# When did your baby start sleeping longer stretches at night?



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

DD is five weeks old and generally sleeps for two-three hours in between feedings (usually closer to two hours, and sometimes less). I've been told I might start to see some slightly longer stretches between 6-8 weeks, and really hope this is true, though I know I shouldn't bank on it.

When did your baby start giving you slightly longer stretches?


----------



## momma2alauna (Dec 22, 2010)

This probably isn't what you are hoping to hear, but my 5.5 month old has yet to give me more than a 4 hour stretch. And that has only happened 2 times. Up until she was 4 months old, she only slept for 2 hours at a time...all night long. Now she will give me a 3 hour stretch at the beginning of the night(when I'm not sleeping, of course!) and then it is up and nursing every 2 hours until she wakes up for the day at 5am! I am feeling very sleep deprived these days!


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

Oy, condolences! That sounds really rough and I hope the situation improves soon. I feel like the super interrupted sleep is something I can deal with for the short term but at this point even a 4-hour stretch would feel like a week's vacation.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *momma2alauna*
> 
> This probably isn't what you are hoping to hear, but my 5.5 month old has yet to give me more than a 4 hour stretch. And that has only happened 2 times. Up until she was 4 months old, she only slept for 2 hours at a time...all night long. Now she will give me a 3 hour stretch at the beginning of the night(when I'm not sleeping, of course!) and then it is up and nursing every 2 hours until she wakes up for the day at 5am! I am feeling very sleep deprived these days!


----------



## katelove (Apr 28, 2009)

I'm not going to be telling you what you want to hear either. Sorry :-( My 1yo will sometimes go 4ish hours at the start of the night and has done the occasional 5-6hr stretch (maybe 2-3 times in her life). But, most of the time it is 1-3hrs.

The two things which have saved me are 1) co-sleeping/side-lying feeding and 2) DH getting up with her when she wakes up in the morning. I get an extra couple of hours sleep most days which makes a *huge* difference as I am not a morning person.


----------



## McGucks (Nov 27, 2010)

We have a theme, here...DS2 is 14 months and I would sell my soul for a 4 hour stretch. He has always been like this (we do EBF and co-sleep). Like a PP, he does sleep a bit longer at the beginning of the night (sometimes 3 or 3.5 hours), but after that, it's usually every two or so until he wakes at 6:15 or so for the day. Nap when you can, mama, and see if you can get someone to help you with housework (which is what kept me from napping with him early on until I finally realized I could have him take 20 minute naps a few times a day if he slept alone, or 90 minute naps if I slept with him. Without question, I found sleep deprivation to be the hardest part of early parenthood. Fortunately, when he wakes at night to nurse, he usually goes back to sleep before too long (10-20 minutes). Good luck. It's hard, I know.


----------



## Buzzer Beater (Mar 5, 2009)

My one year old still wakes every 2-3 hours to nurse. Occasionally DH can rock her back down, but it's much faster if I just nurse side-lying. She's gone 4 or 5 hours maybe 3 times in a year.


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

All right, getting freaked out here...







Sleep deprivation is getting to me! My sympathies to you all and I hope we can all find a way to get more sleep soon...sounds like it may be a long road, though.


----------



## gumshoegirl007 (Jul 12, 2010)

I'll be your beacon of hope! DD has always slept 2-3 hours a stretch at night. Many times 4 hours. Now that she's over 10lbs (at about 8 weeks), she has begun to sleep for one 5 hour stretch each night.

Her last nursing session begins somewhere between 9:30 - 10:30 pm and then she wakes up five hours later to nurse again. We bed share, so I just roll over and give her the boob and fall back asleep, somewhere between 2:30 - 3:30 am. The downside to that is that I quickly fall asleep so she only nurses on one side and then is back up again at 5:00 am to nurse. I repeat a one-sided nursing session and only fall into a really light sleep if I get any sleep at all. We then wake up between 6:30 - 7:00 am for the day and have a solid nursing session then or sometimes she snacks and goes back to sleep till about 8:30 am and then we have a good nursing session at that point in time.

Throughout the day, however, she feeds every 1h30min to 3h. So I guess that's a downside. But, I didn't actually start feeling sleep deprived until the past week or so. I'm getting pretty good cumulative sleep, just not good consecutive sleep.


----------



## LeighPF (Jan 20, 2010)

My little one is 4 weeks and probably a bit under 10 lb and I got 11 to 5ish the other night. My son was the same way. Of corse it does not last. 3-4 months was the first big new round of sleep disturbances.

Little Miss fusses in the co-sleeper and so she sleeps in my arms (or armpit) which leads to far better sleep for her. It works for me since she is so warm and cute (and I get more sleep).


