Still not sleeping through the night!!!

608 Views 17 Replies 16 Participants Last post by CartersMommy, Apr 14, 2009

AmamaAgain

Discussion Starter · Apr 14, 2009

Hi Ladies! DS is almost 7 months old and still not sleeping through the night. What I mean is that he is actually up 4-5 times a night and wants a bottle. He only takes two small naps throughout the day usually and falls out cold around 8pm. Then, he wakes up about 4 times between then and 3am and tries to get up at 4am for good.

I feed him cereal right before he goes to sleep at night. The doctor flipped last month when I said that he doesn't sleep all the way through. We are in a small apartment so I can't let him cry it out because it will keep up my 8 year old who must go to school and my neighbor downstairs (an old man).

I do work and have to be up by about 5am each morning. He just wakes up to have a couple of ounces a formula and then goes back to sleep usually.

Any ideas to get him up less at night?

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kiara7

· #2 · Apr 14, 2009

In my experience, not sleeping though the night is completely normal. Doctors forget that babies are not little adults. Also, I don't think cereal has anything to do with it either.

Sorry, no advice for your routine, but it sounds completely normal for a little baby his age.

rachelsmama

· #3 · Apr 14, 2009

No advice, but I don't think your doctor knows much about baby sleep patterns if he thought it was weird for a 7 month old to wake up a few times.

Limabean1975

· #4 · Apr 14, 2009

That sounds really, really normal to me. I know it can be tiring, but I think it is less so if you can accept it as normal. My DS was waking frequently till at least 14 months. STTN for the very first time happened around 17months. Believe me, I stressed about it at times! But looking back, I think it would have been easier for me if I had just been able to accept it. He is 3 years 4 months old now and gets up once during the night needing parenting about 5 out of 7 nights. That's fine by me.

Learning_Mum

· #5 · Apr 14, 2009

Sounds normal to me. DS2 is 10mo and is just starting to have the odd night when he sleeps through. I'm pretty sure that DS1 didn't start sleeping through the night until he was about 12mo.

Do you co-sleep? We didn't with DS1 until he was 12mo, and basically as soon as we did he started sleeping through the night. He was just waking up and wanting us. As soon as we were there while he slept he would just drift back off again.

alexsam

· #6 · Apr 14, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Limabean1975

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That sounds really, really normal to me. I know it can be tiring, but I think it is less so if you can accept it as normal. My DS was waking frequently till at least 14 months. STTN for the very first time happened around 17months. Believe me, I stressed about it at times! But looking back, I think it would have been easier for me if I had just been able to accept it. He is 3 years 4 months old now and gets up once during the night needing parenting about 5 out of 7 nights. That's fine by me.

Agreed. Many babies wake. And even the ones who are sleeping through the night will go through periods when that changes- when they will sleep for a while, then they get a cold or start teething or whatever and are up again. Don't listen to your doctor about this. Doctors tend to get on a high horse about this kind of thing and it is silly. Doctors don't know everything, even though sometimes they think they do

.

And, like Limabean says, it is frustrating, its tiring, but its normal. And, I don't think there is any good, real way to get a baby to sleep through the night, lest we'd all be doing it! As for cry it out, you won't get anyone here telling you to do that. Not only is it ineffective and emotionally damaging, it is against the user agreement. Babies cry (even at night) because they need something. Yours needs you and food right now.

It really sounds like things are hard. And sleep issues can be brutal. But there is not much to do but accept, don't fight it, make the best of it, and this too shall pass. The best thing to do might be to try to set up other support systems so you can nap?

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finn'smama

· #7 · Apr 14, 2009

It's frustrating, but very normal for sure. In fact, I've found the second 6 months of the first year to be the worst. They are learning so much, getting teeth, growing etc., that no wonder they have a hard time sleeping.
It will pass!
Is there someone you can split the night up with? You take half the night and your partner takes half? That's what I had to do when I was really sleep deprived.

amberg007

· #8 · Apr 14, 2009

My Dd is also just about 7mo and not STTN. As a 1st time mom I foolishly thought that she would/should be by 4 mo. I gave that fantasy up a few months ago when I realized that she is just a little babe with a small tummy that needs to be filled up. My LO is EBF and we co-sleep so when she wakes to eat its hardly noticeable. Sorry, its just the way it is. I would just keep it to yourself if the doc has a problem with it. I never understood why the ped has a standard for STTN. babies are idividuals. My LO has a WBV next week and I plan on just humoring him...yes she is STTN, oh yeah...she eats lots of solids, sleeps in her crib...blah blah blah.

