Training baby to sleep through the night

EvenI

Tue, Jan 12 2010, 3:48 am

I wonder what you mean by "about time". Maybe you mean that you think that your baby doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night and therefore should sleep. Or maybe you mean that you are very tired and it's about time you got a good night's sleep. That might make a difference to whether or not this is realistic.

Before you try not-so-gentle methods, things you could try are:

- If baby is in your room, moving baby out might help (in case you were thinking that you would move baby out davka after (s)he sleeps through the night). You could be unwittingly disturbing him/her just by being in the same room or responding too quickly when baby could go back to sleep. Similarly, reducing noise/light in room may help.
- Make sure baby is getting all necessary calories during the day and evening. That might mean starting solids, especially if baby starts to wake up more now than previously.
- Tracy Hogg (baby whisperer) recommends the following from about 6.5 kilos, if I remember correctly: She says cluster feed at 6 and 8 pm, dream feed around 10.30/11, and then if baby wakes again, do this pacifier shtick: If baby has had enough to eat during the day, she might be waking only out of habit or desire to suck at night, so you might try giving a pacifier instead of a feed. If baby is happy just to suck for a few minutes and then go back to sleep, you can do it for a few days and baby might stop waking up. See if the waking time gradually reduces over a few nights - then you know that you're on the right track.

If I remember that weight recommendation correctly, then I guess that some 6 month old babies may still not have reached it, but I think she was talking about babies around half this age.

(I let my own big, heavy baby, wake up to nurse until much much older, and I have only had 1, so I am totally unqualified to contribute here.)