This is fine, right?

[GoBigOrange]

My son was a hideous sleeper for the first 5 months - I never got more than a snatched hour or two here and there most of the time. Then things slowly improved, he slept more and woke less.

He now generally goes to sleep at 8:00, often wakes wanting to be resettled at 9:00, always wakes at Midnight wanting to breastfeed and then usually sleeps until 7:00. Sometimes he wakes at 5:30 (possibly he hears DH getting ready for work) and needs resettling (or just wants to get up and start the day) but probably 6 nights out of 7 he does that nice seven hour stretch.

I am frankly bloody thrilled beyond belief to be currently getting a normal amount of sleep, but everyone around me seems to have these babies who sleep from 7:00 to 7:00 without making a peep all night long. They keep telling me DS needs to stop that Midnight feed and learn to settle himself, and I'm left wondering if they are right.

But at the same time I feel a bit 'it ain't broke, don't fix it'. DS is happy and getting enough sleep, and so am I.

Is this reasonable sleep behavior for a 14 month old?

If you're happy and he's happy I don't see the problem. My DS was still waking for a feed in the night at this age. He's 3.8 now and has been reliably sleeping through the night for at least a year.

My situation might be slightly different to yours though as DS had reflux / CMPI.

If you don't think it's a problem then it's not a problem. Fwiw, your child's sleep rhythm is a dream that I can only aspire to. My 11month old is the incredible non-nleeping baby.

My DS is also 14 months old and to be honest I would be unhappy with your sleeping pattern. That said, I am immensely lazy and hate being woken up at night. My DS goes down at 7pm and gets up around 7am. He does wake once or twice a night but rarely cries or needs any intervention, just messes about (we have a video monitor so I see him playing with his dummy/comforter) and goes back to sleep. He hasn't needed fed in the night for a long time.

All babies are different though and mine is a 'good' sleeper. I know from friends that he is not the norm. I personally would struggle to manage my full-time job on your set-up but if you are happy and feel you are getting enough sleep then I really wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah - that's fine (God I remember the first block of 6 hours I got with DS1 when he was about that age - I felt like an entirely new woman!) - I think people have less control of their kids sleep (beyond the basics of routine and dark and quiet) than they think - DS1 didn't start actually sleeping all the way through until he was 18 months old (still feeding twice a night!), still needing an emergency midnight banana at 2.5, and was difficult to put to bed until he was 3, when a switch just flicked, and suddenly he just went, and closed his eyes until morning. He was just super hungry all the time.

DS2, exact opposite - slept hours from the very beginning, and slept through from 6 or 7 months (properly through - like 8 till 7). I don't know if his seemingly expert feeding from the beginning helped there.

They were just different kids.

Thank you all. Good to know that his sleep habits while not ideal, are not unusual for his age. So I think I will maintain this acceptable situation rather than try to change his sleeping habits for the better and risk changing them for the worse! This is a real fear, as I once tried to institute a 7:00pm bedtime and he barely slept for three days he was apparently so offended by being packed off to bed an hour earlier than usual!

Is your non sleeper really mobile yet John? It was only when my DS started running and climbing all day long like a madman that he finally started sleeping a decent amount, before that his sleep was still firmly on the crap/non-existent end of the scale. Hope it gets better for you.