Do Babies sleep like babies?

[drgoatboy]

So the media, publications, the internet and the general public would have you think that babies sleep through the night, will go to bed at 7pm and not whimper, murmur, or wake until 7am.

I have a 9 month old daughter and she has never consistently slept through the night, she has on the occasional night, and sometimes for a few nights in a row but normally wakes at least once every night.

This is obviously hard work and we have tried several different "sleep training" techniques which have all tended to improve matters but we have never got the golden 7-7 sleep routine.

So I wanted to ask the parents of Pistonheads, did your children consistently sleep through the night at 9 months? (or is my baby just odd?)

There seems to be enough people out there who also struggle so I was wondering how common it was...

thanks!

[drgoatboy]

DoubleSix said:

By 9 months? Yes.

I suspect if I could see what you were actually doing I'd be able to tell you where you are going wrong. But without going all 'supernanny' and actually observing it's hard to advise properly.

Are you an expert or just an experienced parent?

[drgoatboy]

Thanks for everyones inputs, I wasn't really looking for help (thanks for offering though) just wondered what the common experiences were.

We've read the books and do everything we think to be right (bedtime routine, dark room, right temperature, put down awake etc, etc)

Looks like a fair few others struggle too, can anyone else tell their experiences to build a better picture (wish I knew how to do a poll on here!)

[drgoatboy]

Cheib said:

Both ours did but I'll admit we cheated....when my eldest was about six months old we'd not had a solid nights sleep in six months so we decided to treat ourselves to a night nanny for a couple of nights. Purely so we could have two nights kip!

After reading about it we ended up booking one for a week and after three days my son was sleeping through solidly and has done ever since (he's now 5). We did the same with my daughter who is three.

My wife was very anti any assistance (she's a trained nurse/midwife) but it worked wonders.

Night nannies are about £100 a night....the £300 we spent on the first one with my son is quite possibly the best £300 I have spent in my life.

There's no magic to it but as I understand it when you go in and see your children in the middle of the night it's conditioning them to want/expect it. What they basically need to do is learn to go back to sleep on their own if they wake up. What the night nannies do is not that difficult but it involves being up for three nights solid which is not that easy when you haven't slept properly for six months and then have to cope with the kids or your job the next day!

Thats interesting. What do the night nannies do then? Just let them cry it out?
Do you go and stay in a hotel whilst they work their magic?

We do go into her if she wakes in the night, but its under a strict regime. She doesn't get picked up, or fed, just laid back down if necessary and told to go to sleep, 10 seconds in and out (she is in her own room), with strict time intervals between. Mrs Goat is not prepared to let the little one cry uncontrolled for hours on end which is what some people would recommend.

[drgoatboy]

Thanks everyone. Very interesting stuff.
Very roughly from this thread it's about 60% do sleep through (although I have excluded some answers i wasn't sure about)

No books will tell you 40% of kids won't sleep through....