Infant Sleeping Through the Night

I highly recommend the book "On Becoming Baby Wise". It was written in the '80's but it is still very relevant today. It basically talks about how to put your baby on a feeding and eating schedule during the day, so that they get enough nutrition and you don't have to wake them at night. My son was sleeping through the night (7-8 hours) at 8 weeks old. Since he was gaining weight appropriately, we were not concerned about waking him to feed him. As long as your baby is gaining weight and growing like they should be, I would NOT wake them at night, no matter what my doctor said. Good luck!

Your doctor might be recommending that due to your baby's growth/development, so I would probably go with what your doctor says. But if your baby is on track with height and weight, then I would absolutely NOT wake he/she up for any reason during the night. You are establishing habits that will be hard to break later on.

Have you read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby? We found it really helpful with our 2nd child... She's a great sleeper now.... I think the main thing is your baby's growth... Even though our 2nd baby was tiny, she was growing fine and I never woke her up to nurse her.. not even during her first nights and weeks at home. I waited until she woke up on her own... usually once during the night.

Unless your little one is under weight for the age. They eat when they are hungry. I was never told to wake my little one (now he is 10 1/2 months). They need sleep also. Every doc is different. Ped doc's tend to say wake the kid and feed x hrs. Family doc's are not as "paranoid". My son started sleeping from 10-5:30-6 at 8 weeks or so.. most nights.

Good luck.

I was in samne boat as you are. We had to wake her up to feed. Around 4 month our ped said it was okey not to wake her up as she was big (18 lbs @4 month - all of Breast Milk) and could take the 9 -10 hr gap.

hope that helps

If your doctor says to wake the baby to eat, that leads me to believe that there is a reason for it. Is your baby underweight or have other health issues? As far as sleeping/eating routines go, I would check out Ferber or Weissbluth's books. Personally, I would steer clear of "On becoming Babywise" That book recommends putting new infants on eating schedules that are so strict that babies whose mother's followed this routine were being diagnosed with "failure to thrive" which is no joke. Your baby can go through the night if he is not waking on his own to eat and there are no other medical issues, but honestly sleeping through the night usually comes closer to 4-5 months. All healthy babies can go through the night by six months of age for a 7-8 hour stretch at least. Now is the time for you to just start setting up the schedule for eating/sleeping. Encourage sleep at night by going in, feeding him, not playing with him, changing him unless absolutely neccesary, and putting him back down.