My baby still wakes up several times a night. Is that normal?
Yes. Most babies wake several times a night well into the first year, and plenty still do in the second. You're not doing it wrong. You're just very, very tired.
What's behind it
Babies sleep in short cycles and surface between them. Adults do too, we just roll over and forget. A baby surfaces, notices the milk is gone, the dummy is gone, you are gone, and calls for help. That's not a habit you created. That's how babies are built.
The phrase "sleeping through" also hides a trick: in the research it often means five or six hours in a row. Not the eleven hours the neighbor's baby supposedly does.
Waking gets worse for a while around growth spurts, teeth, new skills (standing up in the cot at 3 am is a favorite), colds and big changes like starting daycare. Then it eases again. It's rarely a straight line.
What you can do is small and steady. A short, boring evening routine that's the same every night. A dark, cool room. Giving your baby a minute to resettle before you rush in, if that fits your gut. And if a particular night feeding or cuddle no longer works for you, you can change it gently, in small steps, with your baby's protest met calmly. There's no one right method. The right one is the one your family can live with.
Most important: look after the adult. Share nights if you can, go to bed early sometimes, and accept help with daytime tasks.
Try this week
- Write down the actual wake-ups for three nights; it's often fewer than it feels, and it shows you a pattern.
- Make the bedtime routine ten minutes shorter and exactly the same every night this week.
- Pick one night where someone else takes the first shift and you go to bed at nine with earplugs.
When to get help
Contact your pediatrician if your baby snores loudly or seems to pause in breathing during sleep, wakes screaming in pain, has a fever, feeds poorly or has fewer wet diapers, or if sleep suddenly gets much worse without an obvious reason. Seek help for yourself too if exhaustion makes you feel hopeless or afraid of hurting your baby.
In the app for this
- Free · PlusPractices «A bedtime without rushing», «7 nights of bedtime talks» and «Build a calm corner».
- Free · PlusMila at night: ask her what's normal at this age and what to try tonight. She knows your child's age.
- FreeHelplines for your country, one tap away, if a night turns serious.
Free is free for good. Plus opens the whole map, all cards, games and practices.
Mila knows these answers, and your kids
The free family check takes five minutes. After that, Mila answers with your children's names and ages in mind, and the map gives you one thing to try this week.
Start the free family checkParents also ask
My child is afraid of the dark and won't sleep alone. Is that normal?
Yes, very. Fear of the dark usually shows up between three and six, right when imagination gets powerful. It fades on its own in most children, faster when they feel believed rather than talked out of it.
My 6-year-old still wets the bed. Is that normal?
Yes. Roughly one in ten six-year-olds still wets the bed, and nearly all of them grow out of it. It's not laziness and it's not something your child can decide to stop. The job is keeping shame out of it.
My teenager can't fall asleep before midnight and is impossible to wake up. Is that normal?
Yes, and it's biology, not laziness. In puberty the body clock shifts about two hours later. Your teen genuinely isn't tired at ten and genuinely can't wake at seven. The phone makes it worse, but it didn't start it.
My 2-year-old has huge tantrums several times a day. Is that normal?
Yes. Two is the peak age for tantrums, and several a day is common. It's exhausting, but it is not a sign that you're doing it wrong.