----------



## MamaPhD (Jul 30, 2009)

Don't dispair, I'm here to give you hope!

DD woke up only once to eat around 2-3am by 5-6 months old. I think she went to bed around 8-9pm so it was a good 6 hour stretch, and then another good stretch until 7am or so. When she woke up, I would do a quick diaper change, nurse and then she was out again. As she got older that time kept sliding later to 4am to 5am, etc until she started to sleep through the night most nights by 9-10 months. I really didn't mind getting up cuz the whole thing only took like 15 minutes.

DS is now 11 weeks and he is still eating every 2-3 hours at night. At the beginning of the night, it's more like 3 hours, so he eats around 9pm to bed, feed at midnight, and then 3am. But he eats more often early morning, every 1-2 hours until he is "up" around 7am.

I think it helped DD was a big baby (90th percentile ht and wt) and had a big tummy. I hear small babies with small stomachs have to eat more frequently. DS is already bigger than his sister was so I am hopeful he will be sleeping longer stretches any time soon! Also I think my babies sleep better in their crib than with me. DD slept in her crib from early on and DS definitely sleeps longer in his crib. When I bring him into our bed (usually early in the morning) he wakes more often (every hour or so) and then nurses back to sleep. Not saying your baby has to sleep separately! Just my kids' sleep personality seems to work better this way.


----------



## somegirl99 (Aug 22, 2009)

DS did great with sleep from 2-4 months, we'd almost always get a stretch of 5-6 hours and one time had a stretch of 10 hours.

Then we hit the 4-month sleep regression, then the 8-month sleep regression.

At 10 months we are finally doing better again and he slept for 9.5 hours last night! Too bad my dogs had to wake me up 3 separate times instead.


----------



## Erin77 (Aug 4, 2010)

My eight month old rarely sleeps longer than 4 hours at a stretch, though we can sometimes (maybe twice so far) squeeze a 5 hour stretch out of him. He goes to sleep at 6 pm and eats at 9 pm, 12 am and 2 am and is up again at 5:45 am. Yawn.


----------



## Chloe'sMama (Oct 14, 2008)

Both DDs woke up about every 2-3 hours when little. DD1 nightweaned when she was about 20 months and that was great, DD2 is almost 9 months and she wakes up an average of 4 times a night still.


----------



## andromedajulie (May 28, 2011)

DD is 10 months old and I'm still waiting to go longer than 4 hours. (with my older one it was much worse)

I think half the problem is all these other people telling us, "WHAT?????????? she isn't sleeping through the night yet???????" (looking at you like you have two heads) - which leads us to an unrealistic expectation of a baby. who are all these alleged babies who supposedly sleep that long?!

Obviously sleep deprivation is the other half of the problem!!


----------



## expat-mama (May 28, 2008)

DS is 10.5 months and still gets up every 2 hours pretty consistently. He sleeps in his crib and with us depending on how the night goes. During the aforementioned "sleep regressions" he would wake up every 15 mins - 1hr. That was hell.

We had a period when DS was a few weeks old (6?) and then a few months (3?) when he slept for 4-6 hours stretches occasionally. That has not happened since then. The most we ever get these days is maybe 3 hours if we are really, really, *really* lucky.

Sigh- I know, it's hard. We're just muddling through looking forward to the time when he'll sleep better.







Then it'll be time for us to have the next baby.


----------



## Strong Mama (Feb 7, 2006)

My older son slept 7-7 at 3 months.

My middle son slept 6-6 at 3 months.

and the twin girlies(they are now almst 4 months) have been sleeping 7-7 since 2 months. They do have the growth spurt occasion where they wake at 5 to eat instead of i7, but then they go back to sleep.


----------



## sosurreal09 (Nov 20, 2009)

UMM yeah know you don't want to hear this but 18 m/o....


----------



## sosurreal09 (Nov 20, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Strong Mama*
> 
> My older son slept 7-7 at 3 months.
> 
> ...


Why did you get so lucky? lol That is VERY rare and definately the exception.


----------



## Strong Mama (Feb 7, 2006)

*Quote:*


> *Why did you get so lucky? lol That is VERY rare and definately the exception.*


* I dont know...lol people hate me, i am aware of this.lol*


----------



## LittleBirdy (Apr 28, 2008)

Sleep deprivation sucks, doesn't it?

DS started giving me 4 hour stretches fairly early on - maybe 4 or 5 weeks? But only for the first stint of the night. By 2.5 months he did 7 or 8 hour stretches and he STTN exactly twice just before he turned 3 months old.

Then.... he turned 3.5 months old... sigh.

