To hate the sleep threads that say...

[Jennyusedtobepink]

'My 5 week/5 month/4 hour old baby won't sleep'. Try 16 fecking months of it.

I do realise most of this is down to me, and probably am BU, but I just had to say it!!!!!

I lied to the HV about ds2, who was going on at me to make ds2 go 12 hours without a feed at night when he was 10 months old - well, ds1 did it (by himself) and ds2 didn't. Not until he was well past one did he stop that night feed, but she didn't stop going on about it so i fed her a pile of crap and she shut up.

The only time I have lied to the HV is about weaning as they go on at you to wean at 17 weeks even though you are not meant to until 6 months!!!

Ah - I never saw my HV after 6 weeks. Problem solved.

YANBU, but, on the other hand, didn't we parents-of-non-sleepers once post innocently wondering what was wrong with our little cherubs when they were still wakeful at 3 months?

I'm quite sure I did. That was almost a year ago. He's been in bed since 7 and he's already woken up once.

[resigned]

yes, you are being unreasonable! I did GF with dd1, got shot down in flames by those who do AP etc, however, she slept through from 12 weeks 7-7.
DD2 was born and because I can't leave her to wail for a bit due to waking dd1 she is constantly waking in the night because she knows I will go to her! She is 6mths btw.

The upshot being it is the parents fault on most occasions, so grrr at having to listen to people of babies 16mths complaining about children not sleeping! If you didn't have them bf in the night and co-sleep, most would sleep. You have basically trained them not to sleep deeply and to need boob for comfort. What do you expect!

Oh and while I am ranting I also find that the non sleeping toddler mums are the ones advised that babies will distinguish day from night without help, which in my opinion is complete tosh!

mytetherisending, now YreallyABU!

Unless you're joking. Which I am sincerely hoping you are.

mytetherisending I didn't help my ds to distinguish day from night, wouldn't know how! He just worked it out himself, but then he is very clever

GF didn't work for me- unfortunately none of my babies could be persuaded to read her book and consequently know how they were meant to behave...because all babies are the same really, aren't they?

Babies don't need training to find comfort in the boob - they need training NOT to...

My almost 16 mo dd has never slept through the night and in fact, has recently decided she won't even go down in her cot anymore (tried CC in the cot for a night, she screamed herself hysterical and started hyperventilating) so now I have to put her down in her buggy and then take her to bed with me when I go. Sometimes she'll sleep for a few hours, but we usually have 2am to 5am fidgeting/crying/playing with the monitor/jumping on mummy's head/kicking her in the stomach etc etc. This morning, I had to get up for work at 6am, and dd snuggled into the pillows and stayed asleep while I got up! When anyone asks if she's a good baby, I say 'she's absolutely wonderful, but she never sleeps'. Ridiculous to make it into some kind of parenting oneupmanship. She has the happiest, sweetest nature and is an absolute joy, so I'm not going to tie myself in knots about her sleep habits. Though I did hope that when she was old enough to understand about going to bed, (say around 4 yo?!), I'd get a decent night's kip. Reading this thread has made me rethink that one though!

mythetherisending, have you considered for a second the possibility that your dd1 would have slept through regardless of anything you did, and that dd2 would not have slept through regardless of anything you didn't do? you just can't know!

i mean, seriously, i can't believe that so many mothers kid themselves it is something you do or do not do that "makes" them sleep. and that so many "parenting gurus" make a fortune off us fools!

right, having said that, i am getting slightly mental from sleep deprivation so better go off to bed...

moreover isnt there something about babies who dont sleep very well having higher IQ or something? all the great leaders always claim to only need a couple hours sleep at night (interesting though that they never interview their parents, perhaps all driven to an early grave...)

God it's so nice to find this thread - my first time on mums net and I and nearly constantly in tears due to ds not sleeping. He only naps for about 20 mins unless I sleep with him and at night time - he's stopped having a good 5- 6 hour stretch from when he goes to sleep at 6pm and then waking every hour or two, to waking up ALL THE BLOODY TIME.
He's 6 months old and I've been co-sleeping and breast feeding. People keep teling me to put him in his own room but I don't want to - which no-one seems to really understand. I dont' mind waking to feed twice a night as I was for the first 4 months - it's the waking when he doesn't want a feed - for seemingly no reason that is driving me over the edge. I'm trying the Pantley's no cry sleep solution ( gentle methods of introducing new sleep associations) but I'm so tired in the middle of the night I run out of patience and do the simplest thing to get him back to sleep.