When Did Your Baby's Sleep Schedules Stop Changing?

Is she in your room? My first son was in our room for 6 months, my second for about a year (we were not ready to have them share, but we were ready to have him out). I found that my older boy slept better on his own--I think he could smell mommy and figured he may as well be nursing in his sleep, and he could hear every little sound we made. Thankfully, they were both generally great sleepers. I always have had some kind of "white" noise in their room, even if it is just a fan or humidifier. Before my older one started getting up and turning it off, we played a quiet CD on repeat until he was pretty soundly asleep--I think it was a Rock-a-Bye Baby CD, so very mellow.

from my exp with babies is that once they are on formula or more solid type foods they will sleep longer the more they eat the better my last nanny job the babies would go down at 8 pm and drink a 6oz bottle of formula and have a decent amount of baby food as well and they would sleep till at least 6am in the morning however the baby that was being breastfed had a harder time sleeping through the night i would watch what you are in taking like caffeine or coffee or lots of sweets cause that will cause the milk to thin and the baby to not stay full as long which could make them unable to sleep as long

11 months for son (took him out of our room/bed) put him in his own crib in his own room and went on formula. He cried for a couple of nights but I let him cry himself to sleep. Then he went from waking every 2 to 3 hours to sleeping the whole night through. daughter went in her own crib at 4 months. She slept every 4-5 hours. At 9 months she was sleeping through the night, but then she got a cold and was waking again. Back to sleep training her so that she can sleep through the night again. (she has been waking up between 2:30 or 4:30 when she should be sleeping until 6am) A full nights sleep is usually down at 9pm up at 6:30 to eat/drink then back to sleep until 9am. most babies wake up in the middle of the night, but if they do not know how to put themselves back to sleep they will cry for you to help them. It is good to let them learn that they can put themselves back to sleep, even if that means listening to them cry for a bit.

I have 3 boys and their magic age was around 20 months for sleeping through on a consistent basis (not to say they never slept through until then, it was on and off). I have sound machines in each of their rooms to help limit noise. We also have a night time routine of bath, show then books before bed.

Well, my son's 8... and his schedule STILL changes on a fairly regular basis.

That said, the only things I really did in order to encourage sleep:

- Make sure he had eaten as much as he could *right* before bed (i have a fast growing kiddo. Even at age 8, if he's in a growth spurt he'll wake hungry in the middle of the night. Easy from age 3ish and up, because he could pop down and get a snack whenever he was hungry. Prior and I'd need to get it for him, or leave something in the corner of his crib).

- Keep NPR/Blues playing at night (deep man's voice, plus consistent background music works *wonders*, although blues does now have a bit of a habit of making him sleepy, drats!)

- NOT be quiet. (No "Shhhhh... the baby's sleeping". But instead do dishes, have conversations, walk around... general life stuff. Doing those sorts of things programs deep sleepers rather than "light" sleepers).

- Have the last thing I did before bed be "change the diaper". Not being soaked would let him sleep a LOT longer.

Both mine started sleeping through the night for about 8 hours at about 2 months or so. But my first did go through some upheaval around six months during a growth spurt where my second has been an awesome sleeper pretty much from day one not even teething has effected him at all he is now 8 months and I have literally no sleep issues with him and never have. So I said that to say all kids are just different. Just hang in there! The main things I have done to facilitate good sleep is to give both of mine a chance to self comfort if they do wake, and usually in a couple minutes they are knocked out again. Good luck!!

I think every baby is different and may not follow the same scheduled patterns. This was true for us until my oldest was 6 yrs. old. My youngest, however, managed a full nights sleep consistantly from the 14 month mark...until potty training began. One thing that really helped them was to have some form of white noise in the background. We use a fan set on medium and turn it on before the stories and songs routine. I think it helps draw them into their sleep mode as we wind down their day and is a constant sound (and what their left with) as we "tuck them in".