Please tell me about your child who was a terrible sleeper as a baby...

[azzeps]

Most nights my 6 year old sleeps all night in her own bed. That's only been happening for about, oh, maybe 6 months now? She still wakes up and gets in bed with us, but we have her trained to not wake anyone when she does it, so it's as good as sleeping all night. DS mostly now just climbs in our bed without waking anyone, too. Sometimes it gets a little like a sardine can, even in a King sized bed!!! He WILL sleep eventually, but I do so remember your pain.

[happymom]

Thanks guys. Its nice to "talk" to people who understand and really good to hear stories with happy endings .

[georgiegirl]

DD was a horrible sleeper until she turned 3. She's 8 and an awesome sleeper.

DS was not the best sleeper either, and he's still not a good sleeper at 5.

[pastrygirl]

Horrible here. It was newborn-bad. Several wakings every night. No problems since turning 3, though! I can't believe it lasted that long, but he's 5 now so it's a distant memory.

[wendibird22]

DD1 was a horrible sleeper as a baby. I nursed her until 21mos and even when we eliminated all daytime feedings at 12mos she still nursed to sleep and during the night. She also required us to pace up and down the hallway shushing and rocking her to fall asleep at night or for nap. Fast forward to 2.5yo when she moved to a twin mattress and she's slept like a rock ever since. She falls asleep in an instant at night and could sleep through a tornado until morning. So yes, there's hope. Do not despair!!!

[Pear]

My terribly sleeping baby is now a terribly sleeping 5yo. That shouldn't scare you though. A terribly sleeping 5yo can find ways to keep herself entertained and will respond to positive reinforcement to behave at night so the rest of us can get some sleep

[daisysmom]

Like a PP, I think I might have PTSD from my DD's sleep woes. As a working mother, I couldn't go with her non-sleeping flow very well. I was exhausted for about a year. Honestly, I probably have used an alarm clock less than 5 times since she was born and those are only if I have an early flight because I feel like I still deserve as much sleep as I can possibly get because of our rough few years with her sleeping. I have friends in the same boat as I was (and previously, and since). All of us, without exception, did end up with great sleepers. But holy cow, just remembering how exhausted I was, we all were, is just painful.

Our sleep woes did not start until she was 6 months old -- she was actually a perfect infant sleeper. But at 6 months, she became a textbook example of a baby that had sleep interruptions at every single developmental milestone. Every. Single. One. We febered, we cried it out, we did everything. And in a few days, she would be back to sleeping... for a few more days it seemed until the next thing happened. It was just horrible, from 6 months until abou 2.5. Ugh. It started when we were at the beach for a week and she learned to sit up. She woudl sit up in the crib and just cry. I would get her to lay back down, she would sit back up, etc. Then soon after, crawling. Pulling up in the crib. etc. honestly... it went on forever. I remember putting her in our church preschool at 18 months (when everyone starts around here) for 2 mornings a week and the preschool teacher calling me and saying "[DD] looks tired... and she crawled into a doll-bed and fell asleep this morning, just wanted to let you know so you could put her to bed earlier and see if she is more well rested." I remember exactly how that dollbed looks now to this day (the teacher showed it to me the next morning) and just envisioning my sweet baby asleep in it while the class was playing.

I don't really know what we did to get over it. Well -- we switched to a big bed at just about 2 and a quarter b/c she learned how to climb out of the crib. And once she got in the big bed, when she would get up and/or cry, I would just go in there and sleep with her. I was desperate. We did that for years. Not every night, but she would get in a cycle and need it, then we would cry it out or something with resolve, things woudl be good for a few weeks, and then it would start again. It was very tough.

Fast forward to now, she is a great sleeper. Great. Goes to bed at 8:40ish after reading to herself and this week has been sleeping until 7. We have a neighbor with a 6 month old who is having sleeping woes and we were talking about it this weekend and my DD looked so surprised when I recounted what a horrid sleeper she was.

[Katigre]

We cosleep and nurse laying down so that their stirring doesn't mess with my sleep.

[pb&j]

I had one great sleeper, who tricked me in to having a second child.

I'll be honest, she didn't reliably STTN till she was 3, and bedtime is still a battle most nights. She has never, ever napped, not even as an infant. She would occasionally (like once a month) nap at preschool. I have recently discovered melatonin which has been amazing. I thought it was snake oil, but I'm convinced. A little before bedtime and she goes down easily, and sleeps well.

[wendibird22]

I had one great sleeper, who tricked me in to having a second child.

I'm sorry that just tickled my funny bone. I think for a lot of us if our 2nd child was our first there wouldn't have been a 2nd!