Sleeping Through the Night - Dallas, TX

I too have been lucky. My little guy is now 4 1/2 months and he has been sleeping through the night since about 3 months. He eats and goes down for the night about 8 to 8:30. I then wake hime before I go to bed (anywhere between 10 and 11pm) and feed him a full bottle and he sleeps until 7am. If I didnt wake him for the late night feeding I dont think he would make it until 7am. So, maybe try a late night feeding and see how that goes.

Every child is different, I know that others disagree, but my pedi said not to try to "sleep train" until 6 months. I think he is still too young to force anything.

I HATED when people asked me if my baby slept through the night! It always seemed like they were bragging, or implying that I was doing something wrong. Like sleeping through the night was some kind of milestone to be reached as quickly as possible.

All babies are different, and all babies will eventually sleep through the night. Kudos to you for breastfeeding your baby. Breast IS BEST.

Do what you feel you have to do to cope with the lack of sleep, whether that means cosleeping and dealing with the lack of sleep during the day, or beginning sleep training.

My real advice is to avoid the questions about sleep from well-meaning coworkers, relatives and friends. I came up with a vague answer and then changed the subject. I felt MUCH better when I stopped comparing what my child did with what other people's children did.

Hang in there, it gets better!

DO NOT listen to these people at work making you feel bad about what your baby can NOT do. I do not sleep through the night and I'm a LOT older than your son. I hate it when people make sleeping through the night a milestone.
What can you do to help him sleep longer?
I certainly would NOT introduce formula at this point. All you need is for that to tank and cause a whole new set of problems. Then you'll have to deal with that on top of what you're doing now!
I really would stop feeding him every two hours. That is a lot harder said than done, because you're so tired at night that you just want them to shut up so you can sleep. I'm there with you! Every night I try to wean mine from nursing at night. Every night I cave because I'm so exhausted that I have no will left in my tired body.
If your husband doesnt mind, I would suggest letting him watch the baby Friday and Saturday night this weekend, with you far away where you can't hear him and he can't smell you. That is the best way to do it. We did that at one year with our other kids and it worked well. We're firmly AGAINST CIO alone. But when they're crying in their dad's arms, I don't feel bad. But I will tell you that once you stop nursing at night, they do tend to wake up a lot earlier to nurse. But we didnt try it before then because they weren't walking yet and learning to walk, crawl, roll, etc is known to interfere with their sleep patterns. I actually read about it in Parents magazine last month and was glad that what my first ped said was finally in print! Physical milestones mess with their sleep! Maybe your son will be an early crawler/walker and that's why he's not sleeping well. My kids ALL walked by eight months. My son walked at SIX months. For real. It was insane.
Or you could just be tired like me and take naps on Sat and Sun afternoons to make up for it =)
Nursing is hard. There are a lot of drawbacks on the comforts of mom. This is one of them. But you deserve a big KUDOS for doing it. Sacrificing your sleep and your body for your baby is amazing. And you're working, so it's even more amazing.
Good for you!

I hated those women when my kids were little. Every baby is different and I had to learn the hard way. My older one didn't sleep through the night until he was almost 2 and couldn't take formula when I tried it. It upset his little tummy so bad - he woke up more! And my younger didn't sleep through the night until he was 12 months.

We ended up doing sleep training for my older son. And it helped a lot. There are lots of different methods out there and you don't have to do the cry it out method. I never could.

You could speak with your pediatrician about it. Mine was wonderful.

I have a 14 month old that still breastfeeds and he's not sleeping through the night. Everything I've heard is that all babies are different. Some sleep through the night right away, some by 1 year, and some later. I think you're doing what people recommend to help them sleep - there's also something called a "dream feed" where you feed them WITHOUT waking them up just before YOU go to sleep - gives you more hours of sleep. Good luck!

no advice really, but take it one night at a time! my little girl didn't sleep through the night until she was about 14 months old. seriously! ;) every child is different. Big hugs! You will survive it though! Hang in there!

Hi, M.,

I just wanted to respond to some of the women in here- maybe I am just VERY lucky, but my baby girl who turns 4 months old today has been sleeping 9-10 hours at night since she was a little less than 3 months old. She has gotten nothing but breast milk. I don't know why she does it or how it started, but there you are. Every baby is different. I would have been more than happy to get up with her every 2-3 hours at night, and I kind of miss it because those moments were really sweet. On the other hand, I am not about to wake her up to start feeding her again! The trade-off is that she doesn't like to sleep much during the day, so it is hard to get stuff done around the house (which only matters if you stay at home, I guess...).

I would encourage you to continue giving him breastmilk, even at night. I don't know about giving him a jar of food at this age- do you think that may be why he is waking up? Maybe he has a stomache ache. I would ask the pediatrician about it.

