Calling all sleep-deprived Mums...

[JabberTheRedNoseReindeer]

Ds has always been a terrible sleeper. Finally about 6 months ago he started to sleep through more often than not. But the last few weeks he has started taking an hour or more to settle down. It's now to the point that he is often not asleep until 10:30 or so (He is a bit of a night owl anyway, but sleeps until about 8:00 am).
So, any advice? And, for those of you with more than one, is the second one usually better? Can it possibly get worse?

I have to go in to work in a bit, but will check thread when I get home. Any advice or comments are greatly appreciated!!

My second (dd) was a lot better than ds but in the last couple of weeks she has started waking between 4.30 & 5.30

I fell knackered as it seems so long since I had a full nights sleep

I know, I start feeling kind of crazy after a while. And I just want him to go down earlier so I get a little down time before I need to go to sleep IYKWIM. I am in the midst of trying to persuade dh to go for a second child and it doesn't help when we still wonder about ds's sleeping pattern.

my DD 18 months old, goes to bed at 7.00 on the dot goes down like an angel, but at about 11-12 every night she wakes and cries and screams for an hour or more. she doesnt seem to want anything so i think shes just got in to a habit of waking at that time. am going to do controlled crying next week and be really tough. have done it before and it worked but its so easy to slip back.

I hear you. It does work, but seems like the least little thing causes a setback. Dh will say after a while "Okay, time to play hardball again." Now he's gone to sleep an hour and a half early (It's just before 9:00 pm here) because of no nap this afternoon and a late gymnastics class. I would want to celebrate, but we are scared to death that means he'll wake up at 2 or something and be up all night. So, probably an early night for us as well, just in case

I have two DS's and I borrow the bits I like or that work for me from Gina F. The no. 1 tip, is regardless of what happened the night before get the bub up at 7am.

My DS2 is like clockwork and goes to bed for the night 12hours after he got up to start his day. I try to let him have two long naps (1.5-2 hrs each is best). If he has a third nap in the late afternoon then getting him to bed is much more difficult. I feed him immediately after he gets up in the morning and after his naps and then again at 6pm and he is in bed around 6.30 or 7pm. He started sleeping through at 14 weeks (excl. breastfed) and has been a good sleeper barring times when he has caught a cold off DS1.

And yes, no.2 has definitely been easier than no.1. How much of that is down to the individual baby and how much is down to a more relaxed and experienced mum I couldn't guess.

Having said that, dragging him around the shops trying to get ready for Christmas has been playing havoc with our routine and last night he went to bed at 6.30pm and woke at 1am abd 4am so I am knackered today, hence the attraction of the title of this thread.

...my two (DS nearly 5, DD nearly 3 !) still manage to organise it for one of them to wake in the night so that mum's sleep gets broken, it's a rare occasion these days to have a completely unbroken night of sleep. I find the only way that I can cope is early to bed (around 8.30 for me) I'm usually asleep for 9.15 then wake up in the night (I always find it difficult to get back to sleep and usually get up to do some work, like now !!) back to bed then up again between 6 & half past......I "live" for my Saturday morning lie in when DH takes them both off to a play centre and I sleep for England sometimes until 11am to catch up -no such luck this time of year though because of Xmas shopping and stuff..........

Well, an interesting night for us here. Ds was completely worn out and fell asleep in the car on the way home. He woke up briefly when I was putting his jammies on then went back to sleep. This is all about 3 hours ahead of schedule! He did wake briefly at midnight and 6:00 am but only took a bit of soothing to go back down. Dh has now instructed me to "Run him around like crazy today and wear him out again!" Maybe we have just been underestimating what it takes to use up all that toddler energy?