Should she be?
It kind of depends on your definition of "through the night," but most two month olds are still waking up at least once in the middle of the night to eat. In fact, many still wake up twice to eat. Once after a longer stretch of 4 to 6 hours, and then again after 3 or 4 hours.
Some two month old babies will make it from about 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., and their parents will consider that as sleeping "through the night." For most babies though, it will be at least another month or two before they are truly sleeping all night, or 10 or 11 hours without waking up for a feeding.
To help your baby develop good nighttime sleep habits, it can help to:
- try to put your baby to bed while she is sleepy but not fully asleep. Still, that doesn't mean that you should leave her to cry alone in her bed if she won't fall asleep on her own at this age. The main goal is that your baby doesn't learn to associate falling asleep with being nursed or rocked since you want her to eventually get to sleep on her own. This habit can take weeks or months to learn, and may be something that you have to work towards in your baby's first few months.
- put your baby to sleep before she gets overtired.
- make sure that you aren't letting your two month old sleep too much during the day, keeping in mind that the average two month old sleeps about 7 or 8 hours during the day in 3 separate naps and 8 or 9 hours overnight.
- set realistic expectations for your baby, keeping in mind that some two month olds eat every 3 hours at night, especially if they still eat every 2 to 3 hours during the day.
