3 1/2 Month Old Not Sleeping Through the Night

Hi Erica,

My daughter did not drop her late night feedings until about 5 - 6 months. I think it is normal and you're right not to be worried about it. I agree that you got lucky with the first! I have a friend and her son dropped his late night feedings at 8 weeks, how great would that be? :)

My first slept through the night at 10 weeks and my second didn't until 11 months! I nursed both and did everything else the same, but they're both two very different kiddos. Hang in there!

I had the same situation with both of my girls, the first one started sleeping all night very soon, and my second...well she didn't start sleeping through the night until she was almost a year old. I'm not sure if it was because she is the "baby" and felt the need to be with me so much. Sometimes she wasn't even hungry, as long as I would hold her for about 5 min or so and talk to her and tell her it was time to go back to sleep and I would see her in the morning, she would lay right back down in her crib and go to sleep. That never would have worked with my first one though, I was just extremely lucky she started sleeping through the night so early. Good Luck!!

I feel your pain!!! I have a 2yo that began sleeping through the night around 2 1/2 months. I have a 10 month old who is still getting up for midnight and 3:30am feedings...it drives me crazy. I've tried letting him cry it out some but I can't stick with it for long...I'm going to give him until 12months and then game over...I'm hoping he does it on his own though. Good luck!

Neither of my girls were good sleepers until after 1 year old. I exclusively nursed both of them, and I am on the smaller side, so I didn't have umm... ahem... "ample storage" for the milk. It was very difficult at first, sicne i'd planned to bottle feed, but my first baby rejected the bottles. I'd never been around breastfeeding until I breastfed my own babies. So I had an expectation that they'd sleep through the night at six or eight weeks, since formula fed babies tend to do so. After 12 weeks, I dragged myself to La Leche League, to figure out what I was doing wrong. Some nice ladies at La Leche League helped me to understand the nursing baby works on a different schedule and that since breastmilk is so much more easily digested, the nursing baby MAY wake up more often (not always the case though). Also since I am on the smaller side, I wasn't able to store a lot of milk, so the babies had to nurse more often than someone with larger... umm... storage. And my girls were gloriously fat round babies, so maybe they were just hungry little critters all the time. Yes, I was bleary eyed and exhausted, but we muddled through and I'm so glad we did it. And you're fulfilling more than a physical need during those late nights. They might also just want a cuddle. You can try to give a cuddle but not offer the breast and see if your baby insists on it. You can also try to increase your supply by adding an extra nursing session an hour or so before the bedtime session. Maybe that will fill Baby's tummy up more? And keep in mind, its all temporary. They will eventually sleep through the night, you WILL get through it. In the meantime, get some good undereye concealer for the dark circles, and my iPod got me through it.

Once they start solids, it gets better. Can I encourage you to do extra research on the rice cereal? My info may be out of date, but I thought they were recommending waiting until 6 months, or until the baby can finger feed himself (like cheerios). There was some research that indicated that early solids may cause food allergies. But my info may be out of date, just check it out before you proceed. Four months isn't all that early anyway. Good luck, hang in there. Sleep when you can.

That's totally normal at such a young age.

I think you got lucky with your first one. It is normal for a 3 1/2 mo. old baby to still need night feedings. Most babies do until about 6 mos. old. (at least one night feeding anyway) I started to wean my son from his night feedings around 6 or 7 mos. old.

My daughter didn't sleep through the night until 12 months- and even now at 18 months she still wakes for water occasionally. She stopped needing to be fed during the night at 6 months- but she certainly wasn't sleeping thoruhg the night. Rice cereal didn't make a difference to her.

my daughter didn't sleep through the night until she was weaned at 12 months old! it seemed like rice cereal made her hungrier - she would wake up more often..

now, my son is a different story.. 19 months old and still not sleeping through the night, at the least we have a 3 wake ups to eat ..

having a baby sleep through the night (by definition this is 6 consecutive hours only), would be rather unusual this young. So your child is completely normal. You were just lucky the first time. Every baby is different as you have learned. Also, don't expect solids to help. That's an old wives tale as many of us have found. Their tummies are the size of their fists and just don't hold much.

My son bf'd and didnt' start solids (he wasn't interested and there's a history of excema, hay fever and food allergies on both sides so we were advised to wait until 6 months) until about 7 months. We did supplement with formula (this didn't help the sleep in our case btw). He didn't sleep through the night until after he got all his teeth -- around 2. This was long after eating lots of solids. From what I've found since, my experience wasn't that uncommon. (not to freak you out or antyhing). ;)

The only thing that helped my son, and us, was cosleeping. I wasn't for it, but hey, I got some rest. He was a big guy and needed to eat -- especially during growth spurts. He's not a well adapted, independent, sleeps through the night on his own almost 4 yr old. So my point is, it gets better and you do what you have to do and it won't ruin your child. Just do what you have to to get some sleep is my advice. If that means extra feedings in the middle of the night, so be it.