Does Your Newborn “Sleep Through the Night?”
A short post today, stemming from a source of supreme frustration for my wife and I.
Recently, we’ve begun to “bump” into quite a few acquaintances of our while we are out-and-about, many of whom have babies around our son’s age. Without fail one of the first questions out of their mouths is, “Is he sleeping through the night?” We respond truthfully to the inquiry. “No,” we say, “He wakes about every 2 to 3 hours.”
“Oh, well my (insert acquaintances baby’s name here) is already sleeping through the night. I don’t know what I’d do if he was still on that frequent a schedule.”
This response almost always invokes the same gut reaction in my wife and I: first we feel ashamed, then a little insulted, and finally we have the urge for me to pin the pain-in-the-ass acquaintance to the floor, while my wife simultaneously performs the final 30 minutes of Lord of the Dance on their face. Not that we’re violent people, we just don’t like it when anyone implies that our child is not the best damn kid out there.
After we part ways with our now former friendly acquaintance, we begin to wonder, “Is there something wrong with us? Is there something wrong with our son? Should he be sleeping through the night?”
I’ve done some research, as I always do, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus on when a newborn should start “sleeping through the night.” Heck, there doesn’t even seem to be a consensus on what “sleeping through the night” means.
Some so-called authorities consider it to be about a five-hour stretch. Others use the traditional, implied definition of about an eight-hour time period.
As for when this sudden recovery of lost bedtime occurs, most sources I’ve found mention sometime between two and five months. Not much of a comfort, except to bring the hope that our little boy will make the change soon (he turned two months last week).
So while my wife and I wait in total anticipation of when we might see the return of waking up with the ability to actually hold our eyes open without using our hands, I ask you, when did your child start to “sleep through the night?”
January 30th, 2007 at 1:40 am
I actually came across this posting because I was searching on the “normal” sleeping patterns of a new born. Our baby came in 2 weeks earlier and is considered slightly under weight and as a result we have to make sure my wife feeds him every 2 hours.
We’re getting so many mixed signals from various professionals, some say make sure you wake him up if he doesn’t every 2 hours, some say you can take as long as 3 hours and some say don’t wake him up at all.
The “problem” we’re having is a bit backwards, our baby sleeps a little too well, we’ve decided to see how long he can hang on without waking up and we often give in. This last round we let him sleep over 4 hours and had to wake him up the baby is just 7 days old and I just don’t get it. When I ask the “professionals” about this they appear not to be listening to me due to the fact that no one came across this “problem” before.
The baby eats okay and according to the doctors is perfectly healthy, so I am just a little concerned about babies ability to sleep so well. Since as you said no one knows what a norm is, we’re probably going to go with the safe side and wake him up every 2 to 3 hours until he’s considered normal weight and then let him sleep as much as he wants.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
My baby is 2 weeks old and she also sleeps tyhorugh the night. She has been doing so since she was about 1 week old. she weighed 8lbs 12 oz and I had to be induced after she was 12 days late. She sleeps for 6-8 hours at night if I let her do so. I have been giving in lately, I wonder if this is the wrong thing to do? During the day she wakes every 2.5-3 hours to feed, so I figure as long as she gets her 8 feedings during the day it is okay..I will continue to look for answers!
August 8th, 2008 at 3:52 am
I’m a new mom and right now my baby will be 2 weeks tomorrow. I’ve also heard conflicting information on wether to wake the baby or not. I was told to wake her up every 3-4 hours during the night to feed her. Yet, when I do - it’s a horrible experience for the both of us. She doesn’t want to latch and doesn’t stay on longer than 10 minutes, not to mention I’m dripping all over her.
So I went back to “on demand” feeding. She does great during the day - every 2.5-3 hours throughout the day and then cluster feeds at night between 6-10 pm (every 1.5 hours). I think this cluster feeding is getting her through the night, because (as you can see it’s 5 am when I’m writing this), but she’s been sleeping solid since 10:30PM. Because I’m concerned, I’ve checked on her every hour since 1 am, and she seems fine. She’ll move when I stroke her head, but still won’t wake up to feed.
I’m most concerned, because last week, she lost too much birthweight. She’s gaining now, but still not even at her original weight yet.
Any answers you all fine would be great.
September 1st, 2008 at 2:22 am
Ive been very curious as to this same issue. This is the 2nd night that the baby has been home and she loves to sleep. She was about 4 weeks early and had to stay in ICU for a week and a half so she is almost 3 weeks old (or what the docs say, about negative 1 week). My Fiancee and I have been to the ICU every day, all day that she has had to stay. During days is the same issue. She wakes every 2 to 3 hours to eat. She is 5 pounds 10 oz, and eats 100ML to 120ML a feeding during the day, which I was told is a lot of food for such a young light baby. However during the night. She will get cranky for an hour or so around 9 to 10, then fall asleep. I was told by the docs to wake her every 2 to 4 hours and feed. When I try to wake her it takes me half an hour at least to coax her into eating. When she does eat late hours its about 50ML before she becomes too tired and passes out again. Im wondering if the amount of food she takes in during the day sustains her during the night? Maybe I should feel lucky, but either way I am awake touching the baby making sure she is ok. Big question is….is this normal?