A big misconception among parents centers around the much-coveted trait of “sleeping through the night”. Sleep-deprived parents wonder when that glorious time will come when they put their baby down for the night and she sleeps blissfully all the way through until morning.
What Qualifies as Sleeping Through the Night
The news flash is though that sounds perfectly idyllic, sleeping for a long 10-12 hour stretch isn’t the beginning point of sleeping through the night. Your baby will be considered to be sleeping through the night when she sleeps for one solid 6 hour stretch. So if you put your baby down to sleep at 8 p.m. and she wakes at 2 a.m. – congratulations! Your baby is officially sleeping through the night (she just may not be “sleeping through the night” during the same stretch of time when you are asleep.
A piece of advice is if you become frustrated that you baby isn’t yet sleeping that one, long stretch at night, is to make sure you have the right expectations of what sleeping through the night technically is. Once you understand what to expect of sleeping through the night and how long babies typically sleep by age, it might take the edge of your frustration.