How to get him to sleep through the night.?

Question

My son is 3 1/2 months old and he typically goes to bed at 9pm, gets up for feedings at 2am, 5am, and then typically wakes up around 7:30am for the rest of the day. I am breastfeeding him exclusively. I was just wondering how long it takes for a child to sleep through the night. I know it is different for every child, but my doctor said he should be sleeping through the night already. I was just wondering if you have any tips for me and my husband to try so that our son sleeps longer stretches at night.

Thank you!

Answer 1

At that age your child actually is "sleeping through the night" if he's sleeping 5 hours in a row. My DD was sleeping like that at his age as well. Now at 5 months she's up ALLOT more. Its pretty tiring for us. I also think your doc's a little outdated. Lots of babies don't sleep 8-12 hours like he may be referring 2. My little breast fed baby has only slept 8 hrs a handful of time and 11 hrs once. I really like www.kellymom.com for a reference for breastfeeding moms. Allot of that info makes sense to me. Congrats on breastfeeding!

Answer 2

The way I got both of my kids to sleep through the nights was when they wake up I would feed them, play with them, then let them nap (no feeding before nap - they need wake time to digest their food). When they wake up (no less than 2 1/2 hours between feedings) repeat. At night, I would never wake them, but when starting this "routine" I would feed them and put them right back to bed. I never needed to let them cry it out in the middle of the night, but I did have a friend who's baby would cry for about 5 minutes in the middle of the night and would go right back to sleep. So it might pay off to let your baby wait a little longer each night before you get him.

Answer 3

Your doctor is not your child. My son is 9 1/2 months old, about 21lbs and STILL wakes at least 2x a night. He'll sleep through the night once he's ready. Believe me though, I was like you at about that age. My older son has slept through the night, EVERY night, since he was 7 weeks old. I was certain my younger would be sleeping through the night by 3 months, when he wasn't I started stressing about. After a few ngihts of me stressing, I realized that hey, he will sleep through the night one of these days, I just have to wait until he's ready.

Answer 4

My girlfriend breastfed her two boys and they didn`t sleep through the night until 9 and 11 months.

I bottle fed my son and he was sleeping through the night at 3 months. My daughter at 2 years.

So it is up to the baby.

Answer 5

to be honest, im impressed that he sleeps for the entire 5 hour period from 9-2!! Breastfed babies tend to need to feed more often than bottle fed, so I wouldnt expect him to sleep through the night any time too too soon. But its worth it in the end!

Answer 6

my baby started to sleep through the whole night from 6 p.m till 6 a.m when he was 8 months old. I would express milk with a breast pump and would leave it in his room. he would wake up and drink it himself and I could sleep in another room. he is 13 months now and we are still the same.

Answer 7

when you breastfeed your child he is not eating as much at once, as he would with a bottle. Therefore he wants to eat more frequently.

Breastfed babies eat less but more frequent, Bottlefed babies eat more at once so they are full for a longer period of time. Maybe you can pump & bottle feed if you really want him to sleep more.

Answer 8

Try keeping him up all day....That's what I do with my baby and even letting him cry tires them out my baby goes to sleep at 9pm and sleeps untill 3am wakes up eats and then he goes back to sleep and wakes up at 8 am eats another bottle sometimes he goes to sleep and some times he wakes up and plays and takes a nap at 12pm