What Is Your 7 Month Olds Nights Like?

Hi there T.
No, it is not unrealistic to expect a 7 month old to sleep through the night. Both my breastfed babies were sleeping through from about 3 months (from 7 pm til about 5 am, then a feed and back to sleep). The 7 pm til 7 am sleeping started as soon as they were off the breast and on a bottle at about 5 months.
I don't think babies of that age need to feed overnight, and you need to be careful that you are not just getting them into a habit of waking up at night and then needing help to go back to sleep. Falling asleep on their own is a skill they need to learn along with everything else and the longer you leave it the harder it is.
The main thing is to ensure they are awake when they go to bed at night, though relaxed and drowsy, so they get used to falling asleep alone. Also, don't go to them in the night for every whimper - leave them to see if they will settle on their own. I am amazed the number of parents who effectively wake their kids up at night by rushing in at every little sound.
I didn't need to use sleep training but if you do, I believe it works and won't do a child any harm. Otherwise you can be letting yourself and the baby in for years of broken nights which does no-one any favors. Good luck!

Hi T.,
Been down the sleep road with two very different kids. My daughter slept thru from 12-6 at 3mos and by 6 mos was sleeping from 8:30-6:30 with no feedings. My son was another story.
The big question is, why is your baby waking? If you feed her, does she then go back to sleep? If so, hunger may be the cause. If not, other factors such as daytime naps or teething may be the cause. A dose of Motrin at bedtime will let you know if it is teething or some other pain.
Some babies are able to eat enough during the day to get them through the night while others at this age really do need one feeding. But......you also need sleep. I felt that way too.
What I did was to time that one feeding so my son and I could both sleep better.
If you put your daughter to bed around 8pm, be sure to feed her some cereal around 7pm, bathe her around 7:30pm and make her last feeding about 7:45pm. Be sure she does not fall asleep while nursing. Even better, use a bottle and have someone else feed her. Make reading a book the last thing you do before bed. Be sure she goes to sleep on her own. My kids would cry for about 10 minutes while fussing to sleep.
Around 11-11:30pm go in to her room very quietly, pick up her or prop her up and feed her. You can nurse or bottle feed. If you bottle feed, you'll know how much she is getting and you'll know she won't be hungry if she should wake. Give her a lot - a full nursing session or a full 8 oz bottle. No need to burp if she's been sleeping - just quietly lay her back down as she was. No lights, talking, singing or anything. If she does wake, same thing. Your only purpose is to feed her so you know she won't be hungry. This is called dream feeding. If she is awake when you leave, just put her back quietly and leave. Be sure she is wearing an overnight diaper so you don't have to tend to that.
So, now she should be able to go from an 11-11:30pm feeding until at least 6:30-7am. If she cries during those hours, give her about 15 minutes to settle herself. I think cry it out is fine, as long as you know she isn't hungry and all is okay.
This routine will take about 3-4 nights to work so give it a chance. Whatever you do, no more feeding between the dream feed and 6:30am.
My son did cry some. I decided to not go in since I could see him on a video monitor and knew he was okay. The worst was the on and off crying from 2-4am. That was our breakthrough night. My son is fine after all this- he's now a happy 3 year old! You will get through it!

Hi T., My daughter is now 11 months, but when she was 7 months I do remember thinking the same things. I have 3 daughters so I have been through this before and each time the Ferber method has worked great. Its hard to listen to them cry but they should be able to sleep a decent stint of time. its not unreasonable to expect her to sleep 8 to 5. But it could also be that she is teething. I had found that the nights when I thought she should sleep and she would not calm down I gave her some Tylenol and she calmed down. And in a few weeks i usually saw a tooth come through. Its so hard to tell though. But If I were you I would try the Ferber. Good
Luck.

My 11 mont old is now waking during the night because she has learned to crawl and is pulling up so she finds herself up on her knees in her sleep holding onto the rail of the crib and she can't figure how to lay back down. :)
a bit about me: I am a fulltime mom of 3 girls...5yr, 3yr & 11 months.

