Did anyone's VERY bad sleeper eventually figure it out on their own without intervention?

[WildWombat]

Particularly breastfeeding babies. Has anyone's baby managed to get there on their own? No sleep training, no engineering, just an organic gradual change from multiple overnight wake ups to consistent long stretches.

Yes - but it’s a long haul. However - I have to note that DS fought sleep all the way. He wasn’t a small child who napped either. Now he’s a teen that needs to be dragged out of bed…

It got a lot better once he was at school.

Yes, but we're talking years, not months. I stopped feeding overnight between 1.5&2 and that helped massively. Just turned 4 and still wakes probably twice a night but that's so much better than the hourly wake ups when tiny!

Yes, my 2nd child got much better between age 2 and 3. By 4 she was consistently sleeping through the night. My 1st child first slept through at 9 months and before that had been waking once for a few months. I didn’t do any sleep training with either, they were nursed back to sleep at all wakings and they eventually figured it out as all humans did before anyone invented sleep training.

all humans did before anyone invented sleep training

Which specific historical period does this refer to?

Yes. Me. At about 4. It was nothing to do with ebf clearly as was well weaned by then! But the breastfeeding support group I'm on there are toddlers 2+ who are now sleeping well and still having milk from mum at bedtime and morning too with no intervention. There are also some previously bad sleepers improving naturally around 1. I am keeping the faith we'll be in the latter (sooner!) camp.

My poor sleeping breast fed baby still wakes at least 2x per night and at least 5x per week ends up in our bed. She is 10 years old next month 😭😭😭😭😭😭
Although her breast fed younger sister (age 8) is complete opposite so I don't think its anything to do with breast feeding, just the child.

At 9 months ds was bf all night. I was a wreck.
Sent dh in with a bottle of water 2 nights. Woke once. Drank 1 oz first night. None the second. Slept through 7 til 7 the third. Absolutely loves his bed still at age 7.

From what I have read sleep training evolved at the end of the night nurse/wet nurse period being en vogue, so very recently in human history.

Yeah … I’m not sure that prior to that babies were cuddled and soothed al night!!

@ImpossibleGirl86

Yes, but we're talking years, not months. I stopped feeding overnight between 1.5&2 and that helped massively. Just turned 4 and still wakes probably twice a night but that's so much better than the hourly wake ups when tiny!

Did you go cold turkey on the night feeds? How did that go down?? 😬

Not bf but DD1 did eventually and was the worst sleeper I’ve know. She is 5 now and still needs lots of light in her room to sleep. DD2 is 2.5 yrs now and wakes frequently for bf but actually she is easier over night than DD1 was.

Yes- Sorry to say that it was generally between the ages of 2 and 3 years though.

Depends what you count as sleep training. DS was a truly awful sleeper - woke hourly from the day he was born and would only settle with a breastfeed. At 8 months I was near a mental health crisis, so we started habit stacking and we fully moved away from breastfeeding to sleep and overnight by about 11 months. Was a long process but there was close to zero crying (only once if I recall, the first time DH cuddled him to sleep for a nap).

Sleep improved drastically from there and he’s just slept 11.5h straight through the night at 20 months, which is now pretty common unless ill/teething. We are still breastfeeding so I didn’t damage that.

Yup. I'm morally opposed to sleep training. I lost count of how many times mine used to wake. Every 40 minutes at times. I only followed the nudges in the Gentle Sleep Book. I breastfeed and cosleep.

Things gradually improved over time. Now at 22 months mine fed to sleep as always last night, slept until 4am this morning, had a quick feed (which barely woke me as I'm still cosleeping) then went back to sleep until 7.

The endless articles telling me he would never learn to self settle himself, that feeding to sleep is the work of the devil etc were wrong. I honestly believe that self settling is a developmental stage and they get there when they're ready. Of course I probably would have had more sleep along the way if I'd sleep trained, but it just wasn't for me.

Yes, ds1 at about 18 months (maybe a bit earlier) and ds2 aged 4, when he started school.

When I had dd she was a brilliant sleeper and I used to go and prod her to check she was ok after a few hours

This gives me hope! Dd1 is 20 months and bf and still wakes throughout the night…

I have never done sleep training with mine. Dc1 slept through the night at 12 weeks (unless she was ill) and napped after lunch until she was 3. Dc2 slept through the night for the first time age around 3 and was conistent-ish by 5. Before that it was many multiple wakeups and no naps from 12 months (she was at nursery and even they couldnt get a nap out of her!)- she nearly broke me!. Dc3 is nearly 2 and usually gets up once a night and always has a nap after lunch.

