When did your child consistently start sleeping through the night??

[Daisychain909]

Hoping for a bit of solidarity / knowing it's not just us with a 1 year old who still wakes 3 times a night on average 😫. He was a pretty good sleeper in the early months after birth, waking once or twice for a feed. He slept through the night 3 nights in a row at 4 months and we thought we'd cracked it but that was the first and last time he ever did this lol. He is 1 year old now and since he was about 7 months his sleep has been carnage really. Get the occasional week or two of him sleeping better and only waking once and then back to what seems like never ending regressions, teething, separation anxiety and whatever else causing him to wake multiple times a night. The latest thing for him is waking 3-4 times a night and immediately screaming blue murder the second he wakes up (no idea why, it's not from pain so assume it's separation anxiety but we cosleep so this doesn't make a lot of sense either except for whether it's because it's pitch black when he wakes so he can't immediately see I'm there).

I quite enjoy the closeness of cosleeping so am not overly fussed about getting him in his own cot but husband would like to get him back in his own room. He slept in a bassinet next to our bed for the first 6 months then we moved him to a cot in the next room when he outgrew it and that's where the issues began. He initially was able to sleep til maybe 1/2am in the cot before we'd end up bringing him into bed with us but then around 9 months we ended up with a million false starts and screaming unless he was put down in my bed (so we just embraced it as my partner and I were getting no evening at all and at least this way we get him to go to sleep and stay asleep for about 4hrs before his first wake-up which is usually at 12:30am).

I don't want to sleep train or let him cry so please don't suggest those as methods to help the situation. Just looking to understand from any parents that also didn't sleep train when their babies started sleeping through? One friend told me hers was 18 months which seems such a way off for us but I guess it's only 6 months or so. Hoping it happens sooner for us but we shall see!!

Could it be night terrors? My DD didn't sleep through the night till she was 6 but was OK when she was in bed with me. As he's already in with you and that's not soothing him I would look into night terrors. Or how can you be sure it's not pain? Could be teeth coming through.

DS1 - 3.5years
DS2 - 8 months

DS1 was just hungry (until he was 3 he was still coming into my bed for a morning feed, and often woke for a snack in the middle of the night, at 18 months he was still having 2 night feeds!) whereas DS2 seemed to have more stomach capacity :)

Both of them are easy sleepers, but early risers now - which actually is great because it means I never have to dig them out for school

DC1 - 4 years
DC2 - 4 and a half but it was a medical issue

Thanks everyone I'm glad it's not just us!! Every parent I speak to seems to have babies sleeping through a lot of the time at this age so it makes me question myself but these stories reassure me.

Re night terrors @lavenderlou I have thought about this but everything I read online suggests they don't start this early??

It might be teething pain potentially i suppose but it's odd as he will be totally fine during the day and then only scream when he wakes at night. Whatever it is just hoping it improves at least a little soon!

With my DC teething pain mainly seemed to bother them at night, not sure why.

1 and 20 months, both times because we sleep trained. If you go a more natural approach I think it’s generally nearer 3. I wasn’t willing to give up any more sleep, and to be honest both the children were happier and better for their 7-7 sleep. I felt selfish leaving it until 20 minths with the second one which I did because I enjoyed the being needed so much as it was the last time. But in hindsight I was doing the whole household a disservice. Night weaned and in his own bed made everyone’s wellbeing better.

I only have one DD but she was terrible from 4 months until the day she turned 12 months. Woke every 45 mins to 2 hours. From 12 months a switch flicked but we had changed her to a floor bed and I think that helped. However we often get very early starts still.

She's now 2 and sleep isn't consistent- anytime she's ill or teething or having a leap then sleep goes to pot again but it's manageable because we know we will come through it now.

Hold on- good sleep will come eventually! A floor bed works for us- may be worth a try?

So I actually suggested a floor bed to my husband last week!!! Really glad it worked for you, good to know, think we will definitely give this a go now to see if we can get him sleeping in his own room again. The one saving grace for us is we do not get early starts as he loves a lie in. We have to wake him by 7:30 in the week to go to the childminder but if I forget to set an alarm on the weekends he would easily sleep til 8:30 (he typically goes to bed around 7:45pm). Although I try to maintain a wake time of 7:30-8 for him on weekends so we don't throw off his schedule.

The funny thing is he naps totally fine in his cot during the day - usually does two 1hr naps no problem. Just at night that he absolutely refuses to be in there!!

From 6/7 months, we had colic baby so we're desperate for sleep so did sleep training at 7 months or we may have just slept through the crying 😬 as exhausted. Obviously wakes with illnesses or developmental steps but on the whole very good at sleeping now Xx

Sorry @Daisychain909 I meant to say in my post that I know you said you wouldn’t consider sleep training and then I went on about it - partly so you didn’t compare as sleep training gets better, earlier results on the whole so it’s not comparable, and I didn’t want you to feel like there was something you could have done to get them to sleep sooner, but also in case it was useful for someone else to hear a positive story.

Our DS slept for about 11 hours straight through every night from about 9 months. He’s never wakes up in the night. I think we’ve been lucky when you hear what some others have to go through. We didn’t do anything different to what others did.

For both of them it was 12 months.

DC1 - 12 months. But then slept badly age 1.5-4.
DC2 - still waiting, he’s 8. Has good weeks and bad weeks.
DC3 - from 2, and reliably from 3.

But their night wakings looked different. dC1 wiuld be awake (but not bouncy or sleepy) at 2/3 in the morning for a couple of hours. DC2 would wake frequently but only for a few minutes, and is prone to early rising. DC3 was a mix of both but terrible at going to sleep.

Oh my gosh this is me and my 14month old! He started to sleep well amd we got longer stretches amd full nights from 6 months and then it all went to pot at 9months! He refuses to be rocked to sleep and appears to wake for boob! Everything says he shouldn't need to feed at night but ..... he seems soo hungry.
We just about get back to a baseline of waking up 2ice and only once a night and then he gets ill or teething and back to 4 wakes again!!
When I have tried to sleep train I've then felt terrible because it turned out he was crying cause he was ill!!

A few weeks old, in their own cot from then same routine every night and went to bed with a dummy, cried a little bit a couple of time then went off to sleep

No idea what 'made it happen' just saying what we did so as we didn't know what worked we stuck with what we were doing just in case

Oh thank you. Yes this is us and my hungry little monster!

3/4 years