Sleeping through

In article ,
Jen wrote:

I was wondering at what age your baby slept through the night without a
feed. DS will be 5 months in a week and currently he feeds at 6pm,
10.30pm, 3-4am and then 7am through the night, The advice seems to be that
if he doesn't sleep through by 6 months (say for 6 hours 11-5am or better)
then I need to see a health visitor. Why would this be a medical issue?

I imagine that there are kids out there who are malnourished (from watered
down formula, or mother refusing to feed on demand) and are waking through the
night, and your health system is tryng to pick them up.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is
nothing worth being eager or vigorous about."
Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893.

On Sat, 03 Dec 2005 18:27:56 +1100, Chookie wrote:

In article ,
Jen wrote:

I was wondering at what age your baby slept through the night without a
feed. DS will be 5 months in a week and currently he feeds at 6pm,
10.30pm, 3-4am and then 7am through the night, The advice seems to be that
if he doesn't sleep through by 6 months (say for 6 hours 11-5am or better)
then I need to see a health visitor. Why would this be a medical issue?

I imagine that there are kids out there who are malnourished (from watered
down formula, or mother refusing to feed on demand) and are waking through the
night, and your health system is tryng to pick them up.

I never thought of it like that, thanks for the insight.

Jeni

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 21:10:01 -0500, Patagonia wrote:

If you wanted to, you could try what DH and I did with ds when he was 6
months. At that point, he was waking 2x a night to eat. We decided to try
letting dh get up with ds to see if he could comfort him back to sleep. If
ds was *really* crying, or if dh couldn't calm him quickly (in 10-15 min),
then I'd go nurse him. Otherwise, dh would calm him back to sleep. We
targeted the ~1am feeding first, and ds stopped waking up after about 2
weeks. Then we went for the ~5am feeding, and that took about 2 weeks to
fade out, too. I figured if it didn't work, we weren't ignoring ds while
trying, and I'd be feeding him relatively quickly, too. But if it did work,
and he'd go back to sleep with comforting rather than food, then all the
better for us.

But - if you don't care about waking up and your child needs it, then don't
worry if he keeps waking.

The trouble is I don't really know whether he does need it as it's a feed
I tend to drop off to myself (never thought I'd fall asleep upright in a
chair!) so I don't always keep track of how much he is actually eating.
Before all the wakings/cold etc. he easily went 5-6 hours or even more
occasionally so I do wonder if he does need it. At the moment it's not a
problem and who knows, it might all change when he starts solids. But your
method above is something I'll keep in mind for later. Certainly by a year
I'd like not be feeding in the night as I'll be back at work.

Thanks

Jeni

Jen wrote:

The trouble is I don't really know whether he does need it as it's a feed
I tend to drop off to myself (never thought I'd fall asleep upright in a
chair!) so I don't always keep track of how much he is actually eating.
Before all the wakings/cold etc. he easily went 5-6 hours or even more
occasionally so I do wonder if he does need it. At the moment it's not a
problem and who knows, it might all change when he starts solids. But your
method above is something I'll keep in mind for later. Certainly by a year
I'd like not be feeding in the night as I'll be back at work.

I don't think of nursing as just about the calories, though -- he might
want the comfort, or the contact. But then, I coslept, so I slept
right through night nursings, and mine was very explicit about wanting
a nurse, not Daddy, for years. You'll have to experiment. :-)

--
C, mama to three year old nursling

Sue wrote:
"Jen" wrote in message
news

DD1 started sleeping through the night reliably at 8 months. I cannot
remember for sure with the other two girls. However, they slept at least 4-5
hours straight at night and did from an early age. I just don't think there
is going to be any hard and fast rules about this sleep issue and if someone
is telling you that there is a problem with a baby of 6 months not sleeping
through, is someone that I probably would not put a whole lot of trust in.
Each baby is different and will do things at different rates.

Totally agree with this. My mom's first baby (me) slept through 12
hour stretches by 4 months, went to sleep fairly late (8 or 9 pm), and
took long naps. Her second wouldn't nap much by comparison and
generally fell asleep around 5 pm, waking twice or three times a night
until she was four. Her third wouldn't sleep much at all unless she
was cuddled on another body and still wakes several times a night,
talks in her sleep, and sleepwalks -- at the age of 23. Her fourth
would sleep anywhere, anytime.

