AIBU to start to wonder if DD will *ever* sleep through?

[DitaVonCheese]

DD is two and a bit and, apart from a heady couple of weeks when she was about six weeks old, has never slept through. I mean, she does sleep five hours a night from about 7 pm to midnight, but then we go to bed at midnight and she wakes up every couple of hours, so although I know that's technically sleeping through, I don't think it really counts

Everyone told me it would get better when she was walking, which she did late, but it didn't. We have night weaned. She eats a good amount at three meals and (at least) two snacks a day. She is stimulated during the day. We have now dropped all naps. She has a decent bedtime routine (though that's all changed recently) and is perfectly capable of self-settling. I do not know what else there is!

It is manageable (particularly as DH now does all night wakings ) because she just wakes up and asks for a cuddle or a drink (she has sippy cups by the bed) and then goes back to sleep but I am starting to wonder if she will in fact ever sleep through the night ... ?

Maybe you have to pull back on the cuddles and the drinks? Sleep goes through phases of light and deep and it's important that if a light phase becomes 'nearly awake' she can turn over and ignore it rather than expect attention. Assuming she's not waking screaming due to nightmares just let her self-settle with the sippy cup by the bed and, if she makes a noise, try a friendly but firm 'go back to sleep!' from your side of the bedroom wall rather than actually going in the room.

DD was the same, it turned out that she though she was supposed to call out in the night if she woke. Once she understood she was allowed to just have a drink and go back to sleep, she did

She was about 2 1/2 at the time.

YANBU to wonder, but I think she probably will - I think children's sleep does change & mature significantly somewhere between 2&4 (based on the fact that my dc's did!)

Chil she is cosleeping (with DH) and tbh I think he quite likes the cuddles :) He doesn't seem to mind waking up for a few seconds (he is much more patient than me!).

Plus she isn't waking every 45 min so presumably she does self-settle between some of the sleep phases.

Lol Hetty maybe I should have a chat with her!

X-post ... Thanks BP - it would be nice to think that it will happen one day

Is there someone I can apply to in order to request that DC2 is a good sleeper?

I should have said, DD was always a nightmare sleeper, so it was just a natural continuation to call for when she woke.

We really did just have a chat one day (DD, do you know what big girls do when they wake up in the nighttime? etc.) and that was that. she'll still call for us sometimes but usually only when she's drunk all her water or had a bad dream.

We did have some massive bedtime battles shortly afterward though, bedtime had been th e only thing that was always good

I suddenly remembered this thread earlier today and had to search it out.

Happy to report that DD now sleeps through the night in her own bed 99% of the time and the weirdest thing is I can't even remember when it started happeneing

Just thought I'd post an update in case anyone else out there was in need of reassurance (I have also started to feed her to sleep again, in case anyone is fretting about that :)).

Thank you Dita, ds is nowhere near this age but I'm still in need of reassurance.

You're welcome

For the purposes of reassurance, moving to her own bed was painless all round, much better than I expected in fact. I also fed her to sleep until she was 14 months, when she started self-settling, then about six months ago she dropped her last nap and started nursing to sleep again but it doesn't stop her from sleeping through. I wish I'd known all this years ago!

ds2 was always a bad sleeper. he started sleeping through regularly at 2.5 but we'd have regressions every few weeks, then every few months when he would start waking again (though he was easily settled)

he is now 3.5 and for the most part he sleeps through. if he does wake he just comes into our bed and we all sleep together