When did your baby start sleeping longer stretches at night? - Page 2

[asraidevin]

11 months. 4-8 months I got 2-4 hours. At 8-9 months, he was waking almost hourly. 9-10, it was 2-4 hours. 10-11 months it was 6-8.

[lrgs]

9 months for us.......she started stretching out her sleeps to 6-8 hours.......before that my life was hell. I was seriously miserable and losing my mind. She was up constantly for the first 9 months of her life. Now she is 10 months and is sleeping from 7pm to 6am and it has made a remakable difference in my life. I feel your pain on the sleep deprivation and I really hope you get a 4 hour stretch soon. My ODD slept well almost right from the beginning......so it's not impossible.

[Blanca78]

Well, I have some hope: last night she slept 4.5 hours. Granted, it was after several hours of hellish fussiness, but I'll take what I can get!

[Virginia884]

Here's another beacon of hope for you! DD is 10.5 weeks and started STTN last week. Holy cow, I feel lucky.

What helped us was to put her to bed earlier. I used to take her to bed with us at 10. Then a few times I tried putting her in her crib for a 'nap' at 8p. She slept past her normal bedtime and still woke up at the same time (12). So I kept putting her down early in her crib (swaddled) and then bringing her in with us when she woke up. She gradually increased her sleep and has now slept 7-6 several times.

While I would love to co-sleep still, we all sleep better with her in her crib to start the night. The swaddle helps, too.


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[Blanca78]

That's wonderful! Congratulations. We are working on earlier bedtimes here, too, but her naps are still so irregular, plus with evening fussiness where I can tell she wants to sleep but can't for whatever reason, that it is hard to establish any kind of schedule yet. I know it's still early for that.

We are not cosleeping because I quickly realized I, at least, slept way better when she was farther away. So actually I've been sleeping in the guest room and she's in the crib in our room--DH brings her in to me when she wakes. Before, she was in bed with us but every.single.noise--which is a lot--woke me up.

Originally Posted by Virginia884 

Here's another beacon of hope for you! DD is 10.5 weeks and started STTN last week. Holy cow, I feel lucky.

What helped us was to put her to bed earlier. I used to take her to bed with us at 10. Then a few times I tried putting her in her crib for a 'nap' at 8p. She slept past her normal bedtime and still woke up at the same time (12). So I kept putting her down early in her crib (swaddled) and then bringing her in with us when she woke up. She gradually increased her sleep and has now slept 7-6 several times.

While I would love to co-sleep still, we all sleep better with her in her crib to start the night. The swaddle helps, too.


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[greenmulberry]

With my 14 week old, last night she slept from 8pm to 3:30am !!! that's not the norm but occasionally she surprises me.

[Blanca78]

So last night she went 3.5 hours, which is the second longest stretch (then was back to 2 and 2.5 hours). I hope this trend of longer bits interspersed with the 2-hour norm continues! Not only did she go 3.5 hours, SHE FELL ASLEEP ON HER OWN. I had been rocking her to sleep. She was swaddled and dozing but clearly was still somewhat restless. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to put her down, the third time I put her in the crib (at 11 p.m.) her eyes popped open but she didn't fidget around or fuss, just lay there quietly looking around. So I patted her for a moment and then just sat by her, then got up to brush my teeth. When I came back a couple minutes later I saw that her eyes had been closed (but popped open again). She still wasn't fussing, so I just went to bed. Didn't hear a peep until 2:30 a.m.!

This is definitely not the norm but it gives me hope that eventually she will be able to do this more regularly.

[somegirl99]

That's great Blanca!  I was so shocked the first time DS fell asleep on his own.  Glad to hear things are improving a bit.

[mjaer08]

DS is 9weeks old ...falls asleep around 8-9, 'wakes'(read:squirms until I roll him over) to nurse sometime around 2, and wakes anywhere from 6-8. Sometimes he just needs a diaper change, sometimes he just nurses for a few minutes. and he naps about 3 times during the day, about 2-4 hours each.

[Blanca78]

Quote:We're not cosleeping--we were at first but her sleep noises really made it hard for me to get any rest.

Originally Posted by mjaer08 

DS is 9weeks old ...falls asleep around 8-9, 'wakes'(read:squirms until I roll him over) to nurse sometime around 2, and wakes anywhere from 6-8. Sometimes he just needs a diaper change, sometimes he just nurses for a few minutes. and he naps about 3 times during the day, about 2-4 hours each.
 

[Kathy White]

one thing I did was to not clock watch.  I stopped counting hours between feeds.  I dropped the thought "I didn't get enough sleep" and took it as a given that sleep would be disturbed.  In that I relaxed a bit.  I just knew this babyhood phase was going to be one where sleeping is not the regular 8 hours I was accustomed to and in that I found peace.  Waiting for baby to sleep longer could be a torturous time if you have an expectation of it being different than it is.  Bless the fact that your baby will wake you  over and over so you can spend some quite time of peace together when noone else is there just the two of you......

