So babies sleeping through the night isn't a myth!

[onedayimightforget]

I've just met someone at a baby group whose baby has slept through the night since two months and can settle himself to sleep without someone in the room. I thought these people didn't really exist.

^

DS didn't sleep through until he was 18 months plus and is now going through the night terrors stage at 2 1/2.

DD started sleeping from 9pm to 5am from 8 weeks since I started adding in formula

Very different babies. But fully anticipating different challenges with DD. They're all different. There is no magic tricks.

oneday you've done NOTHING wrong. Ignore the smug wanker know-it-alls on here. Babies are not textbook. What works for one doesn't for the other. And sometimes nearly all the time a good sleeper is not a good sleepy because of the smuggy mcsmug parents. It's because it's just a good sleeper. I'm still bfing and cosleeping with my 13mo ds. It suits us fine. Do what you want and need to that makes you and your dc happy. X

Oneday, you really haven't done anything wrong. Some babies sleep well, some don't. Some respond to different things than others.

DD was a nightmare. She would never nap, unless I walked for miles with her in a buggy (it would normally take about an hour or so for her to maybe drop off for 20 minutes) She had to be rocked to sleep for hours and would then get up at 4am ready for the day ahead. She's 8 now and still doesn't seem to need much sleep. We tried everything and nothing worked. DS on the other hand, was an absolute dream. We'd give him a bit of a cuddle, pop in his cot and he'd drop off easily. He had a sidecar cot so we were cosleeping but he really was ludicrously easy. He's 6 and still loves bedtime.

We did try all the 'awake in cot' stuff. After five MONTHS we got got him to do it maybe one night in four. Hurrah.
Then at 6mo separation anxiety kicked in and nope, not playing any more. He's 13 months now and still won't do it. We did all the good habits stuff - he just is terrified of being alone.
It's just how he is. I know someone with twins - one sleeps like a log, the other is like our son. You can absolutely help with routines and habits but you're working within limits.

My DS sleeps most of the night, and has been doing so since 2 months. He's usually sleeping by 11pm, and then wakes up at 7 for a bottle, then back to sleep for another long nap until about 10.

He's 4 months now, and i think he's starting to get the sleep regression thing, but this means that he's currently waking up around 5 am, then sleeping until 8 so i still get plenty of sleep.

I have one. I'm here to tell you it's nothing I did - she came out relaxed and sleepy and stayed that way.

Ah, sleep. I miss it. DS (3 months) does 12-4am, feeds, then sleeps til 8. I wish he would go down earlier. I do bath, feed, story, bed routine every night at 6pm, and try not to let him nap past 4pm, but he has none of it.

His plus points are that he is a lovely, happy, easy baby (despite going to bed so late) and when he's ready for sleep he goes down easily and can self soothe a lot of the time, so I'm not too fussed about it all.

He's breastfed too, and although he starts off in the cot, sometime we end up co-sleeping. They'll grow up fast, and I won't regret occasionally waking up to see his little face next to mine in bed.

Fwiw DS slept 7-7 from 12 weeks old and I didn't brag about it. I only mentioned it when asked directly. I think I was in shock for quite some time tbh.

My daughter was an amazing sleeper when she was a baby. 6pm-8am most nights from about 6 weeks old (with a feed in the night, took 10 mins, quick wind and straight back to sleep). My son was an utter nightmare. He's two and still wakes up occasionally, only really started sleeping through about 4 months ago. His bad sleeping affected our daughter, and now at 5 she wakes up often too, as they shared a bedroom and she started reception last year we would let her into our bed to get some sleep and the habit is still alive now.

Both my boys were sleeping through by 9 weeks. Ds1 self settled ds2 did not, although he does now. I very rarely ever admit to people that they are good sleepers and sleep for 12 hours quite easily, unless they are ill, because i dont want to seam as if I'm gloating. There is no magic trick to getting them to sleep i think they either are good sleepers or aren't. I cannot take credit for it, they did it themselves.

It's just luck. My first was a terrible sleeper, second is a dream. So, have another?!

My middle son slept from 10pm to 5am at 5 weeks and stretched it out to 7.30pm to 6am by 5 months. Nothing like his older and younger brothers who went to were complete sleep stealers!