Yes. Sleep improved a bit when I stopped BFing at about 20 months (her understanding was very good and I told her the boobies were broken, she accepted it pretty well). It got better again when she dropped her daytime naps as she approached 3. She’s 4.5 now and she gets a story and a kiss then falls asleep herself in minutes. She occasionally wakes and comes into us but is easily guided back into her own bed. She was an absolutely terrible sleeper as a baby. Would not entertain a Moses basket or cot, hated being put down, woke hourly even when co-sleeping. Totally resistant to attempts at sleep training (as in hours later still no closer to sleep). Thought she was going to kill me off but she’s an absolute dream now, and actually better than my friends DCs of similar age that slept well as babies. She just had to get there herself. DD2 is a couple of weeks old and doing 3-4 hour stretches in her Moses basket. I’ve done nothing different, she’s just a different baby.

Yes! At 17mo, my DD can now self settle. Sometimes wakes up once during the night (around midnight). still breastfed. No sleep training, never left to cry. She's obviously just realised that sleep is goooood.

Yes - all 8 so far! 9th is almost 14 months and wakes 2/3 times a night on average. When they've started sleeping regularly through the night has varied but it's generally been around the age of 3. For one it was 5 and the earliest one 2 ish.

I've fed all of them to sleep until they weaned or were almost weaned. This varied in age according to how long I fed them - for the last 3 that's been age 4. They've never cried themselves to sleep, there's never been any stress. All bar the baby now sleep in their own beds - they transitioned at their own pace - ages varied from 2 to 5 - most around 3/4.

Yes, but it took 5 years with the first. With the second who was going the same way we did some very gentle sleep training - no leaving to cry, just gradually moved the cot further away and only (breast)fed once between midnight and morning. Made the world of different and she’s a pretty reliable sleeper now at 2.

Yes, although he stopped wanting to breastfeed when I was pregnant with his sister and that helped a lot.

He's 4 now and had me up 3 times last night but once was a nightmare and then he had growing pains and that's not like him.
Gave him calpol and lay with him until he was asleep, then left him to it and he was fine the rest of the night.

Sort of. Actually, what he got was the understanding that noone else wanted to be awake, and he just had to stay in his room. He stillwater a couple of times a night, but usually stays in bed. I'm hoping for this magical sleeping teenager to appear in 6 months time, and early mornings to dissappear too. I doubt it.
DH is away currently. DS is awake when I go to sleep, and awake when I wake up. When DH is here, there is more likely to be an adult awake while he is awake, as im a mornings person, and DH is a night owl.

@StillUp

Yes. Sleep improved a bit when I stopped BFing at about 20 months (her understanding was very good and I told her the boobies were broken, she accepted it pretty well). It got better again when she dropped her daytime naps as she approached 3. She’s 4.5 now and she gets a story and a kiss then falls asleep herself in minutes. She occasionally wakes and comes into us but is easily guided back into her own bed. She was an absolutely terrible sleeper as a baby. Would not entertain a Moses basket or cot, hated being put down, woke hourly even when co-sleeping. Totally resistant to attempts at sleep training (as in hours later still no closer to sleep). Thought she was going to kill me off but she’s an absolute dream now, and actually better than my friends DCs of similar age that slept well as babies. She just had to get there herself. DD2 is a couple of weeks old and doing 3-4 hour stretches in her Moses basket. I’ve done nothing different, she’s just a different baby.

We had much the same experience as this. Stopped bf at 19 months in the vain hope she would stop waking! She still had very disturbed nights, though, and continued with the odd night terror. What really made a difference was being dry at night age 2.5 years. We would take her to the loo when we went to bed at 11, and she would sleep until morning. I have to say, we were still called upon to check for monsters. (Even as a teen she hated the dark.) We were quite worn out and rather dreaded having another baby, but did had DD2 after 4.5 year gap.

Our second child - totally different. Never fed to sleep, just lay there watching her mobile. Didn't like being in our bed, needed her own cot. Did have a wolf under her bed, but not scared As you say, just different.

Btw DD1 is 43 next month, has three boys, two slept through, one nearly broke her. Luck of the draw!