[Blanca78]

Excellent point. I've been trying to be more accepting and have found it's helped my anxiety (I've always been seriously neurotic about sleep). That said, I'm very fortunate in that I don't have to work at the moment.
 

Originally Posted by Kathy White 

one thing I did was to not clock watch.  I stopped counting hours between feeds.  I dropped the thought "I didn't get enough sleep" and took it as a given that sleep would be disturbed.  In that I relaxed a bit.  I just knew this babyhood phase was going to be one where sleeping is not the regular 8 hours I was accustomed to and in that I found peace.  Waiting for baby to sleep longer could be a torturous time if you have an expectation of it being different than it is.  Bless the fact that your baby will wake you  over and over so you can spend some quite time of peace together when noone else is there just the two of you......

[Ginger Bean]

The most frustrating thing about it all is that it's not a linear progression. My son is almost 9mo, and it's been up and down. He's never been a great sleeper, but I think he's pretty average for a baby.

Around 2-3 months, he was doing a good stretch from 7pm-2am, though he would still wake 3 times at 2am, 4am, 5am. That lasted less than 2 weeks.

3 months to nearly 6 months was a haze of sleep deprivation, though there were decent nights thrown in. Huge growth spurt, 4-month sleep regression, rolling, sitting.

Then he was waking twice (bliss!) at 1am and 4am.

Then he turned 7 months old, and it has been hell ever since. Separation anxiety, 8-month sleep regression, crawling, standing, teeth, etc.

The best thing I've done since he was born was to put my alarm clock (with the neon red glowing numbers) away in a drawer, and try not to worry about how much sleep I was "losing." For example, his cluster feeding/restlessness in the early morning (waking 4am, 5am, 6am and finally up for the day around 7) was driving me crazy. But I found if I made a conscious effort to go to bed early and got enough sleep by 4am, those early morning hours became a very special and peaceful time. We nurse, cuddle, and doze -- it's just the two of us and the birds.

I had insomnia before I had my son, so I totally understand being neurotic about sleep. It's really hard for me to go to bed early, to fall back asleep, etc. I've had to work on my own sleep hygiene.

[MamaPhD]

Originally Posted by andromedajulie 

DD is 10 months old and I'm still waiting to go longer than 4 hours. (with my older one it was much worse)

I think half the problem is all these other people telling us, "WHAT?????????? she isn't sleeping through the night yet???????" (looking at you like you have two heads) - which leads us to an unrealistic expectation of a baby. who are all these alleged babies who supposedly sleep that long?!

Obviously sleep deprivation is the other half of the problem!!

My friend's baby slept from 7pm to 7am from like 3 weeks old until now (2 yo).  never wakes at night EVER.  of course i hate them lol!
 

[QuestionGal]

DS didn't sleep more than about 2-3 hour stretches until we night-weaned him at about 11 months. I was a walking zombie.

DD has been sleeping through the night since about 4 weeks....and I mean 6-8 hour stretches. Now at 5 months she'll go much longer stretches (like 10-12).

They difference is that DD is bottle fed pumped milk and we don't co-sleep (just doesn't work for us...at ALL).  With DS and friends children we all noticed that they would sleep amazingly well if given a bottle (pumped milk or formula) before bedtime, and also a dreamfeed bottle before adults go to bed.  Maybe because they didn't have to work so hard to get the milk thus took in more before falling asleep?? 

Oh, and swaddling, and a pacifier - help but can also interfere with sleep when 1) they outgrow the startle reflex at about 4 months, and 2) the pacifier falls out and they can't get it back in. 

It'll get better, do what works for your family. Sleep is vital for everyone, so do what gets everyone some sleep! 

[Blanca78]

Things are looking up around here. Our wedding anniversary was last Friday and her gift to us was sleeping a whopping 5.5 hours in a row, followed by a 3 hour stretch. Tragically, I slept nowhere near that much, as my body clock is totally whacked and I woke up before she did both times. The first time I woke up, looked at the clock, and spent the next hour deliciously watching the minutes tick by with still no stirrings from baby (YES, I must put that clock away!).

Since then, she's given us a couple 4.5 hour stretches and seems to go about 4 most nights. The first stretch is always the longest and I would love it if she'd go longer over the next two, which are usually around 2 hours, sometimes less. It's hard because it always takes me a while to fall asleep at first so those long stretches aren't as long for me. BUT she's gone 3 hours for the second stretch a couple times, so it seems like things are moving in the right direction...

The message I'm getting, though, is that it could all be shot to hell any moment. But those 4+ hours sure are lifesavers for the time being. She's now 7 weeks old.