Was your child a bad sleeper?

[barneymcgroo]

If so, please complete the sentence:

'My darling little angel was a terrible sleeper, but it all miraculously improved when...'

Please give me some hope - 13mo, is lovely, but doesn't go more than a couple of hours at night.

Thank you.

I had a brilliant routine, 2 very healthy twins with no issues or reflux etc absolute nightmare sleepers. I did months of trying every sleep routine in various books, shush pat, cry it out. I can’t remember when it got better to be honest as they are 8 now but it did eventually get better.
I hate the holier than thou ‘I had a routine bollocks’ it’s luck, I know people with 4 children and only one was a bad sleeper.
Sympathy Op be kind to yourself x

My darling little angel was a terrible sleeper, but it all miraculously improved when...' one day I realized he finally started sleeping. He’s nearly 9 now and I honestly don’t remember when it got better. It was a gradual thing I think. I got more relaxed about the whole thing, he got older, it worked itself out. 2, 3 maybe? It's awful to be in the midst of it, but it does get better.

Ooooh, @SmallAndFarAway, @FrozenMargarita17 and @Thishatisnotmine, I like the sound of 17/18 months!

...... we did cry it out!

My darling little angel was a terrible sleeper, but it all miraculously improved when...

Dd1 (now 12)....hmm, about 2 years ago? No idea why!

D's (now 8)....work in progress but he does have a sleep disorder and severe reflux.

'My darling little angel was a terrible sleeper, but it all miraculously improved when...'

He started school.

Sorry.

FWIW he’s 13 now, loves his sleep and is astonishingly self motivated and mature. So far...

I think it was that she was finally walking, she started to actually eat things and she got used to her room. That's my guess.

We were struggling from lack of sleep and our son waking up every hour for...nothing really! So we did cry it out. Hard at first, but after 10 days he was sleeping through the night! (7months old) he is now 10mnths and sleeps from 7pm-7am and its nice to have our evenings back.

I would definitely recommend it as we tried a lot of different approaches but this was the only one that worked for us.

Good luck!

1. Not months. Years.

I nearly died. In fact, a part of me did. It was indescribably soul destroying. He was just coming up on 3 when it all just stopped. He is a superb sleeper! He’ll be 5 the end of May. He goes to sleep without a hitch at 7:30-8....up at 5:45-6am. The early rising is tough. But it’s an all expenses paid holiday in Bora Bora by comparison to the up-every-two-hours-every-night (for nearly 3 years).

But we had a good sleep routine which massively helps.
Would you mind sharing your routine? I could do with a tried and tested one!

I couldn’t/wouldn’t sleep train. My eldest woke every 45 mins, then every hour, then every two hours. Would only sleep in our bed and even if we laid with her until she fell asleep elsewhere she would wake wake wake wake. Until about 3 when she first started sleeping longer stretches. Now at 5 she sleeps through mostly and still wakes once or twice a week and needs help to go back to sleep. She’s also an early riser

...when he became a teenager.

Sorry...that's probably not very helpful but he has literally only started sleeping beyond 7am since starting secondary school.

4.45-6am was our normal for years. I honestly don't know how we are all still alive.

Yes, we are still waiting for his sleep to improve at 11. Sorry

... When he started school. Sorry.

But shit, if only I'd thought of having a routine.

😂

When he was 2.4

My eldest was dreadful, number 2 was fine. Number 3 also shit. But number 3 is 2.3 months so I’ve got high hopes of next month

My eldest (now 2.3 years) started sleeping through of her own accord around 10 months old after waking 4/5 times a night. Well, I say sleeping through but she still wakes once or twice a night but goes back to sleep fairly quickly.

My youngest (11 months).. we're still waiting. Up every 2 hours at the moment and that's an improvement. I've tried routines and some sleep training with no success. I am a zombie!

My 5 year old got much better at sleeping once she started school. We were ok with her coming into our bed in the wee small hours as it maximised everyone's sleep, so she may have stopped sooner with more encouragement.

Our now 3 year old very gently night weaned at 2 and a bit and started sleeping through then.

There's no need to "do" anything if you don't want to - I personally didn't want to sleep train but worked on good sleep hygiene as you would for an adult, plus a nice predictable bedtime routine (flexible on timing though). Several friends would recommend the No Cry Sleep Solution if you do want to break some sleep associations or whatever though.

CIO at 7 months oh Jesus. I can't even imagine how anyone copes with that. If my ds falls asleep crying (once or twice I've been stuck with my dd and couldn't go to him) he just wakes 20 minutes later anyway. If he falls asleep full of milk and happy he'll sleep for a few hours.

I can't complete the sentence as mine is 9 months and sleeps from 6:30 - 11:30 then 2 hour bursts after that.

My ds1 was an appalling sleeper and it all changed when the health visitor gave me the book 'teach your child to sleep'. We chose a method and worked on it slowly and then after a few months was a great sleeper. Currently a teenager- can't fall asleep and hates waking up!

Ds2 was a random sleeper - sometimes good, sometimes not! Kept us on our toes. Still occasionally a little random at 10yrs old!

Ds3 had day and night confused! Slept amazingly in the day - rubbish at night! It all changed when I had the energy to sort it out!

“We do have a routine. And he goes to sleep fine, just wakes frequently.”

Same here. I have come to the conclusion though that people with good sleepers simply don’t believe people with babies who wake frequently when they say this.

.......it hasn’t. I’m still waiting. 7&5. Up since 5.20am today. It gets better when they are old enough to go downstairs and switch the tv on themselves. When they were 3 and 10 months I was regularly up 5 times a night. We tried everything. It nearly killed us.

DD2 is almost 2. Have finally had a whole month of sleep after cracking one night, putting her in her cot and leaving her to cry. She cried for 90 minutes, all temper tantrum and not distress. She now hasn't woken us in 4 weeks and counting...

@HerSymphonyAndSong A thousand times yes! While all the members of my antenatal class were having the "ooh, she just one day slept through" chat at about 3 months/7 months/whatever, he's never done anything like have a decent night.

Thanks all for the responses. And the solidarity. We manage - he's in his cot until the first wake up after our bed time, sometimes a second, the. We cosleep, and he basically wants to feed all night.

And yes, I know this will be the cause of him not sleeping, according to some of you, but we've tried not doing it, and I get more sleep lying down and feeding than I did stood next to a cot, so I'm going with it for now.