Baby sleeping through the night?

Hi there!

We have a 3 month old and are trying to determine the best way to teach her to soothe herself to sleep so that she sleeps through the night. This will take place in another month or two but if there is something I can do in the interim to make the transition easier, the advice from here would really help.

She sleeps in the crib on her own and has done so since she was a month old (in bassinet in our room for the first month). Her sleep pattern at night varies a bit but for the most part, she sleeps after her bath at 7 pm up to about 4 am, wakes for a feed and diaper change and is back sleeping within the hour. Then she wakes up at around 9 or sometimes 10 am.

Thanks!!

Wow, 7pm is really early for a three month old! That might be your problem, try a later bedtime and see if she sleeps later without waking.

I think ours was still up till 10-11pm at that age, but he would sleep till 7-8 in the morning.

9-10pm bathtime for our little one (10 wks); usually sleeps after the feeding until 2-4am; wife is nursing, so I guess baby gets hungry middle of the night

he's sleeping in his crib now (bassinet for 1st 2 months), no complaints He really likes to sleep right up against the side of the crib tho

man - this is awesome stuff...ours is due any day now...(due date april 17th)

A little trivia for you... "sleeping through the night" generally means getting 6 hours according to most of the literature we've read - and according two a couple of doctors we know!

From about 6 weeks to 6 months, our daughter generally slept from 8pm or 9pm until 6 or 7am. Once she hit six months and started teething she starting waking up two or three times in the night. At that point we started to soothe her back to sleep (assuming she wasn't crying) - we'd typically "shh" her while patting or rubbing her back (she sleeps on her side now, so this might be tough if your child sleeps on her back!)... if she started to cry, I'd pick her up, then put her down again and repeat - I'll typically shh her for a few minutes after I believe she's asleep (she's tricked me a few times!). After a couple of days of this she got into the habit of falling asleep fairly quickly once she was put in her crib. I don't mind rocking her to sleep, but my wife is finding she's getting heavier and it's harder to do!

She's 7.5 months now, and we've got her back to a 7pm to 7am sleep, though she still wakes up around 2 or 3 am every couple of nights. We have noticed that she'll wake up for a few seconds and sometimes cry, but fall back asleep before we can get up to her room - I'm not positive that this has any correlation to "shh"ng her to sleep, but I think it might as she's grown accustomed to falling asleep without being held. Occasionally she's woken up at night, and I've walked into her room, placed my hand on her back and said "shh", and she's fallen right back again.

Other times she's standing in her crib waiting for me!

I'm sure this is different for every parent (check the co-sleeping threads!), but this seems to have worked nicely for us - my wife and I typically get 8+ hours of sleep a night (assuming I'm not working!)...

Originally Posted by skanji

man - this is awesome stuff...ours is due any day now...(due date april 17th)

Congrats! Awesome experience!

Originally Posted by skanji

man - this is awesome stuff...ours is due any day now...(due date april 17th)

are u gonna name the baby after alfredson? redden? MATS?

best of luck with the newborn! try to sleep as much as u can over the next 2 wks!

Originally Posted by Fancy Face

Hi there!

We have a 3 month old and are trying to determine the best way to teach her to soothe herself to sleep so that she sleeps through the night. This will take place in another month or two but if there is something I can do in the interim to make the transition easier, the advice from here would really help.

She sleeps in the crib on her own and has done so since she was a month old (in bassinet in our room for the first month). Her sleep pattern at night varies a bit but for the most part, she sleeps after her bath at 7 pm up to about 4 am, wakes for a feed and diaper change and is back sleeping within the hour. Then she wakes up at around 9 or sometimes 10 am.

Thanks!!

Sounds like you're doing really well. At 3months my son was a terrible sleeper. If he woke up and you weren't holding him he'd cry and cry. Then you'd pick him up and rock him until he went to sleep and as soon as you put him down he'd start whaling again. We were just exhausted! Then we read a book and implemented it's strategies.

The book is called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", by Marc Weissblulth. It teaches you all about the science of sleep and has some very good suggestions on how to get your child to sooth himself/herself to sleep making it a lot easier on the parents.

Implementing Weissbluths strategies has changed my son from a terrible sleeper to an excellent sleeper.

Originally Posted by brendonp

A little trivia for you... "sleeping through the night" generally means getting 6 hours

agree, 6 hours is "sleeping through the night".

Originally Posted by Fancy Face

Hi there!
. Her sleep pattern at night varies a bit but for the most part, she sleeps after her bath at 7 pm up to about 4 am, wakes for a feed and diaper change and is back sleeping within the hour. Then she wakes up at around 9 or sometimes 10 am.

Thanks!!

If your child it sleeping 9 hours straight, I think she's doing great already. If you're expecting her to sleep from 7 pm till 9 or 10 am straight, I'd say your expectations are a little high.

Question: does she sleep on back or stomach ?
If on back, try stomach. Works, you can get 8pm till 7am straight sleep "out of her" easily. (but make sure she can move and hold her head while being on stomach = exercise during the day).
Also temperature in the room can be factor. Keep it low (20C or less) and don't put any hats on head.

Originally Posted by yelworC_

Question: does she sleep on back or stomach ?
If on back, try stomach. Works, you can get 8pm till 7am straight sleep "out of her" easily. (but make sure she can move and hold her head while being on stomach = exercise during the day).
Also temperature in the room can be factor. Keep it low (20C or less) and don't put any hats on head.

3 month old shouldn't be sleeping on their stomach, whole other story and lots of opinions I'm sure.

Sleeping on stomach is a big no-no these days for infants, it's linked to higher risk of SIDS.

I'd say get her to bed a little later and give her a good feeding before she sleeps...but 7pm to 4 am is still very good....just shift it over a bit.

Our son hasn't woken up once since he was 6 weeks old (he's now 7.5 months)...LUCKY!

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Sleeping on stomach is a big no-no these days for infants, it's linked to higher risk of SIDS.

+1

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Sleeping on stomach is a big no-no these days for infants, it's linked to higher risk of SIDS.

Sorry, but yes and no. SIDS is linked with temperature more than anything and bad air circulation. Sleeping on stomach when done properly is even better (e.g. no flat back of the head).