*Magic* weight for baby to sleep through the night?

[angela123]

Has anyone else heard of a milestone (aka *magic*) weight that a baby needs to reach before they will be capable of sleeping through the night?  A few experienced parents have told me that their kids all had to reach a certain weight before they were able to tank up enough in their tummies to get through the entire night.

The reason I'm asking is that my little guy is nearly 5 months old and is only going 4 to 5 hour stretches at night despite the fact that he has been on an EASY (3 hours right now) schedule from very early on (when he does wake at night he does seem to be genuinely hungry - and I feed him).  The catch here with him is that although he was full-term he was very low birth weight (4 lbs, 7 ozs) - small but developmentally OK.  He has since made up for lost time in his weight gain (and is 12 lbs now) - but isn't yet the size of his same-age peers.

So...at this age is his lack of sleeping through the night a result of not being big enough to physically be capable of doing it or is it a sleep training problem and I need to tweak his EASY or pu/pd or something?

Any ideas?

Angela:)

[f1re_cr4cker]

my lo is small - 13lbs and is 20 weeks. weight may be part of it but to be honest some babies simply dont sleep though for a while- be it 7,8,9months

[angela123]

I know that some people consider "sleeping through the night" 5 hour stretches - but for sanity's sake I think that it should mean at least 7 or 8 hour stretches.  Really, who can function with only getting 4 hour sleeps?!

f1re_cr4cker - how long is your lo going in the night?

[Mom2katiebug]

I've heard this but no one ever said what the "magic" weight was - probably because every baby is different.  My LO was 9.3 lbs at birth.  How old was your DS when he weighed 9 lb?  Can you have the same expectations of a 9lb newborn and a, say, 9lb 2month old?

I think even Tracy alludes to it in one of her books by saying that the baby has to be able to take in enough calories to last the full night.  Wouldn't larger babies be able to do this better than smaller babies?  But, I think you have to take development into account too - not just weight.

Totally agree that "sleep through the night" should be a 7-8 stretch.  Especially when the diaper change, bottle and resettling can sometimes take an hour.  And, once you've been up an hour, do you drop right off to sleep?!?

[rebecaq]

I think the "magic" weight thing is just something to upset us mommies even more.  I was obssessed with my ds weight from about 4 weeks till 8 weeks, seriously i would weigh him every other day!  Finally I asked the ped what the magic weight was and she said that had nothing to do with it.  Babies sleep through the night when they are developmentally ready.  That's why some babies sleep through since they come hom from the hospital ( my niece ) and some take longer and do it around 3 months ( my ds ).

And yeah, when they first do it, it's not what we adults call " A night's sleep", but the more they grow, and more importantly the more calories they get, the longer they sleep.  Ds is 5 1/2 months and sleeps from 8 to 7!!!

Hang in there!

[Katet]

I don't think there is a magic weight, my first ds took until 6months & he weighed 8kg at 3 months (19lb) & my 2nd did it at 3mo & he also weighed 8kg at 3mo... there are many different factors to consider, part of which is feeding & others sleep associations etc.

[notenoughshelfspace]

I did read somewhere that physically a baby can not sleep through the night until they are, I think 12 pounds. ( Do not qoute me on this). What is possible and what actually happens are sadly not the same thing though.........

[jennc123]

I had been told about 13 pounds and i think sleeping through the night for a baby is roughly 5-6 hours, from what i have read and other mommies.

[GG]

I've read that a baby may be able to sleep through the night after they reach 12 lbs, but that book didn't define 'sleeping through the night'.  Other books define 'sleeping throught the night'  as being 5-6 hour stretches.  If you think about it, though, if your baby will sleep for that length of time, eat, then go back to sleep for another 5-6 hours, that's not a bad deal at all.  I guess it also depends on when the parents get to sleep that really defines a good night's sleep.

[angela123]

Thanks everyone!  I guess I need to be less obsessed with his weight and be glad that at least he is going 5 or 6 hour stretches (instead of 2 or 3s).