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Original poster

Let's dispel the myth that 'everyone else's baby is sleeping through the night'- ha ha!

168 replies

Floppytulips · 20/02/2008 09:18

Mine was up at 11, 1.30, 3.30 and 5.30 last night- a good night for her (3 1/2 months).

Also, silly things you do when you are knackered: me, stopping the buggy in the middle of the street for 5 minutes cos I couldn't figure out how to put my gloves on......

How about yours?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
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magHOOVERlia74 · 20/02/2008 14:22

Oh I might pop on now the thread is new, easier to try and keep up.
Dh's arms are ok he is back at work now

Desiderata · 20/02/2008 14:23

Mine slept through the night from six weeks

Olihan · 20/02/2008 14:27

Yes but Desi, that's what I mean about luck. You were just exceptionally lucky that your babies decided that they could do it at that age. It was nothing to do with what you did or didn't do or your skills as a parent. If they weren't ready to do it, they wouldn't have.

thebeanmonster · 20/02/2008 14:29

I remember the first summer with dd1.She used to waken at 5.15am every day(which I accepted as the norm) until she was old enough to say "bird". I spent all night in her bed and sure enough at exactly that time a big herring gull landed on the window sill and tapped maliciously at its reflection in the glass!

theyoungvisiter · 20/02/2008 14:29

I so agree about the crappy strategies - everyone from parenting manuals to parents who did try cc, are all invested in making us believe that IT IS SOMETHING WE ARE DOING WRONG that is causing babies to wake up, rather than just the fact that maybe they are just not temperamentally suited to sleeping 12 hours at a stretch.

I often wake up a few times in the night and have a sip of water, even now (well, at least now I wake up because DS is screaming, but I used to wake up and have a sip of water!). I'm sure if someone took away my water and locked my door I'd scream too!

MrsMattie · 20/02/2008 14:32

If there really was one 'right' way to get babies to sleep through the night, I'm sure someone would have discovered it by now. It's all trial and error, and I agree with youngvisitor - it often has nothing to do with what you do or don't do.

Desiderata · 20/02/2008 14:32

I couldn't agree more, Olihan, and I didn't suggest otherwise.

Olihan · 20/02/2008 14:36

Sorry, desi, wasn't meaning to imply you had. I was just using you as a good example to my earlier post. No offence intended.

popsycal · 20/02/2008 14:39

i have a non-sleeping through the night 3 year old...
not sure whether that will reassure you or make you feel worse...

Desiderata · 20/02/2008 14:40

No offence taken, dude

You are right, any how. It's the luck of the draw and it must be an absolute nightmare for those of you who have to get up constantly through the night.

We obviously had the early rising (five, six o'clock for ages), but at least we got a solid block of sleep.

Olihan · 20/02/2008 14:42

Popsy, my mum's favourite refrain when I moan about ds2 not sleeping is 'your dsis never slept through the night until she went to school'. Reassuring huh? . Just the 4 more years to go then...........

Olihan · 20/02/2008 14:44

Desi, it would be a nightmare if we got enough sleep to dream . I'd give my right arm to get more than 3 hours sleep in a stretch.

Ds1 is a 5am riser so I get broken sleep and an early start.

Original poster
Floppytulips · 20/02/2008 15:03

According to my mum, I was an angel baby (but then again she also claims to have put half a stone when pregnant) so maybe she has a case of the rose tinted spectacles...
My MIL says my DH did not sleep until he was four, and once she attacked her own kitchen table in desperation...
So my DD could go either way genetically speaking, not that I think genes have the slightest thing to do with it but hey...

Sorry TheYoungVis, I didn't mean to terrify anyone with this thread, nor start a feud about sleep techniques !

It was more a case of 'I'm knackered, the last three real people I met with babies younger than me were getting (if I believe them..) ten hours sleep a night, and I'm fed up of the perennial 'Is she sleeping through the night' questions (inevitably followed by tales of wonder babies)'

I now bow down to all the mums who have done not months but years of moonlit babytending! You are all amazing, I can't believe I never knew (before DD) what most women of the world DO to bring up their children. Well, I did know, but I didn't really compute.......