Started waking up A LOT - sometimes hourly. I was nearly driven to the brink of insanity. Then I got myself in a better mental place to handle it: his nightwakings are HIS problem. I don't mean that it's his problem to deal with ALONE - I still nurse him back to sleep for every blessed nightwaking - what I mean is I came to realize that it was not my fault, it was not something I'd done, and that the best thing I could do was figure out how to make things more comfortable for ME. Which was full time cosleeping and getting really good at sleeping through night nursing - which takes practice, for both you and baby.

Hugs mama. Big, big hugs. You'll get through this, I promise.


----------



## asraidevin (Jul 30, 2010)

11 months. 4-8 months I got 2-4 hours. At 8-9 months, he was waking almost hourly. 9-10, it was 2-4 hours. 10-11 months it was 6-8.


----------



## lrgs (Jan 21, 2009)

9 months for us.......she started stretching out her sleeps to 6-8 hours.......before that my life was hell. I was seriously miserable and losing my mind. She was up constantly for the first 9 months of her life. Now she is 10 months and is sleeping from 7pm to 6am and it has made a remakable difference in my life. I feel your pain on the sleep deprivation and I really hope you get a 4 hour stretch soon. My ODD slept well almost right from the beginning......so it's not impossible.


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

Well, I have some hope: last night she slept 4.5 hours. Granted, it was after several hours of hellish fussiness, but I'll take what I can get!


----------



## Virginia884 (Apr 11, 2008)

Here's another beacon of hope for you! DD is 10.5 weeks and started STTN last week. Holy cow, I feel lucky.

What helped us was to put her to bed earlier. I used to take her to bed with us at 10. Then a few times I tried putting her in her crib for a 'nap' at 8p. She slept past her normal bedtime and still woke up at the same time (12). So I kept putting her down early in her crib (swaddled) and then bringing her in with us when she woke up. She gradually increased her sleep and has now slept 7-6 several times.

While I would love to co-sleep still, we all sleep better with her in her crib to start the night. The swaddle helps, too.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

That's wonderful! Congratulations. We are working on earlier bedtimes here, too, but her naps are still so irregular, plus with evening fussiness where I can tell she wants to sleep but can't for whatever reason, that it is hard to establish any kind of schedule yet. I know it's still early for that.

We are not cosleeping because I quickly realized I, at least, slept way better when she was farther away. So actually I've been sleeping in the guest room and she's in the crib in our room--DH brings her in to me when she wakes. Before, she was in bed with us but every.single.noise--which is a lot--woke me up.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Virginia884*
> 
> Here's another beacon of hope for you! DD is 10.5 weeks and started STTN last week. Holy cow, I feel lucky.
> 
> ...


----------



## greenmulberry (Jan 11, 2009)

With my 14 week old, last night she slept from 8pm to 3:30am !!! that's not the norm but occasionally she surprises me.


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

So last night she went 3.5 hours, which is the second longest stretch (then was back to 2 and 2.5 hours). I hope this trend of longer bits interspersed with the 2-hour norm continues! Not only did she go 3.5 hours, SHE FELL ASLEEP ON HER OWN. I had been rocking her to sleep. She was swaddled and dozing but clearly was still somewhat restless. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to put her down, the third time I put her in the crib (at 11 p.m.) her eyes popped open but she didn't fidget around or fuss, just lay there quietly looking around. So I patted her for a moment and then just sat by her, then got up to brush my teeth. When I came back a couple minutes later I saw that her eyes had been closed (but popped open again). She still wasn't fussing, so I just went to bed. Didn't hear a peep until 2:30 a.m.!

This is definitely not the norm but it gives me hope that eventually she will be able to do this more regularly.


----------



## somegirl99 (Aug 22, 2009)

That's great Blanca! I was so shocked the first time DS fell asleep on his own. Glad to hear things are improving a bit.


----------



## mjaer08 (May 30, 2011)

DS is 9weeks old ...falls asleep around 8-9, 'wakes'(read:squirms until I roll him over) to nurse sometime around 2, and wakes anywhere from 6-8. Sometimes he just needs a diaper change, sometimes he just nurses for a few minutes. and he naps about 3 times during the day, about 2-4 hours each.


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

Quote:We're not cosleeping--we were at first but her sleep noises really made it hard for me to get any rest.



> Originally Posted by *mjaer08*
> 
> DS is 9weeks old ...falls asleep around 8-9, 'wakes'(read:squirms until I roll him over) to nurse sometime around 2, and wakes anywhere from 6-8. Sometimes he just needs a diaper change, sometimes he just nurses for a few minutes. and he naps about 3 times during the day, about 2-4 hours each.


