of the swaddling blankets with the velcro since we were having trouble getting her swaddled well enough with receiving blankets.  kiddopotamus is the brand we got, they have them at babies r us and walmart, probably target too.

Andrea - posted on 02/10/2009

My daughter is 2 mo and has given us 7 hours a coulpe times.  She doesn't like to always sleep during the day.  We haven't been swaddling her should we go back to it and see what happends? 

Michelle - posted on 02/10/2009

Two months is awful young to sleep through the night. Their bellies are still so small. I have a 9 week old and a 7 hour stretch at night is a blessing, he sometimes still wakes up after 5 hours! My daughters, now 5 andf 6 never slept that long until they were at least 5 months old. Pediatricians consider a 5 hour stretch at this age "sleeping through the night." In the mean time, keep swaddling, not allowing her to go longer than 3 or 4 hours during the day between feeds, consistent naps, etc.

Nicole - posted on 02/04/2009

Well, it's up to nature first and foremost. But i think the key is to make sure your baby eats well ALL day, not just before dinner. Also it is important that you don't sleep deprive during the day thinking it will make them sleep more at night. Lastly, make sure you are still swaddling.

My 2-month old sleeps about 8-10 hours now straight (thank god!), but she has her inconsistent nights, too... I think 6-8 hours is about the right amount for one long stretch? But I'm no expert...