Maybe try co-sleep & just slipping the bottle in her mouth as she lays. At least you wont have to get out of bed and maybe she wont wake fully.

jt'smum

· #9 · Apr 14, 2009

Our ped. told me not to expect DD to sleep through the nite till she was about 2 or so. He just smiled when I told him that she ate every 2 hours if not less. Basically they will do it when they are ready. DD sleeps for 6 hours (usually) at a time and then comes to bed with me and sleeps till 5 or 6. I have to tell ya if she didn't come to bed with me when she woke up I would be nuts. So yeah just accept as very hard as it is and maybe try bringing her to bed with ya.

sapphire_chan

· #10 · Apr 14, 2009

Normal. You just notice it more because you're doing bottles. See if you can change things around to make any part of that easier. E.g. make all the bottles for the night in advance and if they're okay for 4 hours have the ones for the first half of the night next to your bed, and have a bottle warmer or see if he'll take a cool bottle.

_betsy_

· #11 · Apr 14, 2009

Totally normal.

DD1 didn't sleep more than 3 hours at a time until at least a year, then it was a 4-5 hour stretch at the beginning of the night until 17.5 months old, when she finally slept 7+ hours at a time. And not everynight. And still not (at 2.5 yo) every night, and especially not when something is happening like teething, or a language explosion or other developmental leap.

DD2, on the other hand, is by comparison an amazing sleeper, giving us a 5.5 (or so) hour stretch at only 3 months old.

Every kid is different. We're doing nothing differently with DD2 than we did with DD1, really. It's just the way DD1 is wired. She seems to hate sleep. It happens.

misswerewolf

· #12 · Apr 14, 2009

normal.

Also, remember that for babies, sleeping through the night usually means around 5 hours of sleep. Their sleep cycle works differently than ours.

olien

· #13 · Apr 14, 2009

at my LOs 7mo appt the ped said its normal to still wake a few times. especially boys and especially if BF. Not sure if you BF??

My LO is 8.5mo now. goes to bed around 8pm wakes to eat around 10:30, 12 (doesnt always eat), 2:30, 5:30 & is up for the day betw 7 & 8. and he is now on formula.

BTW adding cereal did nothing to get him to sleep better.Man I'm tired too:yawning:

JBaxter

· #14 · Apr 14, 2009

I have 4 boys and so far only 1 has slept through the night by 6 months. I say that because Jack is 6 months and still gets up 2x a night. Logan and Connor were 17ish months before they sttn. Nathan was 8 weeks

AmamaAgain

Discussion Starter · #15 · Apr 14, 2009

Thanks ladies! I am ok with him not exactly sleeping through the night (well...except nights like last night when he was up from like 2-5am watching his shadow on the wall...loudly)...

But otherwise...it was the doctor making me feel like the baby wasn't doing what was normal by waking up or by me feeding him a little at night.

Dame

· #16 · Apr 14, 2009

My daughter didn't start sleeping through the night at all until about a month ago, when she was 11 months. At 7 months, she was still up a minimum of 2 times a night and got fed both of those times (she's bottle fed too). It wasn't until she was 9 months that I dropped one of the night feeds and then at 10 months dropped the other one as she was not actually eating much of her bottle when I did feed her so I realized she wasn't actually hungry but eating out of habit.

alexsam

· #17 · Apr 14, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmamaAgain

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But otherwise...it was the doctor making me feel like the baby wasn't doing what was normal by waking up or by me feeding him a little at night.

phooey on him. I got a great bit of advice once... A pediatrician is a doctor who specializes IN THE BODY. Not behavior, not discipline, not choices over extended bf or co-sleeping or whatever. If its about ear infections or rashes, by all means- call the doctor. If its about social issues, don't put any more stock in to it than you would give a friend.

Obviously sleep and milestones are a bit of a gray area. Doctors can give some guidance, but there is a very wide range of normal. Many don't really discuss that.

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CartersMommy

· #18 · Apr 14, 2009

it looks like everyone else covered it, but just to add: yes, it's normal. at least for us. our baby will be 7 months in a few dys and he rarely sleeps through the night. some night's he'll eat once and some nights 4-5 times, depending. i notice if he's unto learning something new or a tooth is trying to come in he wants to eat more often. when I was pregnant with him I was hungry...mad hungry...like I NEED FOOD NOW HUNGRY...at all times of the day and night...bc I had a baby growing in me...why oh WHY would we excpect a GROWING DEVELOPING baby not to be the same. they need nourishment and energy too.

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