My DS reminds both my mom and me of my mom's third baby... (groan)

--
C, mama to three year old nursling

"Jen" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 21:10:01 -0500, Patagonia wrote:

If you wanted to, you could try what DH and I did with ds when he was 6
months. At that point, he was waking 2x a night to eat. We decided to
try
letting dh get up with ds to see if he could comfort him back to sleep.
If
ds was *really* crying, or if dh couldn't calm him quickly (in 10-15
min),
then I'd go nurse him. Otherwise, dh would calm him back to sleep. We
targeted the ~1am feeding first, and ds stopped waking up after about 2
weeks. Then we went for the ~5am feeding, and that took about 2 weeks to
fade out, too. I figured if it didn't work, we weren't ignoring ds while
trying, and I'd be feeding him relatively quickly, too. But if it did
work,
and he'd go back to sleep with comforting rather than food, then all the
better for us.

But - if you don't care about waking up and your child needs it, then
don't
worry if he keeps waking.

The trouble is I don't really know whether he does need it as it's a feed
I tend to drop off to myself (never thought I'd fall asleep upright in a
chair!) so I don't always keep track of how much he is actually eating.

Well, if you try this method, you'll get an idea of whether or not he needs
it, whether for calories or for comfort. If he needs it, then he will not
be comforted by dad, and you will continue the feeding. If he just wants
some comfort one way or the other, then dad will do just as well. If it's
habit, then by shaking things up a bit, you can break the habit in a couple
weeks' time. So you could start trying it now, and if he protests, wait
another couple of months and try again. Or just wait - it all depends on
what you feel is right for you and your family.

Before all the wakings/cold etc. he easily went 5-6 hours or even more
occasionally so I do wonder if he does need it. At the moment it's not a
problem and who knows, it might all change when he starts solids. But your
method above is something I'll keep in mind for later. Certainly by a year
I'd like not be feeding in the night as I'll be back at work.

Thanks

Jeni

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 12:23:16 GMT, Jen wrote:

I was wondering at what age your baby slept through the night without a
feed. DS will be 5 months in a week and currently he feeds at 6pm,
10.30pm, 3-4am and then 7am through the night, The advice seems to be that
if he doesn't sleep through by 6 months (say for 6 hours 11-5am or better)
then I need to see a health visitor. Why would this be a medical issue?
His weight is still in the 75th percentile (went down to 25th after birth,
so still gaining well) and he has all the requisite naps. Obviously it
would be fab if he slept through but I was wondering how much I should
worry for his health rather than my extra kip?

Out of 4 babies I think I've only had one that slept all night by 6
months - and she was a freakishly good sleeper pretty much as soon as
we discharged from hospital. I know #2 and #4 were/are still nursing
at least once or twice a night at 10 months, #1 I think was sleeping
more than 6 hours by 8 months. And just as another data point, all
these children were in rooms away from me (sharing, mostly, with other
children) by the time they were 4 or 5 months old. So it's not like I
was waking them by being restless.

Cheryl
Mum to Shrimp, Thud, Mischief and Chickie (born in Feb 05, who is
still waking at around 11pm and sometime between 4 and 5am nearly
every night)

Jen writes:
: I was wondering at what age your baby slept through the night without a
: feed.

Let see, at about 3 1/2 yo. Clara and Niel both!

Larry

"Jen" wrote in message
news
I was wondering at what age your baby slept through the night without a
feed. DS will be 5 months in a week and currently he feeds at 6pm,
10.30pm, 3-4am and then 7am through the night, The advice seems to be that
if he doesn't sleep through by 6 months (say for 6 hours 11-5am or better)
then I need to see a health visitor. Why would this be a medical issue?
His weight is still in the 75th percentile (went down to 25th after birth,
so still gaining well) and he has all the requisite naps. Obviously it
would be fab if he slept through but I was wondering how much I should
worry for his health rather than my extra kip?

Thanks

Jeni and William (who rolled from front to back for the first time
yesterday - yay)

DD was 4 months on the 4th of this month, and she's been sleeping through
the night for a long time...
First night home, she slept 6 hours (from around midnight until around 6am)
and slept 5-7 hours every night until she was about a month or so old. She
then went to about 8 or so hours at night when she was just over a month
old, and she did that until she was about 2 and a half months old. Since
she was around 2.5 months old, she's been sleeping all night. She goes to
be around 9-9:30 and at 7:30 DH goes to work and doesn't drive, so I change
DD's diaper, put her in her car seat, drive DH to work, come home and put
her back in her bed or lay down with her in our bed and she wakes up in the
morning to eat around 9:30 or so. It's been real nice, since she's the
total opposite of her older brother, who was up feeding every 4 hours at
night until he was about 5 months old!
DD is right on target for her weight and height and she's healthy... She's
been on baby cereal (didn't like the rice so we tried her on the oatmeal
kind) about 2 weeks ago, and I just introduced her to peas the other day -
which she hates! She was sleeping all night without getting up to eat, then
the nurse said she was playing catch-up during the day by drinking about 8oz
of milk every hour nearly! (that's when we tried her on the pablum to fill
her up a bit)