Good luck to you. He will be sleeping through the night before you know it!

A.

try everynight giving him a bottle of milk with the rice baby cereal mixed in it. I have been raising my grand daughter since birth and when they want to nurse so often, it just means they are ready for something solid in their tummy. My daughter was a breastfed baby and when she wanted to nurse every two hours i started mixing rice cereal with breast milk rather thick to be able to feed it to her with a spoon. I started doing this when she was only a little over a month old. she started sleeping better and longer. good luck S. pittcock, grandmother of soon to be four

Hi M.,

Every child is different and he has to adjust in his own time. Certainly there are things that you may do to improve him sleeping through the night, but those things don't work for every child. My daughter started sleeping through the night at about 4-5 months while my son didn't sleep through the night until he was almost 18 months. The worst thing we do as parents is compare our kids to what someone else's kid is doing...especially when it's good stuff. You will drive yourself crazy doing that. Let him adjust in his time. Once you stop trying to make it happen, it'll happen and you won't even remember when he didn't sleep through the night. God Bless!!! F.

It's the nursing throughout the night. My kids didn't sleep through the night until a year or so old. Fortunately, once they were 8 months, they just started lifting my shirt and *I* got to sleep through the night.

S.

This might sound harsh but let him cry. It will not hurt him to cry it out. They go through the same sleep paterns we do where we are in deep sleep then move to a light sleep then back to deep. The problem is that when they hit the light sleep they wake up and cry. He needs to figure out how to fall back asleep on his own. It should only take a few nights of this "torture" for him to sleep through. We were told that if a child crys for longer than 15 minutes check on him, but not before. With my daughter we had to stick it out longer, 20-30, she was smart.Both my kids slept through at 3 months and it is not unheard of for a child to sleep through as early as 6 weeks. My husband and I went through a christian based parenting class called Growing Kids Gods Way, the video series is by a couple named Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo. Their website is www.gfi.org. They have classes up to teens and the principals have really helped us in raising our kids. I hopoe this helps.

i hate to tell you this because I know how much sleep deprivation can mess with you but my daughter was up every four hours until she was just abotu a year old. We tried EVERYTHING and nothing worked. Then, all of a sudden, she started sleeping for 6 hours, then 8 and tonight (she is 14 months) she slept 11 hours in a row! I think that we have high expectations for how soon babies will sleep thorugh the night and everyone seems to have a story to tell you about how soon their kid slept. I think some babies are just sleepers and some aren't.
I know it is controversial but I finally gave in and would bring our daughter into bed wiht us when she woke up for the second time (3am ish) and let her nurse. It was the only way I could get any sleep and it literally kept me from going bonkers. I had NO problem transistining her back to her crib once I weaned her. You just have to do what works for you. MOMMY NEEDS HER SLEEP!

How frustrating for you! I breastfed both of my kids, and had them mostly sleeping through the night by the time I went back to work (around 4 mo.). I would nurse them right before their bedtime, around 8 then, and I would wake them to eat right before I went to bed at like 11. I also would feed him formula just before bedtime. My pedi said that the formula lasts longer in their tummies. I know that might not jive with your philosophy, but I thought I might mention it. Also, do you have a schedule for your baby, or do you just feed on demand? I found that it was really helpful to have a schedule for mine. I used the book "Baby Wise" as a guideline. As with all advice books, you have to tweak it to make it work best for you and your family...but all in all I thought it was helpful.

In the meantime...you might consider pumping a little extra milk and maybe letting someone else help out with those night time feedings, so you can grab some extra hours of sleep. Good Luck, remember...they do eventually sleep all night. Then your hormones make you look back on all these sleepless nights with warm and fuzzy feelings :).

Both of my girls didn't sleep thru the night until 7+ months old and that was with sleep training. My second was nursing every 2 to 3 hours at night at 6 months. My in-laws were here this weekend and their 13 month old still wakes at night and takes a bottle most nights. All babies are different.

My 9 month old has slept through the night for about 3 weeks now. Before that she was walking up to nurse 1 or 2 times a night. We got a sound machine and she sleeps great when we put it on. Also, once we started putting her to bed awake, she started sleeping better and longer periods both at night and for her naps

I have to say this is totally normal, my son didn't start sleeping through the night until he was about 6 months old, because that was when we started feeding him solids 3 times a day. For the parents that are telling you that their babies were sleeping through the night at 2-3 months they are either telling you this to make themselves feel better or to make you feel bad, because they are the exception, I do agree some parents get lucky, I know my cousin did, her daughter slept through the night starting at about 1 1/2 months and still sleeps in, but I wonder if that is because she is a big baby and is able to not feel hungry as often, but anyway just give it a couple more months. At about 6 months we started to let our son fuss a little if he woke in the middle of the night, sometimes, its not that he wanted to eat, but he wanted us to hold him, so if he eats at 10 and wakes up at 12, you may try letting him fuss for 10 minutes or so, see if he goes back to sleep, or just pick him up and rock him without feeding him and see how that goes.

