What is the most extreme length you’ve gone to so that your child sleeps

[MarmaLaid]

Just for fun, I still lay in bed with my 4 year old every night until she falls asleep, she likes to stroke my arm

Too many nights to count asleep on the floor with arm in cot.

And lots of being so insanely desperate for the loo but not moving lest I wake the baby.

Yes mitsufishi I’ve often thought about how great it would be as a mum to have a removable arm

My dc3 would only sleep on my head after I stopped breastfeeding. Literally on my head, playing with my ear. I could hardly breathe. I was nearly dead of tiredness, having stopped breastfeeding at 13 months hoping it'd stop the hourly waking to breastfeed, but then he just wouldn't sleep at all. Except on my head. Playing with my ear.

He sleeps in his own bed alone now he's 7

Driving around for 1.30 minutes while she's slept she was poorly and hadn't had a good night for a few nights, so I kept driving round because I knew if I turned the engine off she'd wake up. I've got a very thirsty car so it was an expensive nap 😂

After 4+ years of nightmare bedtimes with youngest kid, DH as I resorted to going to bed at the same time as him (ie at about 8.30pm). Five years on, we now all go to bed at about 9pm. I guess that sounds pretty sad from the outside, but if I'm honest I really quite enjoy it now.

I have a 3 month old ds, 2 weeks ago driving home from his sensory class he was tired and upset. I stopped to feed him and he fell asleep. I sat in the back of the car on a side street for 3 hrs while he slept on me ☺️

Coming back from a wedding when DD was four months, we left before the evening do but she was overtired and screaming in the car, so I angled myself on the backseat to breastfeed her strapped into her seat in a lay-by! I had tried feeding and transferring twice but she woke up

I haves napped in the car on my drive because DD was asleep in her car seat and I didn't want to wake her. My phone ran out of battery so I had a little snooze. Neighbours must think a right loon!

When DD1 was small we listened to white noise at quite high volume all night. DD2 luckily didn’t need anything like that, she was an unusually sleepy baby.

I used to have to bf dd whilst standing up and practically jogging round the room to get her to nod off. Probably ran a few hundred miles in that time.

Slept all night in my uniform in his bed, from 7pm woke up next day 6am, brushed teeth and went straight to work! Too tired to even change my pants!!

Took the bus to another town, didn't get off, returned to home. DD1 in pram and me with a pillow on the seat. Aimed for journey times of more than 2 hours. Got to know the drivers well over the weeks. I couldn't safely drive because of the exhaustion.

Took alternate nights with DH to drive to a nearby lay-by and sleep 8pm-midnight.

Looking back it just seems insane. We needed more adults. The joy of parenting in a W.E.I.R.D. culture.

I remember bringing DD2 home and popping her in the Moses basket whilst I had a nap. She slept for nearly 2 HOURS. We were both staggered. It never got old! We were astonished that she slept for as long as 2 hours in one go. Amazing!

Some of these make me feel better! Gosh @stargirl1701, i am intrigued by who was sleeping in the lay-by? Was it the dc following long drive or you / dp away once far enough removed from said dc? And YY to the jogging pp, I wish I too had somehow tracked my steps. My dc2 is 9 weeks. The first time he just lay down in bed and went to sleep with no intervention from me at all I nearly fell of my chair in surprise. Dc1 is nearly 2 and has not ever once done this for any nap or bedtime. I have heard it said to put babies down 'sleepy but awake' but I confess I thought this was basically fictitious based on my dc1.

My 4 year old likes the dog under his bed so he knows he's safe, either me or his dad lay with him untill he nods off, usually with a little back scratch involved

One parent to the lay-by to sleep whilst the other did the 'house walk' for 4 hours. DD1 upright on the shoulder whilst in constant movement. Sitting down = screaming.

Yes to arm stroking! The hours we meant over his cot. He had a thing for pulling arm hairs 😬. Still has when he's really tired

the cat in the hat - my dh & I took turns reading the 56 pages of that #### book for about a year - to this day -decades later!-we can quote passages - I never liked that bloody book, even to start with! "sit sit & we did not like it not one little bit!" argh the memory (shudders)

I definitely feel better after reading some of these

I left the hoover going near dd1 for ten minutes once. But mostly it was dh singing loudly to Green Day with her on his shoulder that worked while I recovered from all day cluster feeding.

I used to sing the Andy Pandy theme tune on repeat for about 10 mins with ds1 when he was tiny. I can still sing it now, 13 years later 😱