sleeping through the night

[krystle08]

ok so my 12 week old has been a pretty excellent sleeper so far, for about the past four weeks she has slept from about 8.30/9.00 til about 7.00/7.30 which is awesome! then for about the last two weeks she has started waking at 4.00am, which would have been fine before but now I have had to go back to work so it's been a bit hard!

just wondering, am I expecting too much for her to sleep from say 9pm-6am? I just assumed it was normal because she had just started doing it on her own but Im not sure that I should really be expecting her to be sleeping 9 hours without a feed.

we've tried getting her to stay up later,but we seriously cannot get her to stay up past about 9 as she just passes out!

[kar]

I think you are expecting a bit much. She is probably starting to burn up more energy during the day so maybe needs more milk overnight (not sure if there is any science to this theory :laughing:)

The general view seems to be that keeping bubs up later will have absolutely no effect on morning waking.

However, I will add a disclaimer that my 4.5mth old is still feeding at least twice overnight so I guess I just think that is normal! Between about 8 and 14 weeks he would often do 7 - 8 hour stretches at some point in the night (usually between about 6.30 and 2.30) but he doesn't anymore. About 6 is now our absolute max and it is often two lots of 4 and one of 2. My theory is that he is using more energy up during the day but unfortunately he isn't ready for solids yet so is hungrier overnight.

A lot of what I have read and been told indicates that pre 6 months most bubs don't have the capacity to sleep through the night.

[MsMummy]

Hi,

My 9.5 month doesn't sleep through the night.

I returned to work part time pretty early on, so I had similiar concerns.

I found co-sleeping was my saviour. It meant that when the baby woke up, I didn't actually have to get up - just roll over and feed.:thumbsup:

Even if you're not breastfeeding, perhaps you could leave a bottle of formula by the bed (sorry, not sure how formula works) or something so you don't have to get up.

[lupa]

what about a dreamfeed at 10 and try to get her to bed earlier? works for us. DS goes to bed between 6-7pm, 10-10:30 dreamfeed and we go to bed and then he wakes up 8 hours later (not all the time :laughing:), and there you have it, 10-12 hours!

[amymay]

hi my ds 2 has had a good sleepin pattern at night since birth. from around 6 weeks he would sleep from 7pm -6am. he is now 14 weeks and the past few weeks waking odd nights at 4am for fed the back to bed no worrys until 6am. i think its an age thing and we are lucky to have good sleepers so i just go with the flow. i find ds1 sleeps through 1 week the next hes up for 1 fed the repeats, crazy....:)

[meagss]

Hi Krystle08

Is it 4am-ish every time she wakes or is it all over the place?

I've read that a wake-up between 4am - 5am can quite often be just because bub isn't warm enough. Maybe try another layer of clothing or perhaps a throw an extra blanket over her before you go to bed and see if it works?