Babies: 6 - 9 Months

STTN & BF 8 month old

I feel like so many babies sleep through the night, the whole night, by now.

DD was 8 months yesterday. She is breastfed every 3.5-4 hours during the day, and has 3 solid meals a day.

She has had her moments in the past few months?1 night she slept 10 hours straight! (I ran in at 5 am to make sure she was breathing.) She goes through phases of going anywhere from 4 hours to 6 hours.

Usually she nurses around 6:30pm (dinner) and then has her solid meal. Sometimes I'll try and nurse her again right before bed, but usually she's too tired and full from dinner. Even if she sleeps from 8pm-2am which is 7+ hours without milk, I only go to bed at 11-11:30. So somehow I never get more than 3 hours a sleep at a time.

Last night she went to bed at 8pm, woke at 9pm, I rubbed her back to get her back to sleep. Then she woke again at 11pm. I nursed her and she was back to sleep by 11:30/12 until 6:30 am this morning. That was really good for her, as the past few weeks she's been waking at 2 or 3 am for another feeding, and is actually hungry. I know that 6 hours is considered STTN... but I'm wondering anyone else BFing and still going through this? Any other suggestions?

We keep thinking, oh must be a growth spurt, or she's working on some milestone, or teething (she has no teeth yet!)

Re: STTN & BF 8 month old

  • I can't help you at all because Livy doesn't sleep at all but wanted to tell you that your LO is really cute!

    And good luck getting more sleep!

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  • We are in the same boat. It seems like DS does better if he gets a GOOD feed at about 730/8. Sometimes he cluster feeds in the evening, so there isn't a huge time gap between feedings. Last night he BF at 5, solids at 6, then BF around 745 and down. He slept until 230, I BF, back to sleep until 715 I fed him and put him back down :) he probably would've gotten up, but we both fell back asleep for about another hour. I stay up late too, and get brief periods of sleep, but I like my night alone time. Every night I say " I am going to bed early" then do the same thing again! Every night with DS is a crap shoot. Sometimes he is up every 3-4 hours all night, and he is hungry, so I feed him! I figure how can it be a "habit" if it's different every night? I don't know, DD STTN at 5 months, 12 hours, but she was FF. I just hope I am not dealing with night wakings after 1 year :( it is nice to know I am not alone!
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  • Similar situation here.  My husband keeps telling me she should be sleeping through the night by now.  She is all over the place with her sleep.  Once in a blue moon she'll give me 8 hours straight ( I can count on one hand how many times that has happend haha) I'm not a fan of CIO either, I keep telling myself it can't last forever :) Sorry no helpful suggestions just wanted to say good luck

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  • I'm in the same boat. My 8-month-old doesn't STTN. The best she does is 7:30pm - 4:30am. But most nights she's up around 12:30 or 1:00 to eat and then up again between 5:00 - 6:00am. She eats a big dinner - fruit, veggie, cereal, and I've even tried giving her 5 oz. of formula instead of BF before bed. That only works sometimes. She nurses about 5 times/day now, usually every 3-4 hours. She STTN (12 hours) from weeks 10 -16 of her life, and then we hit the four month wakeful. I wish I could have those six weeks of sleep back!
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  • I am so glad to know I'm not alone!

  • Ugh, that is frustrating...i'm sure she will start sleeping more soon!  DD started sleeping through the night one week before she turned 8 months (about 2 weeks ago)...but I had stopped nursing in the middle of the night a couple weeks or so before that...I started to do what you are doing, i.e. rub her back, pick her up and sway with her in my arms, etc. ANYTHING to try to get her back to sleep without nursing.  I'm not a big fan of CIO, so I just really tried to comfort her without feeding her.  My advice would be to maybe instead of nursing her at 6, try to feed her the solid meal earlier at 6...then nurse her before bed.  When she nurses during the day, does she get a good feeding or is she really distracted?  If she's getting a good feeding, along with the 3 solid meals, she should be getting enough and may just be nursing in the middle of the night bc she is so used to it. If she's distracted, she might be using the night time to catch up on what she missed during the day (DD was doing this for a while).  Goodluck!!!!
  • DS started STTN when we got the magic sleepsuit. He was a really terrible sleeper before that. I hope he never grows out of this thing, lol. My only advice is to go to bed earlier!
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  • I can't help you with the BF questions, but I can tell you that my LO is still not STTN.  She was, but since she started teeething, she has been up every few hours during the night.  Last night she fell asleep at 10:30 and was up by 1 for a bottle.  She had about 3 ounces then back to sleep til 5 then she finshed her bottle. SHe is eating solids throughout the day and generally napping only for about 2 hours in the AM.  My ped said some babies never sleep through the night!  I am glad to know I am not the only one!!
  • DS only "officially" STTN one time, but since 4 months he woke once around 3-4am (after going to sleep around 7:30-8ish) to nurse and go back to sleep. I was ok with this, though I preferred the feeding to be gotten rid of altogether since he is usually up by like 5:30 anyway.  However, that has all basically gone to shiit over the last 2 weeks between him being on antibiotics, teething, and having separation anxiety.  He's been up at least 4 times a night and we are all soooo drained. He still only nurses once at night, maybe twice (the rest of the time we have to rock him back to sleep). I wish I never would have complained about that 4am feeding because I'd kill to have it, and it alone, back. lol.
  • imagemiaomi:

    I can't help you at all because Livy doesn't sleep at all but wanted to tell you that your LO is really cute!

    And good luck getting more sleep!

    thanks, you too!

  • imageNewptNYbride06:
    My advice would be to maybe instead of nursing her at 6, try to feed her the solid meal earlier at 6...then nurse her before bed.  When she nurses during the day, does she get a good feeding or is she really distracted?  If she's getting a good feeding, along with the 3 solid meals, she should be getting enough and may just be nursing in the middle of the night bc she is so used to it. If she's distracted, she might be using the night time to catch up on what she missed during the day (DD was doing this for a while).  Goodluck!!!!

    Maybe I will try that. I don't think she is getting a good feeding right before bed because she's too tired. We have tried letting her nap at 5:30/6, and then feeding her so that she's not so exhausted. But it didn't seem to make a difference.

    I try to make sure she's getting good feedings throughout the day, but I think she is just too excited and distracted by everything.

  • imageMBZ:
    I stay up late too, and get brief periods of sleep, but I like my night alone time. Every night I say " I am going to bed early" then do the same thing again!

    I just hope I am not dealing with night wakings after 1 year :( it is nice to know I am not alone!

    I hear ya. I've been trying to get work done at night, since she isn't a good napper either. It's the only time I have. Eventually they will need to sleep, right!?!

  • My DS does not STTN either.  He does pretty much the same thing your DD does- no predictability!  Sometimes he wakes up and I can tell he is hungry so I will nurse him, but most of the time I think he just wakes up and doesn't know how to go back to sleep on his own. 

    I would try nursing her before bed (feed her solids earlier if you can) and see if that helps.  You are right though- she is technically going more then 6 hours without being fed so that is STTN.  Maybe you could go to bed earlier too- I know, it is hard but it helps! 

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