This morning I am celebrating a HUGE personal milestone - one that makes me feel more than little teary, and waiting for which has seen me to hell and back.
Last night, my seven-year old DS slept in his own bed, in his own room, from 9 pm to 7 am without waking.
I just wanted to tell all the exhausted, hopeless mums out there, that if we can make it WITHOUT any kind of 'crying it out', then there is hope for you too, if that is the path you have decided to take. :)
Since he was born, I have never read of, or encountered any case which was worse than mine in terms of sustained, unrelenting sleep deprivation.
For the first three years of DS's life, his usual sleep pattern was a mixture of limited sleep cycles of between 15 mins to 2 hours. At one point, I did not manage to get more than 15 mins sleep in a row for 6 months. Needless to say, I was a shattered shell of my former self. Even popping down to the local Tesco's became almost impossible task for my sleep-befuddled brain and body.
Of course, my baby was breast-fed, and of course he ended up sleeping with us just so I could try and get some sleep, and I just could not bring myself to resorting to any method of crying it out. I know that I am responsible in a sense for creating the living hell I was in, but I also know that there was really no choice, as that was the kind of mother I discovered I was.
I have no clever tips of how to get your baby to sleep longer, nor any advice on whether to do attachment parenting or some kind of 'crying it out'. Actually I envy those who can do the crying route - I wish I had been one of them!
All I can offer is great sympathy - I know exactly how horrific lack of sleep can be. One day, your child will sleep happily by themselves in their own room, and you can be content that you did the best you could for them.
Sometimes, great suffering brings great reward! :))
All I have to do now is stop going into his room every few hours to check if he OK!!