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

[Floppytulips]

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?

gecko just wakes every hour or two all night,every night
we co sleep but she wants to feed every time she is a wake and to do that my arm is wedged funny and not comfy
I couldn't remember my address the other day

Tiddler and Olihan- exactly the same for me, was sobbing to DH at 4am this morning saying i hated our DS, of course i don't but those early hours, after weeks/months of broken sleep, are the loneliest times and i can't be rational then. i feel guilty, too, like i should just 'grow up' and stop acting like a child/feeling sorry for myself, but it's hard when you're so desperate for sleep and you just want a break. so yes, i know how you feel! here's hoping for a good night for all of us... xx

Oh god, yeah. Sitting on the floor of ds2's bedroom sobbing and sobbing, pleading with him to go to sleep. I have some horrible memories of this past year .

I know you won't believe me but a little spanish book changed my life. Little one n.2 was waking up 4/5 times a night, and I was exhausted, like you all. I remembered it took only three days to get a proper night's sleep. Just a few sensible tips we all know about but put together in the right way did it.
She wakes up very rarely during the night now. She is 17 months

dd1 is four and has slept through from 8 weeks, apart from the odd night when she's poorly - goes to bed about 8 and is up about 8am. dd2 is 18months, she fed every hour for the first 8 weeks then slept from 10 to 8. She now usually sleeps from 9 till 8ish, but will usually have me up a couple of times a week.

I agree that having a 'good sleeper' is purely luck - seems i've been lucky so far but who knows when (if) we have number 3!

hit post before i'd even finished! dd2 is good - but seems to sleep through for a week or so then have a few nights when she will have me up every hour. just when i think we've cracked it she'll wake up again :-)

there have been nights when i've sat sobbing in her room - i don't think there is a magic solution - she has been better since i stopped letting her fall asleep on her bottle and not letting her have a feed if she wakes in the night. I seem to be very soft with her and hate leaving her to cry.

as for doing stupid things, i don't do not stupid things - my brain has packed it#s bags and left

I was very lucky with my first one. I slept so much during my maternity leave...but when my second one arrived I realised it was all different. After I stopped breastfeeding her (when she was 1), I could have actually relaxed and sleep all night but of course it wasn't that easy! Every night she was waking up chatting loudly and because I didn't want the other one to wake up too I was doing something really stupid: putting the little one in bed with us for a while, and sometimes for the rest of the night. I ended up almost sleeping in front of the computer at work everyday, and I had no energies left Eventually I remembered my little spanish book

Hello. I've sobbed for nights long, sworn copiously at DS time and time again , screamed at the cats, lost the plot at DP...etc. The sense of guilt I feel at all of this is dreadful.
Recently I've felt so totally bonkers from lack of sleep that I've pranged the car, given out reports to the wrong children in the wrong envelope and paid the gas company twice this week in a panic thinking we were about to be cut off - only to find it was the electric company I'd forgotten to pay! (and am now £400 in credit to B.gas - aargh. Clearly B.gas have enough bloody money)
DS is 21 months and has never "slept through" - not even once - which I find other friends in RL cannot relate to. He has melatonin on special prescription to make him initially go to sleep but that wears off after 4 hours. Still, this thread has made me realise we're not alone and I'm feeling less tired already

Oh Olihan. Thank God I am not alone. I have also come soooo close to hurting him in those strange hours of the dead of night when woken for the umpteenth time I have felt myself really losing it. Getting out of bed AGAIN at 2.15 last night was met with a "oh FFS" comment from me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank God, I put him down and walk away. Then in the morning it never seems so bad. Its just those strange dark hours when we all should be asleep and are not allowed to

it messes with your head.

And like others have said on here previously. No one really tells you just how bad it is. And whats worse, everyone assumes that at this stage the sleepless nights are over and done with.

The toughest bit I find is that the "new baby" / "sleepless nights" sympathy lasts for the first few weeks and then everyone assumes you are sleeping or that its "not that bad" (as my dad told my sister last weekend when my LO was woke at 11pm, 2.30am and 4.40am). Maybe it doesn;t seem that bad as a one off... but everynight for 8 months and see how you like it!

My dd has slept well from 13 months, but before this it was an absolute nightmare, hv suggested cc when dd was 9 months which we did but dd would upset herself so much that she would vomit in her cot and I would have to take her out in any event. It got so bad that if she saw the cot she would freak out. For some unknown reason at 13 months I was taking strain and suggested that we give cc one more try, I needn't have bother, put her in the cot and bob's your uncle, now she waves good-bye and kisses us and it's off to bed with a smile .... go figure, we've put it down to her just being ready for it. I think they do it in their own time.
As for being tired, well now, dh has had more than his fair share of near heart failures when I've stopped at green traffic light only to proceed when they turn red ... not good

Latchmere - I think our LOs have been comparing notes. Its like they have had their "essential sleep" by 2am. And then its just a light / broken sleep from then until dawn.

I have taken to bringing him into bed for the last few nights as I have been so tired. Despite my best intentions!

Sorry to hear that the sobbing by the cot asking LOs WHY WON'T YOU SLEEP??????????? is not that unusual. At least I am not alone... even that makes it seem a little better

Am off now to feed and then catch a few zzzs

Wishing you all a restful night.

Am lucky that my new DD sleeps well at night. By well I mean she feeds at around 12.30 then goes through until 6. Am still exhausted though as I don't go to bed until after that feed as she is often a grouchy moo requiring much holding and back rubbing in the evening.

As for daft things we do when over tired, yesterday I pulled up behind a stationary car and while I was waiting for it to move away another car overtook me. I was momentarily astounded at the driver's stupidity as it was a narrow road...then I realised the car in front of me was in fact parked and empty...

Sometimes you just can't win.

My 6month old has always been a good sleeper, slept 10pm-7am from 3 months, and usually 7-7 now.

The catch?

Her twin brother, who has woken 3-4 times almost every night of his life...

I have a good sleeper, and don't even get to enjoy it!

kateri sorry I laughed when I read that. (in a sympathetic way I add)

See my dd2 (who I treat the same as I did dd1) is a little monkey at night. So obviously you are doing something right with your dd and something "wrong" with your ds! (only kidding). Your post made me feel much better, it's not what we "do" with our dcs, it's the fact that they are all individuals with different temperaments and needs.

Still, most of us on this thread realise that. . Wishing you good nights in the very near future. x

p.s. my dd2 is 6 1/2 months old .

My dd (5 months) also seems to get most of her sleep until about 2am then requires constant resettling every twenty minutes after that.

Though, saying that, the last two nights she has woken exactly 45 minutes after her dream feed and continued waking every 45 minutes until two- then every ten minutes or so until I finally gave up and took her into my bed at five. I don't think that she slept any more but at least I didn't have to get up again! I too was in tears at about 4am.

I am going back to work in 4 weeks- I do a responsible job where there is potential harm to others if I am not alert- I just don't know what to do. It all seems endless....

I love this thread. I was just on the verge of giving up (not sure what that would look like!?) what with DS (nearly 5 months) never sleeping more than 2 hours in a row. Thanks guys- you've really cheered me up.

My dd2 has always been a poor sleeper and still often wakes me up at night for a drink/wee(she feels the need to tell me she's been)nightmare or whatever she thinks she will get away with. She's FIVE.

Recently I realised I'd emptied a new 4 pint thing of milk down the sink, rinsed the carton and put it back in the fridge. I
frequently find my brain slips into neutral mid sentence and freewheels to a halt....

dd1 was a fab sleeper and still is. I was very smug for the intervening two years so I guess I had it coming!

Great thread!