getting baby to sleep through the night

[Anonymous]

My son is 8 weeks old, weighs 13 pounds and I am wondering if there is something I can do to get him to sleep through the middle of the night?

I have tried feeding him with a bottle plus breastfeeding before he goes down around midnight, but it hasn't worked. I have also tried not feeding him in the middle of the night right away but waiting 15 minutes or trying to just comfort him by rubbing his back or picking him up, but none of this has worked. He usually does midnight until 3:30 and then I end up feeding him and then he gets up again around 7 a.m. I have not let him cry for an hour because after 15 minutes I just give in...

[Anonymous]

He's only 8 weeks!!! Babies almost never sleep through the night that young. Don't let him cry, he is way too young for that. In all seriousness, one night feeding isn't bad at all for that age.

[Anonymous]

8 mos. is still pretty young. Plus, you are BF'ing and that will mean he needs to eat more (digest faster, I think).

In truth, even the "experts" say not to do any sort of sleep training until 12-16 weeks. Feeding on demand is prob. best at this age (I know you don't want to hear that; it was hard for me too.)

Try following baby's cues a few more weeks. At about 10-12 weeks, we tried to institute a consistent routine and that really helped. These little ones also just start to become like little people -instead of little, cute blobs- at 12 weeks.

[Anonymous]

PP here. I meant 8 wks., not mos.

And, also to anyone else posting, please give this lady a break. She KNOWS that her baby is only 8 wks. When you're in the fog of sleep deprivation, you are desperate for some relief. Keep that in mind when responding, please.

[Anonymous]

Yes, ma'am.

[Anonymous]

8 weeks is way, way too young for sleep training. He isn't supposed to be sleeping through the night yet, especially if you're breastfeeding. He's simply hungry, and you should feed him (it's not "giving in"). He sounds like he's sleeping as to be expected.

[Anonymous]

Even the sleep trainers would tell you 8 weeks is way too young for any kind of CIO. It sounds to me like he's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing, and waking up once in the middle is actaully great. I think your expectations are off a bit...

[Anonymous]

In all honesty, it sounds like your situation is about as good as it gets for an 8 week old BF baby. Needing only one night feeding is great, and it sounds like you're getting 6-6.5 hours of sleep in yourself? I am JEALOUS. My baby is 9 MONTHS and I haven't gotten that much sleep yet (evil teething, etc). Please be happy for what you have especially since it will likely only get better for the next few months. Congratulations on your son!

[Anonymous]

Also, keep in mind that you have a large baby on your hands which means that, until his stomach gets a bit bigger, you will have to feed him more frequently, not less. I know it's a bit counterintuitive, but as our pediatrician explained to us, while a big baby is "allowed" to sleep through the night, they usually are not able to because they need the calories to sustain their size. Best of luck.

[clarabow]

Maybe there are other ways we can be helpful, since consensus is that convincing your 8 week old to STTN is not the right goal? (My family is in sleep hell right now, with 5-6 night wakings at 8 months, after several months of blissful 0-1 wakings -- it is always changing.) I actually go to bed between 9 and 10, sometimes earlier, to catch more sleep for myself. DH is absolutely not capable of moving his own bedtime up, so I know everyone's different. He's coping mostly through venting to me -- sometimes nicely, sometimes less so but I don't take it personally -- and lots of coffee. I also just need more sleep than he does. If you can squeeze exercise in that will help with your energy too. (I have not been able to motivate myself to get the exercise I need but lots of others seem to do it somehow.) Also telling yourself "I just have to do this one more month" can work wonders, even when we know it ain't necessarily true.

[Anonymous]

at 8 weeks my DD was getting up one time, around 4:00 or 5:00 am and then sleeping again until 7:00. MAybe two weeks after that, she slept until 6:30 and has been doing so ever since.

What time do you do your last feeding and put him to bed? I would put DD to sleep for the night at 11:00 - which is when we did her last feeding. That way she slept until 5. Granted, you still have to get up but for some reason getting up at 5 seemed better than getting up at 3:30.

[Anonymous]

PPs have mostly covered it -- it is unrealistic to expect an 8 week old to sleep 10-12 hours. If he's only waking up once a night, you are very very lucky. My 5 mo still wakes every 2-3 hours (we might get a 4-hour stretch a few times a week). Honestly, it doesn't bother me that much. I've mastered the side-lying position for BF and often don't even fully wake up. Also, we cosleep, which helps a lot. I have read that sleep habits are largely a temperament thing, so feeding more before bed is ineffective. Not sure whether that's true, but based on my experience it seems to be.

[Anonymous]

Just to take a completely different side than the PP: If your baby is still in your room and you're not cosleeping, you may want to move him out to his own crib and room now.

With our first, we found that as soon as we moved her out of our room, she slept through the night. We were making little noises and trying to shush her that just woke her up more. She also made so much noise that we didn't sleep that well. WE moved her out at 10 weeks and wished we'd done it sooner.

However, we moved our 2nd out at 8 weeks, assuming he'd be the same as #1, and at 8 MONTHS he's still not sleeping through the night. Every kid is different, but it's something to try.

Good luck. It does get better.

[Anonymous]

Yes, 8 weeks is still very young and perfectly normal to still be waking every 3 to 3.5 hours but here are a couple things that worked for us...

- During the day make sure you are following the eat-play-sleep routine. That is where you feed the baby but then keep them awake and playing for a little while (might just be 20 minutes sometimes) before you let them sleep. This will help them learn that they don't need to be fed to fall asleep. In the middle of the night (i.e. the midnight and 3 am feedings) you just feed them and put them down - you don't have to do the playing.

- listen to the type of crying to determine if it is hunger or if the baby just needs comfort. Hunger cries usually start off slow/soft and then build. They also do not stop until the baby gets fed. If the cries are intermittant then the baby might just need some comfort. You can try to pat his back or give him a pacifier but not take him out of the crib. This may be enough to get him back to sleep.

FWIW, I have 3 kids and with each one we just did the eat-play-sleep routine and around 6-7 weeks they dropped the 2 am feeding (sleeping from around 10 pm to 5 am), then around 10-12 weeks they dropped the 10 pm feeding and were sleeping 10-11 hours at night. We never had to do CIO or anything like that. I really think it is more of a sleep pattern issue than a feeding issue. I don't believe it is possible to "feed them enough" before bed to keep them full all night so they don't wake up. I think it is more a matter of letting their sleep patterns fall into place and that is a combination of age, size and temperment. Good luck - it really does get better once they drop a night feeding and you can get 5 hours of sleep in a row. That is a huge help!

[clarabow]

PP, all three of your kids exhibited identical sleeping patterns? Wow. I usually hear no two are alike.