h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm thinking of writing an article on how to get your child to have a good nights sleep.
I hear so many people telling me how many times a night they have to get up to settle thier children.
As some of you may know, I have two kids, both of whom have been sleeping through for at least 8 hours a night since they were 4 weeks old.
The first time I thought we were just incredibly lucky, but now my daughter has fallen into the same routine, perhaps it's something we did.

I just want to know if there are any other parents out there that have lazy kids like mine, and if they wanted to contribute some of their tips for a silent night to the article.

Cheers
Simon the

I don't think I can help you with this one. I count myself lucky if I get a lie in until 6!

Simon,

I definitely qualify - I also have 2 children, both of whom started sleeping soundly from 4 weeks.

No rotten tomatoes please

Woodpigeon

Phew, thank goodness I'm not the only one, I was starting to feel rather guilty about it

So what would you put the good behavior down to woodpigeon?
For my kids it seemed to be a combination of getting them feeding at regular intervals during the day, i.e. not on demand. Coupled with a completely dark and quiet room during the nights.

You know, Simon, I never really thought about it, (probably worrying that if I *did* think about, that the magic would no longer work !) I always thought it might be genetic, because I am a sleepy beggar at the best of times!

My wife had to give up breast-feeding almost immediately, so the kids started bottle feeding very early. This really helped them to settle quickly ìnto a routine, IMHO. I find it is very difficult to leave a small child crying, so we would have always responded quickly, and we would have always been subject to their schedule rather than ours. I think it really has to do with the baby, some of the little souls really seem to have problems digesting, which leads to lots of wind, and then lots of pain and crying. Maybe an easy pregnancy has something to do with it as well.

No more straws to clutch...

As sleeping goes, my baby has slept well so far (16 weeks) mind you - we haven't reach teething yet!

When she was tiny and prem, she had to be woken every few hours and fed, so the idea of 'sleeping through' simply wasn't on our list. On the contrary: we had achieved something when she woke herself in the night and cried for food: a healthy appetite!

Since then we have settled into a routine of 6-8 hours straight through: that's in Scotland in summer with thin curtains, so in our case at least dark has nothing to do with it! We do have a bedtime routine (our dinner, her bath, feed, then put down at a reasonably consistent time) but Ican't say there's very much routine ion the rest of the day: a morning nap is usual, everything else fits around it.

She sleeps in a cot adjoining the bed, so when she does breastfeed in the night, she wakesme before she starts crying, a pull her across, feed her lying down, and push her back. This is all done in the dark. As a result, she doesn't associate night feeding with socialising, mental or physical stimulus or crying: I hope this pays off in the future!

Thanks Woodpigeon,
Interesting to note that my wife also had to stop breastfeeding quite early on, much to her dissapointment
I agree that bottlefed babies do seem to fall into a regular routine quicker, but I'm not sure why that would be.

My wife had two very troublesome pregnancies, so I'm not sure that's a link.
Perhaps like you say, it just depends on the baby. All people have different personalities, why shouldn't babies?

Cloviscat, congrats on having a sleepy baby
A premature or newborn baby will obviously need more regular feeds, so until their tummies get big enough to digest enough milk to see them through the night, there's no way you should expect any different.
Glad your bundle of joy is doing so well already

Our littl'un (12 weeks) is also in a cot by the bed at the moment, and it does help having them that close, not only for peace of mind, but if they do stir, you can quickly settle them back to sleep.

I think Cloviscat's point about association is the key, during the day, my daughter feeds every 4 hours. If we are more than 5 minutes late with a feed, she starts crying for it. What makes her last so long between feeds at night? There must be some trigger.

Does anyone think a parent's emotional state has anything to do with it? Have you noticed that your kids sleep better when you are calm and relaxed, or they play you up when you are stressed out? Or is it just that you are calm and relaxed when they are sleeping well lol

What about tucking them in? Could the warmth of the blanket comfort them enough to keep them content? We started off swaddling our two, something not many people do these days, but that really seemed to make a difference.

Thanks for all your advice, please keep it comming!
Simon the

I've not done too badly on the sleeping front either! I'm breastfeeding on demand and his cot is right next to the bed, so I'm another who drags him over, feeds him and shoves him back. I think it does pay off in the long run, they do get to know the difference between daytime and nighttime feeds pretty quickly. He's now 12 weeks old and will sleep from 9 until 4 without too much coaxing. That's a 7 hour stretch and for a breastfed baby I think it's fab. The other two didn't sleep for stretches like that until they were on formula (I had to give up b/feeding the first coz I went back to work, and the second because the antidepressants I needed to control my PND contraindicated breastfeeding)

I'm all for a good bedtime routine. It settles them down and relaxes them for a good nights sleep. After our evening meal we bath them all, the older ones have their cup of milk and then a story and off to bed they go, brushing teeth on the way past the bathroom. And the youngest then has his last feed and cuddle, and just as he's about to drift off he's taken up and left to settle in his cot. Having thought about it, I think it's better they learn from an early ages to drift off on their own. Then if you're not there when they wake they don't get so upset. We all actually go through a lot of wake/sleep cycles during the night, most of the time we're unaware of it, and if the baby is happy to drift off alone when you put them down then they'll more than likely drift off in the night when they hit one of those awake cycles, unless they want something of course!

I hope this makes some sort of sense, I know I can ramble and waffle away at times, and this is probably one of those times!

No, that makes alot of sense.
I think routine is very important in getting your kiddie to realise the difference between night and day.
Bathtime is a good way for all kids to use up any excess energy, so I think its a very good idea to bath them before bed.

We made the mistake of cuddling our son until he was asleep, and it took us quite a while before we could get him to go to sleep on his own.
But even then, he still slept soundly through the nights.