My middle dd, is 8 in January. She has NEVER slept through the night. Not once. She's like some supersonic happy robot that just doesn't need charging. Her batteries never run out and are topped up with just a few hours sleep.

Dd slept through 7-7 from four weeks. Two naps a day which she really struggled to drop when she started school. Shes nine now and still needs to be in bed well before 9pm. Shes a sleeper. She even slept through an earthquake.

I miss the excited child on Christmas morning,instead I sit and wait for her to get up.
She's cranky if kept up later than nine, staying out late doesn't really happen.
If she stays at friends she has to sleep in total darkness, most friends don't.
I've never had the sleepy child crawl into bed with me.

You either have a sleeper or you don't. Techniques can help but I think it's something inbuilt.

I have two great sleepers. My twins slept through from 11 weeks and 14 weeks. They have always been big sleepers and even now at 4 sleep from 6:30pm-7:30am.

I will not be having more dc as I won't be so lucky a third time.

DS1 slept for 2 hours at a time max, DS2 slept fairly regularly for 6 hours at a time, DD slept through for 8 hours at a time from newborn ( she also never learned to crawl and went from happily sitting for nearly 2 years to just getting up and walking one day). No rhyme or reason as to why they were all different - and needless to say, they all evened out eventually. Each to their own, I guess!

DD1 slept 7 till 7 with a dream feed at 10 pm from 10 weeks. Fully breastfed. I thought I was so brilliant at this mum stuff.

Then DD2 came along, wanted 11.30 and 2.30 until almost a year old, and I was back at work when she was 6 months. That taught me.

Mind you, even DD2 was what I would class as a good sleeper - she'd take both sides in 15 minutes flat and then conk back out. She was jut big, hungry and doing everything early.

They are now almost 14 and almost 16 and sleep like anything.

It's so easy to lay down bad sleeping habits, and I think that bed sharing, feeding to sleep, cuddling to sleep, napping on mum etc etc are bad sleeping habits that should be avoided if at all possible.

This makes me sad. Babies love cuddles, napping on mum, the comfort of feeding - all totally natural things. No way would I want to miss out on any of these things and I feel sorry for you if you have. No sleep is hard, but having a baby sleep on you/next to you is the best feeling. Hang in there OP, it will happen eventually!

Some babies sleep through from an early age. Some of mine did, one was a little later. But try to think of baby groups as Facebook with added competition. People lie. Everyone feels some sort of guilt for not being perfect so they lie to make themselves feel better and other people feel worse. And to some people it really matters to "win" at having the easiest baby. You could skip the baby group and have a nap instead, I bet you'd feel much better.

Ignore it. Unless you are bouncing the baby off the floor to render it unconscious, you are probably doing fine and your baby will sleep through when they can. If it helps, my first had to be fed every two hours day and night and also had colic. His first peoper nights sleep was at 13 weeks and after that it got much easier.

I was a really peaceful baby, slept through early and didn't cry if I woke up. No trouble at all, my DM could not believe it having had a different experience with sibling. After a few years we swapped, sibling good sleeper and I haven't slept properly since. So a peaceable personality as a baby and good sleeping as a baby does not mean the tables won't turn if that is any comfort.

Does it make you feel any better to know that my DD still doesn't reliably sleep through the night at 8 1/2 years?

My first did. From about 4 weeks. The others didn't although I did everything the same. Although I think all three slept right through from 9 weeks. I used to top them off at 10pm but other than that 7 til 7.

I firmly believe that yes you can establish good sleep habits, but we're all individuals. Try not to compare what someone else's baby is doing. They are all so different even sibling to sibling.

People will love to tell you how they did it. But you should do only what feels right to you. If you're not comfortable then it's not right for you.

I know about 2 of these.
I also know about 2 ladies who claim their children goes to sleep quietly and has since birth, yet have in the early days described doing CIO with them... So they haven't "self settled" at all, they've just been trained to give up.
However I do still know 2 that just go to sleep nicely on their own! I am jealous, haha ;)

My DS is 18 months and in the last few weeks has been sleeping through around once a week ish. This is progress. Although all the rest of the time we continue our routine of being up 3 times a night. My 2 cousins and older sister all have babies who "sleep through". Fucking bitches...

DS1 slept through from about 2 months thanks to the magic of swaddling. DS2 didn't sleep through until he was 12 months.