When should they be sleeping through the night?

Aside pressure from mom "they should be sleeping through the night already" and pressure to have them sttn before DH goes back to work January 3rd, I am making myself nuts! We are trying different things and techniques as we go along, but I am not sure if they're not sttn because they're too little/young or because we're doing something wrong.

Should they be sttn now? 7 weeks old, born at 35w3d but healthy and strong. I personally consider sttn = 6 hours of sleep or more, 11pm or midnight on.
Definitely not talking about putting them down at 8pm till 6am- we'll get there eventually. Baby steps.

Basically, we're moving past the eat/sleep/poop stage, with more playtime and interaction during wake time.

Any advice or a sample schedule would be great. They go down to sleep well and don't fuss, self soothe with a paci and white noise, etc. My concern is that they still wake up for a bottle ever 4 hrs. or so.
TIA

Re: When should they be sleeping through the night?

Mine did not STTN until we did CIO at 8.5 months (7 months adjusted). Before that, they did not sleep longer than maybe 3 hours AT MOST.

Re: When should they be sleeping through the night?

We started getting a 5 hour stretch at 3 or 4 months adjusted. It was a long 6 months for us.

I think they are very young to be expecting more then what they are doing. Born at 35 w. they are really only 2 weeks old.

It will get easier!!! I promise!

Message edited 12/22/2012 2:25:44 PM.

When should they be sleeping through the night?

Thanks! It's exactly what I thought- and keep telling mom!


please, don't get me wrong. I do fine with 3-4hrs sleep, so I don't mind the waking up. I get a 1hr nap in during the day and I'm fine. I am worried that their current "stretch" is like 4am-10am, and it will also be hard on DH when he goes back to work.

Re: When should they be sleeping through the night?

I think I am the exception but my girls both slept 7 hrs on the same night and have given us 7-9 hours every night since. That started at 7.5 weeks. We do our best to nurture their sleeping habits but I think all babies are very different. I dont think you should expect it to take months... but I think the normal sleeping pattern for babies is that they will give you a longer stretch in the next month or so. The only issue I have (and I am NOT complaining) is that their longest stretch starts at 7 or 730 pm... so if I want to get a solid block of lseep, I need to go to bed early.
HTH!

Re: When should they be sleeping through the night?

First of all we can't listen to our moms! Lol. My mom would have me nuts if I listened. She thought they should be smiling for real at 4 weeks and thinks they should be reaching for toys and playing already. Lol. Not sure what she's comparing to because my brother is 17 so that's a long time ago and my 8yo nephew was a premie born at 28 wks so he was delayed. Lol

Anyway. My girls just started sleeping a bit longer about 2 weeks ago. Before that it was every 3/4 hrs. They basically dropped the first night feeding. They witch after their 5/6 pm feeding so I deal with them and keep them up. Then I either bath them at the 8/9 feeding or at least change them so they are awake (twin 1is very sleepy at this time so I need to wake her to eat). I try to push them a bit closer to just before I'm going to bed so I can just put them down and go to sleep. Like give pacis and wait til they are crying to eat instead of just fussing. Last night they went a bit longer and ate at 6 then 10 so that was perfect. They didnt wake til 5am!!! So 7 hrs and basically sttn!!

A dr who has twins gave me this advise to make them sttn. I have t tried it because I think they are too little. He said to let them cry to prolong feedings the feeding before you want to go to bed. That way they are exhausted and starving and will eat then sleep longer. This worked for him and his kids are 10 now.

I did find that bath time before bed is good with the lavender stuff. But baths calm my girls. It doesn't work for all babies.

Re: When should they be sleeping through the night?

My DS (singleton) did not STTN until nearly 8.5 months old when we moved him to the crib and did CIO.

My twins STTN starting at 6 weeks and was totally on their own.

For me I think I just got lucky.