Need a little bit of reassurance...

My son is 6 months old and still not sleeping through the night    I used to stress about it something chronic, but then about a month ago, I decided just to accept it, and since he only woke once a night (differing times, anywhere between 10pm and 5am!) and was back to sleep within 20 minutes it isn't really that bad.

However after talking to plunket and my coffee group, I am starting to feel like I should be doing something to help him sleep through?

He has started taking less milk during the days (fully bf) and last night woke twice so I am worried he is making up for it at night.

He is not really interested in solids, and certainly not puree so we are sort of trying baby led weaning which means he isn't eating much in the way of food.

I don't think I could let him CIO (in fact, I think he is so stubborn he would scream the whole night), have tried other methods to settle him but basically when he is hungry, only food will pacify him. If I go in to try and cuddle him or shhh/pat him etc he just gets hysterical. Same with a dummy.

Although I am always looking for advice, I am also just looking for reassurance that other people's six month old bubbas are still waking, that it is "okay" to still be feeding him, and perhaps even that he will grow out of it of his own accord!

I wouldn't worry unless you need the sleep. My DS still wakes and I couldn't care less if other babies sleep through and to be honest probably half the people at the coffee group are exagerating how perfect their baby is.

And what do they mean by sleeping through anyway...might mean baby has a dream feed at 11 and then wakes at 6am...which is only 7 hours in a row haha, not exactly a 10 hour sleep in one go.

Most of the ladies in the Dec 09 group still have babies waking at night.

Does that make you feel better lol!

nope not sleeping through here either. well not consistently. i feed him if he wakes hungry otherwise i let him cry back to sleep. He often wakes about 12 or 1am and then his cry is a tired one, lasts a few mins and he's out again. Then anytime between 3-6 he wants a feed. i treat all those as night feeds.

Are you feeding 4 hrly yet? that might be why he is cutting down the day feeds. If you go longer between feeds they should increase again.

No sleep thru here till 8 months. I could have fixed sooner, but had to be ready to do what needed to be done. Was well established on solids and did a DF at 10 pm. Doesn't wake for feed (mostly, so I count it as sleeping thru).

One idea that worked for me is waking him and feeding him at around 10pm/11pm. If you do that, it's likely he'll sleep through till 7am which is the equivalent of "sleeping through the night" at least at this stage! It took me a week for this dreamfeed to work for me (he still woke up later in the night) but eventually the waking lengthened out and he didn't wake till 7am. You could give it a go for a week and see if it works for you???

My boy is still waking anywhere from 2-6 times a night. Usually about 3-4 times. So yes it is normal. They are only still so young but it won't be a permanent thing.

One thing I've learnt is not compare one baby to the next, they are all so different. Just be thankful that all it takes is is a quick feed and back to bed

TheKelly wrote: Ignore your coffee group and plunket , they are just making you worry unnecessarily

And are your coffee group telling the truth or do they just say their baby is sleeping through as they don't want to be the only one whose baby doesn't?

Neither of my boys sleep through. Jack is 3yrs and only occasionally sleeps through, it is a very rare occasion though.

From what I have read it is more common for babies to wake in the night than we are led to believe.
As a friend said to me, if it isn't a problem for you then it isn't a problem!

nathansmummy wrote: One idea that worked for me is waking him and feeding him at around 10pm/11pm. If you do that, it's likely he'll sleep through till 7am which is the equivalent of "sleeping through the night" at least at this stage!

It's possible but DS ( about to turn 1) has been half waking for a dreamfeed around 10pm ish for months, but it's only recently that he will then sleep through till 7am and even now not every night.

And, even on the nights that he does "sleep through" I hear him wake up and cry for a while often around 4/5am. So really, the only reason that I can say that sometimes he now sleeps through is down to the fact that he has recently learnt to resettle himself and he wasn't even close to doing that at 6 months.

1sttimepreggies, you said that you decided to accept your wee one waking before, and that's what I do. I am a very firm believer that just because a baby 'can' sleep through doesn't for one minute mean that they 'should' and certainly not because other peoples babies supposedly do. Babies wake, children wake, adults wake. Babies wake for a whole host of reasons, maybe teeth, maybe hunger or thirst, maybe they just need a cuddle.

And apparently, when the 'experts' talk about babies that sleep through the night they are talking about babies that sleep for a stretch of 5 hours.

Honestly, I think it's perfectly normal what you're experiencing, try not to let other people put you under pressure.

DH summed it up nicely for me one time recently when he said "well I'm 42 and I still don't sleep through every night".

Here's another thought...10-12 hours without the reassurance that Mummy or Daddy are still near is a VERY long time in a baby's eyes.