When will my baby sleep through the night?

This might be some bad news...but baby sleep is HIGHLY irregular, not just baby to baby but night to night for the same baby.

It makes sense when you consider that even adult sleep can vary so much from one person to another or one night to the next.

Your baby might sleep an 8 hour stretch one night, and not do it again for days or weeks. And that is completely ok and normal.

In my opinion the best thing to do is adjust your mindset to go with the flow and keep your expectations low— this way it will be easier for your baby to meet your expectations. Also, sleep when you can! Naps are your friend.

Despite what you may see on social media, there isn't a "normal" age for infants to start sleeping through the night. And sleeping through the night can mean different things to different people.

One baby might sleep straight from 11pm to 5am and that could mean "through the night". Another might sleep 7pm to 7am in total with one wake-up

—and that's pretty darn good if you ask me!

Some babies who are having trouble gaining weight will NEED to wake up to eat. Others may be totally fine to go a long stretch without eating.

Ok but really Margo, when does it get better???

If your pediatrician has said to wake baby up every X hours (usually 3 at night), they will likely say it's ok not to once they are two weeks old and back to birth weight. That's good because having to set an alarm to wake up your baby is pretty brutal. So that will be the first hurdle.

Hopefully after those first two weeks, your baby will steadily increase their longest stretch of sleep.

This means it's ideal for you to go to bed when this long stretch starts.

Sources:

Pennestri MH, Burdayron R, Kenny S, Béliveau MJ, Dubois-Comtois K. Sleeping through the night or through the nights? Sleep Med. 2020 Dec;76:98-103. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.10.005. Epub 2020 Oct 10.

PMID: 33130350.

Zimmerman D, Bartick M, Feldman-Winter L, Ball HL; Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. ABM

Clinical Protocol #37: Physiological Infant Care-Managing Nighttime Breastfeeding in Young Infants. Breastfeed Med. 2023 Mar;18(3):159-168. doi: 10.1089/bfm.2023.29236.abm. PMID: 36927076;

PMCID: PMC10083892.