If you had a "good" sleeper, either right from newborn or later on...

[LaDameAuxLicornes]

...what would you say you did that you feel was most helpful in encouraging them to sleep well at night and during the day?

Particularly interested in tips from people who had bad sleepers who later managed to turn it around, since DS has been terrible but is now rapidly improving. I would love to know what tricks others might have learned by trial and error, or perhaps by having several children and learning from experience. I was absolutely clueless when he was younger!!

Hi Op I'd love to know as well my DS is currently awful sleeper he won't sleep in his own bed so it means either me or my DH have to share a bed with him which is usually my DH as we have a 16 week old DD so I'm usually in the same room as my DD I use white noise to try and encourage my DD to stay asleep at night my DS will only settle if he's got either of us in bed he's 2.5 yrs and we are seriously stuck as to how to get him to settle in his own bed he gets himself worked up if we try 😞

Routine, and a bit of sleep training at 7ish months.

Mine slept 8hrs straight from 2/3 months old. I breastfed in demand during the day and she would fall asleep feeding for naps the couple months. Then she naturally fell into a routine herself of 2 naps a day of 2 hours each but I had to walk her in the buggy for these. I tracked her nap times and helped her by always being outside walking. Night time she needed feeding or rocking to sleep until over a year old but once asleep would sleep up to 12 hours straight. I honestly think it's baby dependent but realising she favoured a routine helped though it meant planning everything around her naps!

EssentialHummus that's good to know as we are slightly past 7 months and trying to gently encourage him to develop better sleep habits. What kind of daytime routine did you have? Nighttime routine is OK, but I find it hard to juggle routine vs actually being able to leave the house/have a life...

butterry we have been doing lots of feeding/pram naps too, but I'm trying to encourage more cot naps so I can actually get stuff done! Sounds like your DD was really good, though.

Bad sleeper turned good sleeper. And then with DS2 an okay sleeper turned a good sleeper.
Things that have helped in the long long run (they are 7.5 and 2.5)- making bedtime not a battle. Making it something they look forward to. So lovely warm bath, keeping things calm, bedtime stories and milk. And making any change gradually. We left DS1 to sleep by himself over a period of a couple of months. Minimal crying. Same with DS2 and it involved no crying. And all when they were developmentally ready for it. And breaking each habit slowly, dummy, milk reliance, bottle.
Both now go to bed without complaint and both fall asleep independently and sleep through.

Took mine out for a walk every single day after lunch and they fell asleep in the pram. 3/4 of them it worked for. One was a non sleeping non napping pita and nothing I did made a difference.

Bad sleeper 1st dc and then 2nd dc has been an excellent sleeper so far and I have done nothing different at all. Sorry OP, no advice from me I think it's personality with my two.