Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

If your first was a bad sleeper, when were you brave enough to try for a second?

27 replies

Chesterado · 05/04/2012 19:54

As per the title really! Our dd is now 21 months and finally seems to have figured out how to make it through the night more often than not. Torn between trying for number two to minimise the age gap or just enjoying a bur if normality for a bit longer. I'm 34 and dd came along pretty quickly but might not be so lucky next time...
Interested in when others with crap sleepers plucked up the courage to do it all again!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

haloflo · 05/04/2012 20:10

Id have another now if 1 yo DD would let me. You never know they might be a good sleeper!

MrsTittleMouse · 05/04/2012 20:16

A small warning - our second was just as bad a sleeper. We did the whole "it can't be as bad next time, can it?" thing, and we were right... it was worse.

I got back in the saddle earlier than you and ended up with an age gap of just under 2 years. It was exhausting (and still is now sometimes). But at least we got the worst over with quickly as we hadn't really had a chance to get used to sleep! I was also concerned about getting older and my chances of conceiving, but I was an old gimmer of slightly more advanced years than you are now, so I really did have to crack on.

oooggs · 05/04/2012 20:17

Ds1 was a bad sleeper, dts were 3.3 years later and were better, ds3 was 21 mths after that and is an angel sleeper.

But I feel we may have contributed to ds1's habits!!

APipkinOfPepper · 05/04/2012 20:20

DS wasn't (still isn't!) a great sleeper, and will be 4 when DC2 is born (I am currently pregnant)

bumbums · 05/04/2012 20:23

Personally I think 3yrs is the maximum gap to have between succesive dcs. 2 to 2 and a half ideally.

My second was sleeping through when dc1 was still waking in the night!

sleeplessinderbyshire · 05/04/2012 20:24

DD is 31 months and still a crap sleeper I've 26 weeks with number 2 and have come to the conclusion that they'll both sleep eventually (even if I have to wait til the teenage years) and that I'm already so sleep deprived it cannnot realistically be any worse. As long as child 2 eats better than DD (living on ready brek, peanut butter and chocolate at the moment)

robino · 05/04/2012 20:27

Hmmm.

DD1 not a good sleeper. Fell pregnant when she was 9 months old and not sleeping well at all. First slept through at 1 but started sleeping reliably when DD2 was born. DD2 started sleeping through at 1, DD1 almost immediately started waking again. 6 months later DD1 started sleeping through, we had 4 nights of bliss and then DD2 started waking up again. This went on for a year. And then I had DD3. At 1 almost exactly DD3 slept through and we had 4 blissful nights (notijce a pattern?) when they all slept then DD3 started teething again and DD2 came out of nappies at night and kept waking. The last 6 weeks (DH has been away) have quite possibly been the worst yet; on three occasions I have had all three in bed with me, wriggling.

Still wouldn't change having them all within 4 years and a month! Although am not dealing with the sleepless nights v well at the moment.

ohbugrit · 05/04/2012 20:30

3.3 years between mine. DS was 4 when he started sleeping through. DD is 18 months and shaping up to be worse. I am utterly broken.

Go for it!

Kveta · 05/04/2012 20:31

DS is 30 months, an atrocious sleeper, and will be a big brother in about 2 months time! We just went for it. We have decided we will get the horrendous sleepless nights out of the way in one easy 5-6 year period :o

BackforGood · 05/04/2012 20:37

I didn't realise how bad at sleeping dc1 was, until dc2 was so different - I just thought it was me who was just not able to cope, as people used to smile and say 'all babies wake in the night' etc.

dc1 - dc2 28months between them
dc2 - dc3 34 months between them (but lots of other life circumstance, nothing to do with sleep petterns).

Iggly · 05/04/2012 20:42

Dc1. Terrible sleeper. However a lot of it was due to his reflux. We went for dc2 and have a 2.2 year gap. I thought it couldn't be worse....

Wrong! Dd is like her brother - even has reflux :( terrible sleeper, I'm a broken women 4 months in. At least it'll all be over in a couple of years or so and I'm not having any more!!!!!

HettyKett · 05/04/2012 20:45

DC1 started sleeping through more often that not when she was about 2 1/2, by which time (planned) DC2 was just turned one...

leftmysociallifeatthedoor · 05/04/2012 20:46

Ds was an awful non sleeper, really really really bad. There is 3y9m between him and dd. Dd has slept through from an unbelievably young age.

MissBeehivingUnderTheMistletoe · 05/04/2012 20:52

DS1 was an awful sleeper until about 2.5 and consequently I didn't have DS2 until DS1 was 5. Thank God because he was a crap sleeper too

MissBeehivingUnderTheMistletoe · 05/04/2012 20:53

EightiesChick · 05/04/2012 20:53

bumbums why is 3 years the maximum gap to have between siblings?

Original poster

Chesterado · 05/04/2012 21:06

Really glad I asked this now and thank you for all your response. Impetus for asking is that all but one of our original antenatal group now have or are expecting number two so starting to wonder whether we should too.... but we really need to psyche ourselves up to do the newborn sleepless nights bit and are then terrified it will continue for another 18 months beyond that.

Reckon the responses so far are about 50:50 in terms of history repeating itself. HMMMMMMM!

OP posts:

Original poster

Chesterado · 05/04/2012 21:10

PS good luck and fingers crossed for good sleepers to all those currently expecting!

OP posts:

BackforGood · 06/04/2012 00:15

See, my former colleague had 3 in 3 years and reckons that was by far the best way, as, once she'd "tasted" a whole night of sleep, or being able to go out without a pram bag, and so forth, she'd never, ever want to go back to it again - her thinking was 'get it all over with in one go'.
Her dcs would all be doing exams now I reckon.... I wonder if she still thinks the same with all those teenage hormones raging at once

TheEternalOeuftimist · 06/04/2012 00:28

We had DD who slept through from about 14 weeks.

Then DS who didn't sleep through till he was over 2 yo and only then when we did sleep training.

Can go either way, you could be lucky and second child sleeps well.

kid · 06/04/2012 00:30

Dd was a terrible sleeper, purely my own fault as i used to cuddle her each night until she fell asleep in my arms.
Ds was born when dd was 3.3 and he was a much better sleeper which was due to me laying him in his cot to sleep.

I liked the age gap as dd started nursery 3 months before ds was born. Long enough for her to be settled in without feeling pushed out because of a new baby.

Iggly · 06/04/2012 02:59

duchesse · 06/04/2012 03:22

DS was terrible sleeper
DD1 came along 21 months later (Yes!!! utterly planned!!!! not) and slept a lot better- slept through at some point before 1 (can't remember)
DD2 2.3 years later slept through around 12 months I think
DD3 (12 y gap after DD2) slept through 1-5 mo, then has woken up between 1 and 8 times a night since then until v v recently at 2.7.

We'll not be having any more, not least because we are old gimmers who seriously need our beauty sleep and can't really cope with broken nights any more.

MrsEasterChickLegs · 06/04/2012 05:20

DD was 4.5 when she finally slept through
We hadn't planned anymore
Then DS came along when she was 5.5 (clearly I was getting too much sleep )
DS slept through from 11 months ( thankfully)
I, however , am 39 and still don't sleep through

granule · 06/04/2012 05:29

Ds1 is 2.9 and has never slept through. Eventually we just thought 'fuck it' and got upduffed with ds2. I'm due next week. Who knows what the nights have in store? I may never sleep again!

The sleep thing didn't seem like a good enough reason to delay completing our family. There'd always have been something if we'd taken that attitude.

Flip

1 2