Sleeping through the night ?

[Darius'mom]

How old will my son be before he sleeps through the night? He is 4 months now and wakes twice through the night to eat

[Deb_in_oz]

"sleeping through the night" is a very individual thing and no one can predict when it will happen. some do it earlier than others but the majority of babies are sleeping through by around 6 months or so - some a lot later than that.  know that technically sleeping through does not mean sleeping for 11-12 hours (ie hoping your lo will sleep 7pm - 7am ) it means more like 5-6 hours straight and then it grows from there. some kids need less sleep than others so an older baby night sleep can vary from 9hrs - 12+ hours.

if lo is waking sporadically in the night (and it is usually in 3-5 hr increments for most) than it is hunger and they shoudl be fed. if it is a habitual waking (exactly the same time every night and/or when food is offered they only snack for a few minutes) then you can try wake-to-sleep or a pacifier or other resettling techniques.

to "help him along" during the day you can offer as much food as lo will eat (within reason) and do a dream feed if you are not already doing one.  if the last night waking is around 5-6 am you could try to resettle to extend this time to 6-7am and start your day then.

hope this helps a bit.  He will get there eventually - what times are his 2 "night" feeds/wakings?

[Darius'mom]

Well he usually goes to sleep around 9pm and then wakes between 12 and 3 and then goes back to sleep and wakes usually around 5-7 sometimes he goes back to sleep after i feed him, other times he wants to get up for a few hours and in that case then goes back to sleep for 2 hours and then wakes for the day

[Deb_in_oz]

to be honest only the 12-3 feed is a night feed and is appropriate at 4 mo. most babies start their day from 6 onwards (despite the preferences of most parents  :lol: ).  the 5 am feed can either be pushed out by trying to resettle with a soother or PU/PD or wait until your lo starts taking more food during the day and pushes it out to 6-7am himself.

since the times vary so widely (12-3am is a big window) i expect he still needs the food.

when you mention he can be up for a few hours - do you mean at 3am or 5am??

if he wakes anytime before 6am (within reason) i would feed him and put him back to bed straight away - the feed should be in dim / no light and with no chatting or eye contact. HTH