When Can I Expect a Good Stretch of Sleep at Night?

My twins will only be 3 weeks tomorrow so I know I'm jumping ahead of myself here. I just need to see some light at the end of this tunnel.

I realize each baby is different, but I'm curious about all of your experiences.

At what point did your baby(ies) start giving you a good stretch of sleep? Do you also remember the weight? I wonder if that makes a difference. I would be happy to get 5 hours of consecutive sleep. Thank goodness my hubby is very helpful.

 

At 3 months we were getting 6-7 hours at a time. (They still woke sometimes for a paci insert). They went from 4 to 7 hours pretty quickly, in a matter of a few weeks.

 

We worked really hard for it, but all of ours were sleeping 11 to 12 hrs at 12 weeks. That said, they were still waking every three hours to eat until 8 weeks. Then in that 8 to 12 week period they gradually stretched out a four hour stretch, then five, then six, etc until they were going all night.

eta: As far as weight...they were all different. The lightest I think was about 9 lbs, the heaviest was about 15 lbs when they started sleeping through. I really think it's more developmental and to a much lesser degree a learned behavior.

 

I think it was somewhere around 6 weeks that they started giving us one longer stretch. Unfortunately it was in the first half of the night but they would sleep from about 8 or 9 until 1 or 2 a.m. They had a lot of wakefulness from about 3 to 8 a.m. but by 3.5 months we realized that was reflux-related, dealt with that, and at 4m1w they started STTN!

 

My babies started going longer stretches at 12 weeks old. They were born at 36 weeks 5 days.

 

mine started to sleep through the night around 10 weeks. At first it was 7 hours now they are at 12hrs. DH's aunt who's a peds nurse said the more you feed them throughout the day the better they will sleep at night. So we then started to feed them on-demand and within that week is when we noticed them starting to sleep longer longer. also I heard the better they nap during the day the better they sleep at night too.

 

My boys were waking up every three hours for a feeding at 8 weeks. However, at almost 10 weeks, I flipped them over to the bellies to sleep . They were during nap time and had VERY good head control. When we flipped them over, we did a dream feed and they slept from 11pm to 7am.

We stopped the dream feed at 11 weeks and they were sleeping beautifully!

You will get through it,
Jenn

 

I started reswaddling a little over 5 wks and they immediately started skipping a feeding... I believe we were getting 8 hrs by 8 wks and closer to 10+ hrs by 12 weeks.

For us it all had to do with swaddling. If we could keep their arms in, they kept sleeping. I referred to BabyWise, Baby Whisperer and The Happiest Baby on the Block.

good luck.

 

By 3 months we were getting a 7-8 hr stretch. By 4 months they were going 11-12 hrs.

 

I believe we started getting longer stretches around 12 weeks.

As for their weight, I don't know what it was right off the top of my head, but I do remember other moms telling me that the "magic weight" for sleeping was 12 pounds. But I never really found it to be true with my kids. ardon:

 

My boys were 33 weekers and didn't do the first 5 hour stretch until about 3 months. They were still doing 2 feeds a night at 6 months. I agree that the better they nap during the day, the better the night was. Hang in there and I hope you've got two who want to sleep more than mine did!

 

My girls began sleeping through the night around 2 1/2 months. It happened pretty quickly- almost overnight! One night they were still waking every 4 hours, and then all of a sudden they started sleeping for 7 hours at night. They were about 8 lbs at this point (34 weekers). Now at 4 months they sleep 11-12 hours a night & now they are just about 11 lbs. It will come sooner than you think!

 

One of my girls slept through the night (from around 9 p.m. until around 5 a.m.) for the first time at 6 weeks, but she only did it for a week or two. Then she started waking up again around 1 or 2 for a middle-of-the-night feeding. My second girl didn't sleep through the night the first time until she was around 9 weeks old. Now they're 11 weeks old and sleeping from 8:30 until 3 or 4 most nights. They still occasionally wake up at 1 or 2 for a feeding. So I'd say things start to get better at 6 weeks and become consistently better by 3 months.

 

I am so impressed by all these folks who were getting longer stretches of sleep much earlier than we did! Our twins are 7 1/2 months old and just started sleeping from 7pm-ish until about 3 or 3:30am within the last few weeks (still waiting for them to sttn ). Admittedly, we just moved them into their own room last weekend, and naps as well as nighttime sleeping seems to have vastly improved.....we knew the time had come but didn't quite realize how much it would help! I think they were about 5 months old when they improved from waking to feed every few hours, to sleeping from 7pm-ish until waking at 1 or 2am, then waking to feed again at about 5am. They were born at 39 weeks and 5 days, and their weights have always been off the charts (90-95th %) so it had nothing to do with size....mostly I think they were 'trained' (by us!) to wake and feed.

When we started CIO at naps & bedtime a couple weeks ago, we also did CIO for night wakings. It took just several days of crying 5-10 minutes on average (up to 25 minutes just twice....and much less for night wakings) for them to learn to fall back asleep on their own. Now, we are in the process of slowly cutting back the ounces we offer at bedtime and also the one feeding at 3am. We're hoping to eventually make the 3am feeding seem not worthy of waking up for before letting them CIO then, too. Today for the first time they did not have a 'bottle snack' of a few ounces upon waking at 6:30am, and held out for breakfast (rice cereal & fruit) at 8:15 (lasting from a 3:30 feeding)!

I hope this helps. Just wanted you to know that not everyone is as lucky as many previous posters (sttn at 10-12 weeks....impressive!) ....but everyone is different!

 

WHEN THEY MOVE OUT?????


LOL...my girls just started sleeping well although we haven't had a FULL nights sleep since they were BORN!!! One always wakes up during the night. SOmetimes fussing, sometimes wants a drink of something. It does get easier, but I CAN NOT wait until they sleep all night long.....

 

The first two months DS and DD were up every three hours for a feeding. At three months of age they were sleeping about 5 to 6 hours straight. Now at 4 months DD goes to bed at about 10:30 and wakes about 7:30. DS goes to bed about 11:30 and wakes about 7:30. I thought it would never come, I was a walking zombie the first few months, but it will get better.