My 18 mo has just put himself to bed!!!!

[JacqueslePeacock]

Apologies for all the exclamation marks, but my god! My DS, who has always been one of the world's most appalling sleepers and who typically requires around an hour of patting and lying him back down and hand holding, has just lain down and gone to sleep all by himself for the very first time ever. He was playing around in the cot and not wanting to sleep so I left the room for a little bit. Instead of wailing and screaming "Mummy!" as usual, he chatted to himself for a little while, then gave a big sigh and all went quiet. Utterly confused, I tiptoed back in after 10 minutes, half expecting to find him spirited away by aliens, and he was...just quietly sleeping.

This has never happened before and will probably never happen again but I just wanted to let you all know. There is hope for every one of us!

That's good! U never know he could do it every night now :)

That's good! U never know he could do it very night now :)

It's very late for an 18 month old to be up at 9pm

Have you considered starting the bedtime routine much earlier? Lots of kids find it hard to settle if they're overtired, he might be easier to get down earlier in the evening.

For context, my 8, 6 and 4 year old are usually in bed an hour or so by 9pm

No, no, he went to bed at 7pm not 9pm. I sat around with my mouth hanging open in shock for a little while before posting!

Always one

Anyway...Aww I'm sure your proud as punch of your little one.

Ah that's sweet

Love love love sleepy chatter!

Thank you Maryz. I am experienced enough in the ways of no sleep to have no doubt my DS will be following in your DS2's footsteps! But at least I will be able to say he did it once. I'm still sitting here grinning away.

That makes more sense! I was wondering how you had survived to 18 months if he was up til all hours every night

Did he stay asleep for the night? With any luck now he's figured out how to self settle he may do it more often, you'll have your evenings back soon with any luck

And don't worry, my dd is like maryz ds2.... Just doesn't seem to have an off switch but once she got old enough to play quietly or look at a book in bed it got easier as I could just leave her to it.