Hi T.. My baby is 8 months, and ever since she's turned 6 months, she became a pretty crappy sleeper. Everyone would tell me she should sleep through the night by now, but I think every child is different. I think they go through stages (like from sitting to crawling etc) and that may have something to do with it. My baby used to sleep from 10 to 4 or 5 am when she was 3 months, and now she wakes up every two hours looking for a pacifier or wanting to eat (she is legitimately hungry, as I tried fooling her with some water, but she'd spit it out and cry for milk). I don't know if there's anything you can do other than wait it out. Make sure she's comfortable, some kids don't like to have a wet diaper (for example, my ped would tell me at this stage I don't need to change the diaper at night, but I still do, because my baby will start kicking her legs in the middle of the night until I do, then she goes back to sleep). Sometimes, I'd take mine to bed with me too and it helps a bit but ofcourse you don't get much sleep that way. I don't really think there's a realistic goal you can set for yourself, every child is different, as long as your child is comfortable and not hungry, it's just how she is, you'll probably have to wait it out.

Hi
My daughter is 5 months old. She was waking up at night before we Ferberized her. She was not a good sleeper before we did it. I thought she was hungry but, I think she really just needed to figure out how to get herself back to sleep. She got it down and now sleeps soundly from 7:30-5:30 or 6. I do dream feed her at about 11pm because I'm trying to keep my milk supply up and I only do three feedings. When she gets up, I feed her and she goes back down for another 1/2 hour or 45 minutes.
She has been sick and had an ear infection that messed up her sleep pattern so, we had to do Ferber again but, it was one night and she got right back into it. Also be aware that sometime she may have a growth spurt and need to eat once she has nights down.
Good Luck! It sounds like Ferber might work for you. Your baby may just need to figure out how to get herself back to sleep when her body comes out of a deep sleep. I can't believe how well it worked for us. She isn't even making a peep anymore!!

I can relate to your feelings. Our son, who is no 3 years old, wasn't a good sleeper. during the day he did some short naps en during the night he kept us awake untill he was 9 months old. We were exhausted. I know from all my friends that other baby's, mutch younger could easily sleep through the night. I still think that every child is different. And I'm shore there's a reason for it, but with baby's you keep guessing. I think when I look back, that my son didn't get enough food in for the whole night. I was breastfeeding for a long time and I think that was part of the problem in the end. He was also having a pacifier during the night, and it would wake him up whenever he lost it. I don't know the specifics of your situation but maybe you could talk to the dokter for some suggestions. She could take your whole situation in consideration, like when she sleeps during the day and for how long. I've she gets her last feeding at the right time en if that's enough. Still I think with baby's it's a lot of trial and error. A shortage of sleep can be bad, you won't be able to handle all situations as you used to and it won't make you any happier. So as a short time solution try to get some sleep back by taking a night off in the guestroom or taking turns with your husband on the weekends. Or if you have family/friends nearby, ask them to take care of your kids for a couple of hours so you can sleep. With a 3 year old and a baby you'll need it!

Good luck and I wish you a lot of quiet nights!
S.

We started having baby use the crib close to his 6 months. Before then, we used the co-sleeper for 2 months and after that he slept in bed with us. We started the crib because for a month he would nurse from me whenever and we both would get little sleep. I still nurse. He was bad one night when we put him in his crib then would cry for 10 to 15 minutes and now sleeps for 8 to 12 hours. He likes to comfort nurse before he goes to sleep. Lately, he has a nap in the morning after he wakes up and eats and plays then the afternoon and a nap in the evening then wakes up to play then I comfort nurse and he goes to sleep.

Good Luck!

Hey T.,

I agree with what the other posters said about Ferberizing. Letting the baby cry is not going to harm her as long as you know she is not hungry, sick, and dry. I did it with both of my kids who are now 24 and 19 and they didn't grow up to hate me quite the opposite we are a very close family. Give it a try and get yourself some sleep so you can function for the entire family and most of all for your well-being. Teaching our children to sleep independently is a gift not a punishment. Good luck!

T.,
I have a 9 month old son that seemed to do the same thing. Sorry to say when 7 months hit his sleep just got worse and worse. From some good advice from moms on here I got "THe no cry sleep solution" by Dr. sears. It has been helpful so far with naps and nighttime sleep. My son is teething so we have rough night but that's to be expectated. I'm still a work in progress but it stopped the every hour waking. Now he wakes at about 2am to feed and then 5am and will sleep until 7am. Not picture perfect but a few straight hours of sleep helped.