thread: The "magical" 12 week mark!

  1. #1
    Registered User

    Dec 2005
    Melbourne, Vic
    4,338

    The "magical" 12 week mark!

    Well you know when you have a baby and everyone tells you the first 3 months are the hardest and once they reach 12 weeks things will get better well is this true for most people?

    DD1 actually went downhill, was sleeping 8hrs a night at 7 weeks then 2.5-3hrly at 3 months and day sleeps became an absolute nightmare.

    Now I feel DD2 is heading the same way! She is starting to wake more frequently at night and more unsettled in tha day, tho I am hoping its just to do with the 12 week wonder week.

    So what were your children like, did they 'magically' improve after 12 weeks?

  2. #2
    2013 BellyBelly RAK Recipient.

    May 2007
    Brisbane
    5,310

    Um... no... we did hit the 4-month low though... still waiting to come out from that... slowly (SLOWLY) coming up for air now...
    I found the first three months to be the easiest. Which weren't easy by any stretch of the imagination!

    for us all!

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Jan 2008
    Euroa, Victoria
    438

    I didn't really start enjoying Flynn until he was around 6 mths.
    I don't know if he got worse after 12 weeks, but he definitely didn't get better !!!
    I think it's all a load of rubbish!

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Dec 2005
    5,951

    With Nina, between 3 and 6 months were the worst!
    With Emily, it was a lot easier. We had a rough period with her at around 10 months, but she's over that now.

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Jun 2007
    ...not far enough away :)
    1,413

    ha,ha the magical "12 weeks".....a load of rubbish I think.

    We talked about it non stop at mum's group after bubs were all born & we were even planning a "12week"party LOL nothing changend with DS - 2yrs on & he's just started sleeping through the night!!!

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Sep 2007
    Cairns
    1,787

    ... (Does that answer the question?)

    Um, no. Emphatically no. Says a woman who two weeks ago was ecstatic that her eighteen month old finally started going to bed at around 8:00ish and sleeping through until about 6:30-7:00am, rather than the usual bedtime of 'any time after 10:30pm but usually midnight' and sleeping for about six hours. This wonderful state, by the way, lasted for two whole nights - he still goes to bed at 8:00 and rises at 7:00, but now he wakes at 3:00am and won't go back to sleep until 5:00 - kinda like a reverse-siesta. Oh, and did I mention that he is still fed or rocked to sleep - he self settled for a little while but stopped as soon as he started teething (at three months). .

    He slept through 8-10 hours from two to four weeks old then it all went downhill from there lol. But one improvement was that he stopped getting screamingly bad wind pain at about twelve weeks - so that was a bit magical.

  7. #7
    Registered User

    Apr 2007
    Gold Coast
    795

    I'm sorry......but for me it was kinda like that.

    I think the first 2 weeks there was lots of tears, then up to the 8week mark I was still overwelmed and getting use to not having much sleep, but then from week 9-10, i 'saw the light'. So yeah, it was kinda a magical thing after 12weeks. Of course we still have had some 'challenging' months, especially with teething, but overall we have been extreemly fortunate. But then I was able to stick to a pretty good sleep routine and caught the tired signs pretty well. I was still on maternity leave, so this also probably helped I think and that I didn't really venture out much, or if i did - i would try not to be out too long cause I found those days sleeps in his own bed so important for our good night sleeps (if I did have to be out for a sleep, i would attempt to only make it the 1 sleep while out, then others I would try to get home for). But overall I guess we've been lucky that our DS was happy to comply with these routines too.

    I hope that you too can experience the '12 week magic' as well...

  8. #8
    Registered User

    Mar 2008
    Nth West Melbourne
    997

    Hm, I don't think 12 weeks was magical for us.

    Sleep was actually really good from about 8-10 weeks. Then at 4 months it all went pear-shaped, and then at about 9-10 months it went really, really pear-shaped.

    The only thing that did seem to improve was his wind. It was a bit later than 12 weeks, but around that time his tummy did start to operate a bit better.

    And of course, sometime around then he started to smile.....now that definately improves everything!!

    But overall I think the 12 week miracle is highly over-rated.

  9. #9
    Registered User

    Jan 2006
    The Hawkesbury
    4,505

    With DS, yes. We had such a horrible time getting him to sleep every night. But back then we had no clue about colic and things like Infacol. With DD she was fine from 1 month. As soon as we had her on Infacol. She has slept through every night since then, self settles and havent had a problem at all with her.

  10. #10
    Registered User

    May 2007
    Perth, WA
    839

    Nothing magical about it for us either! Nothing magical happened with DD until 9 months when she slept through the night! Prior to that- aaaahhhhhhhhh....

  11. #11
    Registered User

    Jul 2006
    Melbourne
    3,715

    God no! 12 weeks was when things got really hard . And then we had another really really hard patch from about 10-13 months! And even now he only sleeps through maybe one night per week? The first 3 months weren't easy by any stretch, but they weren't as torturous as some other months we had .

    Of course, it will all be different with our next baby....I'm putting in an order for one that LIKES to sleep

  12. #12
    Registered User

    Jul 2008
    summer street
    2,708

    For me, 12 weeks was when DD started interacting a lot more, and I finally felt like I was getting some rewards for all the hard work. That being said, the period from 10-14 weeks, were without a doubt the hardest for us. As everyone else has said, DD started catnapping, and frequently waking at night.

    I found though, that she was also more responsive to my cues and seemed to understand everything more, so at 12 weeks I started helping her to self settle, and we haven't looked back!

    So in hindsight, yes it was "magical", because she went from a blob, to being more like a person...but that enormous change plays havoc with their sleep!!! She still wakes at least 2 x a night, so I am hoping to have some sleep before the 10 month "magic"!!

  13. #13
    Registered User

    Oct 2006
    Sydney
    4,081

    I'm with catherinemoses - I didn't really start to enjoy DD until she was about 6 months old. I was told "the first 6 weeks are the hardest", then when I got through those I was told, "Things get easier after 12 weeks", then "The first 6 months are the hardest", etc etc! LOL, it's kind of laughable really. It is all hard work, but there are different rewards along the way.
    The 6 month mark was magical for us, not because DD slept better or anything (PMSL - that was when she got REALLY wakeful overnight) but she was just a happier kid and I was a happier mum.

  14. #14
    Registered User

    Dec 2005
    Melbourne, Vic
    4,338

    Glad to see its not just my girls! Lol.

    Janie- Lol, I put in that order but it seemed to have gotten lost somewhere!

    I shouldn't complain too much cause I know there are others that have a harder time, at least hearing wind settles around this time will help cause I think alot of Em's night wakings are due to tummy probs.