Sleeping through the night

I know a few of us had kids around June, I am wondering how many are now sleeping through the night. My son was born June 16 and is still waking at around 2 am for a feed. He's bottle fed, and I am trying some advice of smaller feeds at night so he doesn't have the need to wake, but I am exhausted with waking every night. I don't remember when my DD slept throught the night as it was over 8 years ago. Thanks.

My son gave up his first night feed at 6 weeks, meaning he slept from 11 or so until 5am or so - maximum of 6 hours. I completely followed the guidelines in the Baby Whisperer for him. I found that his 2am-ish feed was only to suck on something (when he was about 6 weeks old), and not to eat, as he's only have *maybe* an ounce. So that's when we gave him a dummy for the first time. We only ever gave him a dummy in the middle of sleeps so he didn't have to suck on a bottle - once he got his thumb (around 8 weeks) he skipped that 2nd night feed and went from about 10pm to about 8am. He still woke up at 2 am for a few nights, but once the dummy was on he fell back asleep. After a few more days he just slept through entirely, not waking up for the dummy at all. The BW book recommends a kind of topping up method once they get to be about 10 lbs and are taking at least 20 oz a day. So you feed every few hours as normal during the day, but before beftime you feed every 1.5 hours, or even every hour, to top them up with enough food to get through the night. I'm explaining it really poorly, but we followed what she wrote in the book. (Well, Philip did anyway). Of course it didn't happen exactly like that, for ages he ate a few ounces at 7,8, and 9, but then would sleep for 8-10 hours - where she recommends going every 2 hours. She makes a point of making sure they get plenty during the day (he was getting 24 oz or so a day), because if they get that much they don't physically need the food at 2am, they are doing it out of habit.

Hope that made some sense. I'm a real fan of the baby whisperer. Like *any* book about baby care a lot of it is crap, and you really have to adjust it for your baby, but what i like about her is that she says that. Her main point is getting to know your own child as their own unique self, and urges you to use your instincts, at the same time telling you what most babies she's taken care of have needed or been like.

Sorry if it sounds like i'm totally plugging her - but I've have a baby who slept through the night since he was 6 weeks old, and at 8 weeks was solidly doing 10, and he now does 12 without exception. Not all babies are the same of course, but it worked for us.

Just remember that the definition of "sleeping through the night" is 5 hours in one stretch. 

What time does he go down for the night?  With dd we would wake her up at about 11, just before we went to bed, to give her a bottle.  She then slept until about 7ish.  So if he has a bottle at 8 and wakes up at 2, you could try that.  Worked for us.

My DS was born at the end of April.  With just breast feeding, he was up 3 and 4 times a night, so we started giving him a few ounces of formula at 8pm, which got him to 2am.  Then, since my DH gets home at midnight, I started waking him up at 11 or 12 at night for a feeding.  Then he started sleeping until 5 or 6 am. 

I also noticed that when he woke up at 4am he wasn't hungry or even awake, just complaining in his sleep.  So was started fliping him over on his stomach and he'd sleep for another 2 hours. 

By 12 weeks we were feeding him a bottle between 9 and 10 pm and he was sleeping until 7am. 

His latest trick is waking up at 5am.  We give him the dummy and he sleeps for another hour or two.

Do what you want with this piece of advice from my health visitor, I personally haven't tried it out. She said if you are breastfeeding and you want your baby to sleep throught the night have a glass of wine or half pint of Guniess (or one other alcoholic drink of your choice) at lunchtime. Theoretically, the baby will get just a smidgen of the alcohol content in the breast milk, just enough to help them sleep.

Thanks for the advice. 

My little Hope is still up every 3 hrs or so, after a usual 5hr stretch but during that 5hrs I'm usually up for a couple of them so I don't get the benefit. I also read the Baby Whisperer and loved the book and have tried to implement alot of the theorys that she has, including the sleep, feed pattern and found it to help out somewhat.

I forgot to mention Hope is breastfed only. Not sure if that has anything to do with her sleep pattern.

I have found a reason to these wakings in the midle of the night. It a little thing called a tooth! He isn't even four months and already has one poking through. Last night was so much better now that we picked up some numbing gel. He still woke, but he wasn't up the 5 times he has been a night for the last three nights. I never would have thought to look for a tooth, but I looked yesterday and it's just pokeing so I wouldn't have seen it before anyway! Kids surprises surprises!

Surprise!!!

Philip had 2 teeth before he was 5 months old, the 2nd one came about 2 weeks after the first one, and I *swear* just popped in overnight!!!

Niall got four teeth in one month -- which explains an awful lot of his grumpiness.  They didn't arrive until he was five months old tho.