M.,
I have a ten month old boy and he still doesn't sleep through the night! He wakes up one to two times a night for a bottle! Some kids just don't sleep through the night for a while! I have a friend whose three year old daughter still gets up once a night! I would just try to make sure you feed him as much as he can handle before bed so you can get a little bit more sleep! At four months though their sleeping patterns are still developing! I know my son just now is getting to where I put him to bed at eight and he wakes up at eleven and usually sleeps until about eight or nine the next morning unless he wakes up one more time! Just be patient and he will get on more of a schedule!

My baby was still getting up twice a night at four months, and since about seven months has slept through the night most of the time. At four months we stopped feeding her at midnight (her first waking) and gave her a pacifier instead. If she was really hungry, the pacifier wouldn't work. We did the same thing at 7 months with the one night feeding she was still wanting. Soon after that, when she would wake up in the night, she would find her own pacifier (if you put 4 or 5 in the bed it helps her out a little). It's hard when you're working, and you should do what's best for you, but it might really help to not get him in the habit of snacking all night.

A.
www.greenbabydiaperservice.com

M.,
Your coworkers are lying (and bragging which is so unbecoming). At 4 months, my baby occasionally slept up to 6 hours in a row and I was very grateful when that happened. It'll be a few more months before he really sleeps through the night. Then, he'll start getting more teeth and that pain will wake him up. If you can hang in there a few more months, you'll wake up one morning and find you've both slept all night. Hallelujah! Good luck.
~M.

M.:

I have the same problem with my 4 mth old and our Pedi recommended giving her cereal at night which at least helps her sleep in a 5-6 hour pattern. I have also tried giving her formula at night instead of nursing so that she has something a bit more filling. She also recommended trying to let her cry it out for a bit if I was able to handle it. That has not worked terribly well as of yet, but mostly because I don't want to hear her cry. I hope maybe some of this helps. I feel your lack of sleep believe me I work too.

Good Luck,

Kim

The last feeding of a night I gave my baby rice cereal in a bottle, and then if she woke up in the middle of the night, gave her a pacifyer. She would sleep until 5 a.m. then. I'm not for sticking a pacifyer in their mouth when nothing is wrong, but when you think they just need something to comfort them in the night, hey why not. This worked for me. But a lot of babies don't sleep all night at that age, but every two hours just doesn't sound like your baby is hungry as much as just wanting comfort, so try the pacifyer. Good luck.

every child is different. my son still wakes up and sits up every night He will be 2 on Friday. Over feeding your child will not help and probably makes the little feel really bad and gassy. Just imagine trying to sleep with gas pains in your body. When my son was nursing he would just nudge up to me a nurse of a few minutes and roll back over.

What you can do is be understanding of your child and understand the like people every baby is different, and don't be afraid of a pacifier.

I know how you are feeling. Two of my children slept through the night at a very young age. Unfortunately, my third one did not. She is 1 year and 1 month old, and just began sleeping through the night two weeks ago. The last year has been very tiring, and I never was able to get an undisturbed good night sleep. The two things that I was told to try were formula at night time because it was more filling. (That did not work for my because my daughter refused a bottle) Also, you might try nursing an hour or two before bedtime of instead right at bedtime. This did work to some degree for me. It seems like she would sleep for six hours. Until then, good luck and it will happen some time. I promise it won't be like this for the next eighteen years!!!

You could try principles from:

Baby Wise
Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child
Secrets of the Toddler Whisperer

My daughter woke up at least once per night until about 11 months. She was in the lower percentile for weight, which might be why. I came to enjoy those times in the middle of the night. She was so sleepy and cuddly and precious and I knew that those sweet times so close to heaven would end one day so I drank them in. :-)

Sometimes when I feel a night waking coming on, (they're rare now) I will wake her up at around 11pm and feed her before she ever gets the chance to fully awaken, and then lay her back down. This usually does the trick.
4 months is still pretty young though. Most babies don't start sleeping through the night until around 6 months or so.

M., a Dr. will tell you that babies don't normally sleep through the night until 8 months-that's when their stomachs are big enough to hold the food they need to sleep through the night. If babies do it before then-it's just luck, or they may need sleep more than they need food. I have 3 kids. My oldest (now 5) slept through the night at 8 months. My twins (now 2), 1 started at 4 months, the other, not until 13 months.
Just give your baby some time-4 months is just too early to expect a full night's sleep from a tiny little person.