----------



## Kathy White (Apr 16, 2011)

one thing I did was to not clock watch. I stopped counting hours between feeds. I dropped the thought "I didn't get enough sleep" and took it as a given that sleep would be disturbed. In that I relaxed a bit. I just knew this babyhood phase was going to be one where sleeping is not the regular 8 hours I was accustomed to and in that I found peace. Waiting for baby to sleep longer could be a torturous time if you have an expectation of it being different than it is. Bless the fact that your baby will wake you over and over so you can spend some quite time of peace together when noone else is there just the two of you......


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

Excellent point. I've been trying to be more accepting and have found it's helped my anxiety (I've always been seriously neurotic about sleep). That said, I'm very fortunate in that I don't have to work at the moment.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Kathy White*
> 
> one thing I did was to not clock watch. I stopped counting hours between feeds. I dropped the thought "I didn't get enough sleep" and took it as a given that sleep would be disturbed. In that I relaxed a bit. I just knew this babyhood phase was going to be one where sleeping is not the regular 8 hours I was accustomed to and in that I found peace. Waiting for baby to sleep longer could be a torturous time if you have an expectation of it being different than it is. Bless the fact that your baby will wake you over and over so you can spend some quite time of peace together when noone else is there just the two of you......


----------



## Ginger Bean (Mar 10, 2011)

The most frustrating thing about it all is that it's not a linear progression. My son is almost 9mo, and it's been up and down. He's never been a great sleeper, but I think he's pretty average for a baby.

Around 2-3 months, he was doing a good stretch from 7pm-2am, though he would still wake 3 times at 2am, 4am, 5am. That lasted less than 2 weeks.

3 months to nearly 6 months was a haze of sleep deprivation, though there were decent nights thrown in. Huge growth spurt, 4-month sleep regression, rolling, sitting.

Then he was waking twice (bliss!) at 1am and 4am.

Then he turned 7 months old, and it has been hell ever since. Separation anxiety, 8-month sleep regression, crawling, standing, teeth, etc.

The best thing I've done since he was born was to put my alarm clock (with the neon red glowing numbers) away in a drawer, and try not to worry about how much sleep I was "losing." For example, his cluster feeding/restlessness in the early morning (waking 4am, 5am, 6am and finally up for the day around 7) was driving me crazy. But I found if I made a conscious effort to go to bed early and got enough sleep by 4am, those early morning hours became a very special and peaceful time. We nurse, cuddle, and doze -- it's just the two of us and the birds.

I had insomnia before I had my son, so I totally understand being neurotic about sleep. It's really hard for me to go to bed early, to fall back asleep, etc. I've had to work on my own sleep hygiene.


----------



## MamaPhD (Jul 30, 2009)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *andromedajulie*
> 
> DD is 10 months old and I'm still waiting to go longer than 4 hours. (with my older one it was much worse)
> 
> ...


My friend's baby slept from 7pm to 7am from like 3 weeks old until now (2 yo). never wakes at night EVER. of course i hate them lol!


----------



## QuestionGal (Feb 19, 2006)

DS didn't sleep more than about 2-3 hour stretches until we night-weaned him at about 11 months. I was a walking zombie.

DD has been sleeping through the night since about 4 weeks....and I mean 6-8 hour stretches. Now at 5 months she'll go much longer stretches (like 10-12).

They difference is that DD is bottle fed pumped milk and we don't co-sleep (just doesn't work for us...at ALL). With DS and friends children we all noticed that they would sleep amazingly well if given a bottle (pumped milk or formula) before bedtime, and also a dreamfeed bottle before adults go to bed. Maybe because they didn't have to work so hard to get the milk thus took in more before falling asleep??

Oh, and swaddling, and a pacifier - help but can also interfere with sleep when 1) they outgrow the startle reflex at about 4 months, and 2) the pacifier falls out and they can't get it back in.

It'll get better, do what works for your family. Sleep is vital for everyone, so do what gets everyone some sleep!


----------



## Blanca78 (Jul 26, 2009)

Things are looking up around here. Our wedding anniversary was last Friday and her gift to us was sleeping a whopping 5.5 hours in a row, followed by a 3 hour stretch. Tragically, I slept nowhere near that much, as my body clock is totally whacked and I woke up before she did both times. The first time I woke up, looked at the clock, and spent the next hour deliciously watching the minutes tick by with still no stirrings from baby (YES, I must put that clock away!).

Since then, she's given us a couple 4.5 hour stretches and seems to go about 4 most nights. The first stretch is always the longest and I would love it if she'd go longer over the next two, which are usually around 2 hours, sometimes less. It's hard because it always takes me a while to fall asleep at first so those long stretches aren't as long for me. BUT she's gone 3 hours for the second stretch a couple times, so it seems like things are moving in the right direction...

The message I'm getting, though, is that it could all be shot to hell any moment. But those 4+ hours sure are lifesavers for the time being. She's now 7 weeks old.


----------

