# How do you get a baby to sleep thru the night at 3 wks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2000, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429 "2000-03-06T14:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/1 "2000-03-06T14:07:00Z")
Read this and wonder if she is dosing the kids with Nyquil. [http://www.foxnews.com/fn99/entertainment/030500/baby\_whisperer.sml](http://www.foxnews.com/fn99/entertainment/030500/baby_whisperer.sml) I wish I had $20,000 for a home visit by this lady. * * * * * * I’m not a vegetarian because I like animals. I’m a vegetarian because I hate vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![StrTrkr777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@StrTrkr777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrTrkr777)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/2 "2000-03-06T14:30:00Z")
We did not get it done at 3 wks but our daughter was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. I hope the second one is as cooperative. Jeffery ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/3 "2000-03-06T14:42:00Z")
We had that problem with our oldest. I almost had my wife convinced that we should put it back when he finally got the Idea. Then a complete turn around. He slept like a rock. A little scary. Today,20 years later, he is a smart, Deans List, well adjusted kid. Except when I tell him to do something. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kellibelli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e480ec/32.png) [@kellibelli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellibelli)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/4 "2000-03-06T16:09:00Z")
Are you nursing Shirl? If so, put the little goober in with you, you will both get more rest. My little neice Jillian, my brother’s 4th baby was sleeping through at 3 weeks. I think they made some kind of deal with satan. Not you brian, the other Dark Lord. ---
**Author:** ![CanadianSue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@CanadianSue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanadianSue)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/5 "2000-03-06T16:16:00Z")
My little guy started sleeping through at 4 weeks. He’s like his dad and still loves to be curled up under the blankies and be left alone to snore away. * * * We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/6 "2000-03-06T17:16:00Z")
I can’t sleep through the night myself. Almost everyone I know has to get up & pee at least once. Why should a baby be exempt? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/7 "2000-03-07T06:15:00Z")
Eldest Son slept through the night the first night we brought him home. _I_ didn’t. I’m a night person anyway, and I was awake at one a.m., and figured I might as well stay up since no doubt the baby would be waking me up soon to feed anyway. I finally dozed off around three a.m. – he didn’t wake up 'til nearly six. That didn’t happen again for several weeks, though. -Melin ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/8 "2000-03-06T19:07:00Z")
My son, nearly 2, still doesn’t sleep through the night, but it’s not that bad. We can sleep through his caterwaling. But an infant sleeping through the night? C’mon. Kelli - The little goober ends up pulled into bed with me most nights, after the 2am feeding. I just can’t seem to make the effort of 1 foot to put her in the bassinet next to me at that hour. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/9 "2000-03-06T20:35:00Z")
Hey Shirley, I’ll put your kids to bed for $20,000. Seriously, though, don’t all the celebs she mentions come off looking just a teensy bit neurotic? All parents wonder if they got the baby from Mars for the first couple of months. My theory is that anyone who hasn’t been up half the night with the kid for the past week is going to come off looking like Mary Poppins–after all, she can just smile and go “shh…shh” for a few hours and then go home and put her feet up. ---
**Author:** ![WillGolfForFood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/82dd89/32.png) [@WillGolfForFood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillGolfForFood)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/10 "2000-03-06T22:45:00Z")
As I recall, the only event more distressing than a newborn waking you up in the middle of the night every night is the first night when he/she _doesn’t_ do it. You wake up at a reasonable hour, suddenly realize that the baby hasn’t woken you up in the middle of the night, and immediately go into fulL panic mode. OHMYGOD, IT’S SIDS! SHE MUST BE DEAD!!! It’s only after you’ve charged into the baby’s room and checked for movement that your heart restarts. …at least that’s how we reacted. I guess new parents are always a little bit neurotic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Shadowfox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfox)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/11 "2000-03-06T22:46:00Z")
## I’m not sure what I did right, but my youngest child started sleeping through the night when he was only a week old. I didn’t expect it to last longer than that first night, but he pretty much slept through the night every night from then on. He would wake up in the middle of the night maybe once every couple of weeks, but that was really it. Now he is three years old and wakes up in the middle of the night almost every night (not crying, usually just wants to climb into bed with me). Now I’m just trying to figure out how to break him of this particular habit. Shadowfox “The dead have risen, and they’re voting Republican!” - Bart Simpson ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/12 "2000-03-06T22:53:00Z")
I strongly suspect that with 2nd and later children that parents are not as sensitive to every one of the childs needs and tunes out the whining and little unimportant noises and focuses on “Is that the dog ripping off JR’s face for biting his tail?” noises. I have a cousin who’s two boys are 19 months and 5 months of age. They sleep thru the night and don’t fight nap times.However, the trade off is that Mom drags them to the doctor for every cough and sniffle. So her nuerosis is directed elsewhere. Me, I’ll take midnight wake up calls over a sick child any time. ---
**Author:** ![Kiki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kiki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiki)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/13 "2000-03-07T00:12:00Z")
Both my kids were sleeping through the night by 3 months. I was home w/my daughter until she was 6 months old and home w/my son until he was 3 months old. It was nice not having to get up every 3-4 hours. The only advice I can give you is not to make the house completely quiet. My kids will sleep through anything and I attribute this to not shushing everyone when they come visit and keeping the t.v. at normal volume, etc. I also don’t believe in putting baby cereal in a newborn baby’s bottle. Their little stomachs can’t handle it. Babies don’t need anything but breastmilk or formula until they are 6 months old and/or have doubled their birth weight. It’s very hard on their bodies to digest at such a young age. I suggest cuddling and rocking and just enjoying the time you have with your baby… they grow up much too quickly! * * * That John Denver’s full of shit man! ---
**Author:** ![Prairie\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Prairie\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prairie_Rose)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/14 "2000-03-07T00:39:00Z")
I don’t have any sympathy for the lot o’ ya. Chris is 8 months old and he still hasn’t slept through the night. I’ve tried putting him to bed with me, having a bedtime routine, but to no avail. Getting him to bed is the easy part. It’s just that he wakes up at 1, 3, and 5 am. :rolleyes: I figure I’ll sleep when he goes off to college. Prairie “zzzzzzz” Rose * * * If you’re not part of the solution you’re just scumming up the bottom of the beaker. ---
**Author:** ![AKAmame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aca169/32.png) [@AKAmame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AKAmame)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2000, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-a-baby-to-sleep-thru-the-night-at-3-wks/14429/15 "2000-03-07T11:33:00Z")
In any group of kids there’s always going to be the one who sleeps the most and the one who sleeps the least, plus the whole gamut between. Do what you like - follow whichever child-raising-guru is the latest on the chat show circuit - and I can guarantee that your child will sleep a lot if s/he is a sleeper, and not sleep much if s/he isn’t. Sympathy. No practical comment, but loads of sympathy.