Will my baby's sleep naturally improve without sleep training?

[nonamesareavailable]

My baby is a terrible sleeper. Cannot fall asleep on his own. Has to be nursed or rocked to sleep every time. Often awake for hours in the night. Will he naturally grow out of this or do I NEED to sleep train him to break the "unhelpful" sleep associations?

I guarantee you won't still be rocking him to sleep when he's 15.

Yes, it will get better, although I think DS was about two before he reliably slept through every night.

How old is he? But yes, he will almost certainly sleep for longer on his own given time. The thing that is hard for you is that no one knows when he will be ready. Some only need a few weeks or months, others need years. It may be very gradual so you only notice when you look back.

My DD is 2.5 and we now lay next to her and she is asleep within 10 mins and unless unwell or needs a wee she does not need us through the night.

She was just like like your baby and we coslept until 20 months. We tried sleep training (disappearing chair) and last 30 mins and have nothing since.

Sorry, he's 5 months.

Thanks for the reassurance.

I found 4-5mo incredibly hard. My son has never slept for very long stretches and he was a nightmare to get to sleep for naps at that point, plus he was more alert and needed lots of attention but was frustrated that he couldn’t do much for himself. He is a different baby at 8.5mo now that he is sitting and mobile and can occupy himself with toys, kitchen utensils, the washing machine etc. And although I would love it if his nighttime sleep involved fewer wakeups, it is much better and he now naps twice a day for over an hour each time, sometimes over two hours in the afternoon. He just did this by himself. It makes a big difference to how tired I feel. I hope your son figures out how to give you a bit more rest soon

My daughtet has finally started sleeping better at just over 2 years

Could have written this myself!! My little girl is 9.5 months and can't go to sleep on her own. Always nursed or rocked to sleep! She wakes every 2-4 hours overnight but has sorted her naps herself and now sleeps 1-2 hours twice a day.

I don't know how I will ever get her to go to sleep from awake in her cot! But I am hoping she will just start sleeping longer when she's ready! I'm not back to work til May so I can cope just now.

I think leaving her with someone else for an evening relaxed me. I left some expressed milk and my mum managed absolutely fine! She went to sleep with minimal fuss so I know she can do it. I have noticed she does self settle occasionally in the night but couldn't fall asleep herself.

I'm sure it will get better OP! Sorry I have no other advice!!!

Impossible to say op. He might, he might not. My ds is 5 now and some of my friends are still having to sit with their dc of a similar age for an hour plus for them to go to sleep and then being woken during the night for re settling. 5 months is still tiny, there are tips to help you manage sleeplessness but I'm not sure anyone would recommend and actual sleep training at this age. Except my MIL of course, who sleep trained her babies at 3.5 minutes old and never to wake in the night from then on!

In my experience (only one child but a shit sleeper) it absolutely will get better. You just have to be kind to yourself to get through it.

We have 4 DCs and all have coslept and napped in the sling and buggy. We had this fear and tried a sleep consultant with dc1 and it was hard work and didn't stick. With the others we've gone with the flow - there have been harder times and easier, but all have consistently got better and eventually slept through after night weaning at 12 months (even though with dc2 and dc3 I kept feeding before bed until 18 months).
We've used gentle tips from the No Cry Sleep Solution, which are commonsense but work given time, to help cut down on number of night feeds / mucking about at bedtime.

They will get there! And 5 months is so little - if in the worst case they do get to 9 months and you are exhausted, they will also be a lot bigger and on solids and more able to cope with any sleep training you choose to do.

WIll he still need rocking when he’s 15? No. Will he still need it at 15 months if you don’t sleep train? Possibly.

Will he still climb into bed with you every other night when he’s 4 even if you sleep trained him and he slept through every night for 2 years. Well, if he’s anything like DS, yes!

There are no guarantees - do what feels best for you and your baby. If the rocking and sleep deprivation isn’t driving you mad/making you ill and you’re happy to do so, why not carry on? If it’s driving you into a depression, sleep training won’t harm him (IMO). Though I’d wait at least a couple more months before I tried, and make sure he doesn’t have anything like silent reflux causing issues that make him wake in discomfort.

I had a bad sleeper and he has gradually got better. At nearly 10 months i’m still tending to feed to sleep but generally goes down quickly (also wakes up only twice which is good for us and he is bf).

Did attempt some sleep training but didn’t work / couldn’t do it properly and may again in the future but he has just seemed to have gradually got better and think we’ll be dropping a feed soon at night.

Three baby group friends still have sleep issues. They didn’t want to sleep train. Their kids are 3/4 years old

4-5 months is the worst. DD is 6 months now and although still wakes up in the night, she doesn't often need rocking to sleep anymore, I put her down sleepy and in the dark with her dummy and 9 times out of 10 she'll drift off on her own - I sit in the corner of the room until she's asleep.