how long would you "expect" a 20 week old baby to sleep between feeds?

[olivo]

I know that all babies are different but I am also curious to know how long other people's babies sleep between feeds at night. dd is 20 weeks and I am sick and tired of people asking if she is sleeping through the night yet and me feeling I have to justify that she's not, when, quite frankly, I think she is pretty good.

She goes to bed at 6.45 after a bf, has between 5-7 oz of formula at around 10.30, wakes and bfeeds around 3am and then again about 6.30am. she then sleeps (or at least lies in her cot chatting ) till about 8 am. after all of her feeds she goes back in her cot awake and puts herself to sleep! I think I am lucky!!

[NbgsYellowFeathers]

You are very lucky Olivo.
Ds is waking 6/7 times in the night atm
You seem to have a good routine that works for you both. Thats more important IMO.

[burstingbug]

DS has last bf between 11 and midnight and will sleep til somewhere between 4 and 6, if I'm lucky he'll go back to sleep til 8ish.

[olivo]

ah, my fellow post natal -clubbers!

I just dont know if it is food she's after or settling but obviously, when i go in she smells my milk and that's that! sometimes at 6 ish, she only feeds a bit.

so is 4ish hours 'normal' do you think?

[dcb]

i think you're doing really well - sounds fairly normal for that age to me. not that many babies will sleep through the night til they're much older as they still get hungry. btw, do people ask you if she's "good"? i.e sleeping through the night? that drives me mad.

[olivo]

dcb - yes they do - and i think she is good, great in fact, as she doesnt cry, she self-soothes etc. but they mean 'does she go seven till seven'(one look at my eye baggage should tell them the answer to that!).

i just want to feel reassured that she's not the only one at this stage!!

[olivo]

i think i find it hard too as my friends' babies (similar age)all go through and they regularly express 'how awful' it must be to still be getting up in the night.. they make me think i must be doing something wrong!

[dcb]

i bet some of them are stretching the truth. there are plenty of babies out there who are not i can promise you. it doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong either or that your baby is "bad".

[WigWamBam]

People only ask whether she's sleeping through the night because they want to appear interested, and they can't think of anything else to ask about such a young baby (apart from "Is she good?", which I found really irritating, but which I was asked over and over again). I found that generally the people who ask questions like that aren't expecting you to justify anything to them and you shouldn't feel that you need to.

[cc21]

Sounds normal to me. My DD is 22wks and goes 4/5 hours between feeds at night. Although last night was a record 6 !!
Felt like I belonged to the human race today.
I also feel mums that say their babies sleep from 8 till 8 are stretching the truth a bit!!!! At least thats what I tell myself

[neilsmum]

ds same age as yours olivo and follows the same pattern. sleeps at 7.00, wakes up at 11.00, sleeps until 2.57(it`s that precise)and then until 6.30. although he would go back to sleep straightaway, for the past 3 nights he has been very difficult. have put it down to a cold. hope he reverts back to his original timetable!

[olivo]

lol at your ds's precision neilsmum and thanks to you all for making me feel that dd is just doing what other babies her age are doing. adn to those making me feel she should be doing 7 till 7!!

[MadamePlatypus]

"sleeping through the night yet" is such an odd concept. Does anybody have a baby who sleeps through the night and then from that day on, despite teething, illness, developmental stages, holidays, moving to a big bed, bad dreams, being scared of the dark, new school sleep through?

[kbaby]

I always ask new mums how their babies are sleeping. Dont know why, I think its because I want to wallow in my own misery when they tell me they sleep really well.

Ds is 23 weeks and feeds 7.30pm, 12pm, 3/4am, 7am

[olivo]

kbaby - we're 3 weeks behind you but....snap
today, even one of the 'leaders' at mum and babies group expressed surprise that she didnt 'sleep through' -surely she should have known? she's a mum and gran!!