TBH, in a strange way I'm kind of looking forward to the hard graft of the next few years, though a couple of full nights wouldn't go amiss either!

But whatever will be will be....

OP posts:
Original poster
Floppytulips · 20/02/2008 15:05

Olihan, that is so true- I don't think I have had a dream for months and months (well, 3 1/2 actually)!

OP posts:
belgo · 20/02/2008 16:20

I remember when dd2 was two months old and I was incredibly sleep deprived, I met a mother also with a two month old baby who told me that her baby had been sleeping twelve hours a night straight through from the age of 3 weeks and that she often had to wake her up at 9am!!!

I have never felt so much venom towards another woman in my huge life

belgo · 20/02/2008 16:20

whole not huge life

I'm sleep deprived today lol

mmelody · 20/02/2008 18:59

DS 7 Months has never slept for longer than 3 hours at a time during the night. Usually anything from 3-10 wakings is the norm. I have also now started to not be able to get back off to sleep if its past 3am so am lying there while he snoozes mentally going AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

CoteDAzur · 20/02/2008 19:00

at the lashing I got on this thread.

I wasn't trying to say 'you are all doing something wrong' and I definitely did not imply that anyone is a 'shit mum' (What is wrong with you???) And try as I might, can't see what is 'insensitive' about telling people what we did and when DD slept through.

Title thread says "Let's dispel the myth that everyone's baby sleeps through" and OP asks "How about yours?". I said mine sleeps through and has ever since 4 months when we stopped night feeds.

If you want to see posts only from people whose kids don't sleep through, yes, you will think sleeping through is a myth.

Unbelievable

TrinityRhino · 20/02/2008 19:12

One of my best friedns has a baby 7 weeks younger than Gecko.
From birth she has slept long stretches at nightime, like 7 or 8 hours.
she is a healthy chubby little girl who just seemed to sleep like an angel
gecko has never done that and I wished and wished that she would

However I got to chuckle as now her baby ,since hitting the 10 month ish mark and crawling and cruising around the place at 100 miles an hour, wakes up in the night and is difficult to settle maybe 2 or 3 times

Yes I have chuckled in her face and she took it good naturedly and then she said how she can totslly understand why I can't remember a thing and have no sense

sleep deprivation is a killer, no wonder they banned it as a form of torture

CoteDAzur · 20/02/2008 19:18

Oh and re calling people 'shit mum' - If anyone got judged for her parenting on this thread, it was me.

See:

By pelafina on Wed 20-Feb-08 13:09:43
How can you use tough love on a tiny baby. Honestly.

By Olihan on Wed 20-Feb-08 13:01:17
As for 'tough love' on a 4 month old. I'm speechless.

We didn't use CC, by the way. We never left DD alone. Cut out the night feeds and got her back to sleep any other way possible - rocked her, hugged her, walked around with her, wheeled her around the house, etc. It took hours the first night. Less the second night. Sleeping through the third night and we never looked back.

Bluestocking · 20/02/2008 19:27

Each to their own. I tried a couple of nights of tough love and it just about broke my heart and didn't have the slightest effect - plus DS lost weight that week. The guilt far outweighed my need to sleep. I tolerated being woken every two or three hours until DS was 18 months old when he started to sleep through. But for some reason, now he's nearly 4, he wakes in the early hours and comes in with us. I don't suppose he'll do it for ever though.
I really do think that children just do what they're going to do, sleepwise, and there's not much you can do to alter it. My niece slept through the night from about six weeks, but her little brother woke up every hour on the hour until he he started school.

BoysOnToast · 20/02/2008 19:31

dp didnt sleep through till he was 7.

K999 · 20/02/2008 19:32

Well said Cote....

You are right though....the title said "Lets dispel the myth..." well for me its not a myth...its true...but of course not everyone wants to hear that do they??

Desiderata · 20/02/2008 19:34

FloppyTulips, your mum might be remembering correctly. I only put on half a stone when I was preggers, too. It can happen

pendulum · 20/02/2008 19:36

DD2 is 21 weeks and wakes 3 times between 10 and 6.

I'm so tired I can hardly bear to watch the Tombliboos snuggle up in their sleeping bags at the end of Night Garden.

And don't start me on Makka Pakka with that cave all to himself.