Sleeping Through the Night
It will happen. We promise you. One day your baby WILL sleep through the night. It may be soon, and unfortunately it could be much, much later. If you are lucky by the time your baby is a few months old you will both be getting at least a full eight hours of sleep. If you aren’t so lucky you may have a baby that wakes up several times at night throughout at least the first year.
What constitutes sleeping through the night? Many people consider it eight hours straight, without waking up. Others may consider it the time that they are asleep themselves, whether it be six hours or 10. Some people may consider their baby sleeping through the night when he only wakes up to nurse once in a 12 hour period. Sleeping through the night can really be a subjective issue for the parents.
Some babies will begin sleeping through the night very early. Some parents will have a baby who first sleeps through the night as young as two weeks old. This age is rare but is definitely possible, however some pediatricians will recommend to parents to wake their baby up in order to feed them, instead of letting them sleep all night. Other babies may not start sleeping through the night till two, three or even six months. Breastfed babies may not sleep through the night till after they have been weaned or until most of their nourishment comes from table food and not breast milk.
Now contrary to a popular myth, starting your baby on cereal early, or putting cereal in a bottle of breast milk or formula will not help your baby sleep longer or through the night. In fact starting your baby on cereal too early as an effort to make them sleep longer could trigger allergies in your child that will make life harder down the road.
If your baby is having a hard time sleeping through the night, or putting himself to sleep there are sleep training books on the market that offer different points of view and can help you in getting your child to sleep. These range from letting them cry it out, to letting them fall asleep on you and sleep with you in your bed.
If you feel like you can no longer handle your baby not sleeping through the night or that it is taking a toll on you, your family or your marriage, don’t hesitate to ask your pediatrician for any suggestions they have to help your baby sleep through the night, and helping you cope with the lack of sleep you may be feeling.
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