When do babies sleep through the night?
Why do newborns wake so often at night?
Newborns are not built to sleep all through the night. Their tummies are tiny, so they have to feed little and often, and that means day as well as night.
Their sleep cycles are also really short. And their body clock, the thing that eventually tells them night is different from day, does not really start to develop until somewhere between two and four months.
What does "sleeping through the night" actually mean?
Not what most people assume. When research talks about a baby sleeping through, it often means a stretch of four or five hours. It does not mean twelve hours the way an adult would mean it.
So a baby who sleeps a five-hour stretch is, by the measure used in the research, already sleeping through. That is worth knowing before you compare your baby with anyone else's.
Why has my baby started waking more again?
Because sleep is not a straight line. Babies wake more when they are going through growth spurts, when they are ill, when they are teething and during developmental leaps. A stretch of better sleep followed by a stretch of worse sleep is normal, not a step backwards.
Does night waking mean I am doing something wrong?
No. Your baby waking at night is not a failure of parenting, and it is not a sign that there is anything wrong with the feeding. It is basic biology.
That is not to say it is not hard. Being sleep deprived is genuinely difficult, and being told the waking is normal does not make you less tired.
What should I be careful about when I am exhausted?
Be really mindful that you are following safe sleep practices when you are overtired, because that is when they are easiest to let slip. The Lullaby Trust has specific guidance for parents who are sleep deprived, including where not to fall asleep with your baby.