Oh, if I had a dollar for every time a friend, or family member, or random stranger at Target asks me this question…
Unfortunately, the answer is still no, by my definition of bedtime to morning, Little Lion is still not sleeping through the night.
This has been a source of a lot of feelings of failure on my part. For whatever reason, I have it stuck in my brain that babies should be sleeping all night by now. I have struggled with dealing with the fact that LLisn’t there yet. The frequent inquiries from so many people doesn’t help. Despite the fact that I know better in my head, every time someone new asks, a little piece of my Mommy Confidence dies. Maybe it is that all of the sleep training books say so (the promise of sleeping babies must sell lots of copies!). I remember in the sleep deprived days of new motherhood, reading about how, if you do things “right” your baby would be sleeping through the night at 12 weeks old, and thinking that 12 weeks seemed like such. a. long. time.
Now, here we are at 9 MONTHS, and I feel like I might die.
According to this thread on the boards, I am not alone. In an effort to better understand my little man, and to hopefully put at ease some of you other sleep deprived mommas, I have compiled a list…
Reasons my baby isn’t sleeping through the night (that sleep training can’t help)
1. Hunger- Despite a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation on the internet, even the most strict sleep training advocates (Babywise included) insist that if your baby is hungry, you feed him! Well, this has always been our biggest struggle in the sleep department. LL gets hungry in the middle of the night. Even when he eats well during the day, and even though we have started solids, he still needs a few ounces to hold him over until morning. We have tried night weaning before, but unfortunately just when he finally got to where he didn’t need to eat at night (for two whole days) he started crawling.
2. Motor Milestones – I can’t remember where I read this (so I can’t quote a source) but our brains require sleep to move information from short term memory into long term memory. Babies spend so much time during the day soaking in their surroundings and practicing new skills…night time is when those skills are solidified into mastery. So, it is not unusual for babies to practice said skills in their sleep, or when they wake up in the middle of the night. REM sleep is actually a very active period of sleep. Adults have a mechanism that paralyzes their muscles during REM sleep, but infants have not yet developed this, so their bodies are frequently in motion as they sleep. (You can read more about the science of infant sleep here if you are interested). Unfortunately for us, immediately after LL was FINALLY able to go all night without a feeding, he learned to sit, and then crawl, introducing a whole host of reasons why sleep is overrated as far as he is concerned.
3. Teething – There is nothing worse than waking up to “pain screams” from a little one. Seriously…they are the worst. There should be no crying it out during teething nights, that is for sure.
4. Colds/Ear Infections – We have been very fortunate that LL has only been sick once in his 9 months of life, but that week was really hard on him. Stuffy noses mean that sucking on a paci is impossible (breathing is non-negotiable I guess…) so one huge method of comfort was out, and laying flat with an ear infection can be very painful.
5. Daytime Distraction – Unfortunately, even though at one point he was okay without a feeding at night, once he started crawling he had absolutely no interest in slowing down long enough to eat during the day. At one point he was only eating about 15 of his typical 26 ounces during the day, and making up for it with extra wakings at night. Fortunately we are coming out on the other side of this and are close to night weaning again, but I have a feeling walking is going to cause us to revert back once again.
. . . . .
I am learning to accept that I do not have a whole lot of control about any of these things. I can provide comfort, of course, but I cannot “sleep train” my way out of any of them. I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that most babies (73% of the ones whose moms responded on the boards) do not magically start sleeping through the night around 4 months of age like the books suggest, even with sleep training strategies in place.
For those of you who lucked out, or tried really hard to get onto a schedule or sleep train and were fortunate enough that it worked, I don’t hate you! In fact, I couldn’t be happier for you! I just hope you pay it forward and use your extra energy to give extra hugs (and coffee) to a friend who isn’t so lucky. And if your friend’s baby isn’t sleeping all night yet, it probably isn’t her fault.
It isn’t because I did something “wrong” and it doesn’t mean my child will be a “terrible” sleeper for life. It just means that for now, my role as Mommy doesn’t allow for a solid 8 hours of sleep just yet. LL needs me in the middle of the night. He can’t get up and get himself a drink yet. He can’t soothe himself through ear infections and teething pain. Seriously, how badly must that hurt to a little guy who has never really felt pain.
That said… I know I am not alone. So…. any suggestions for dealing with the sleep deprivation?
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
I feel you and Im only just at 6 months. Juliet actually started to turn the corner last week I felt with solid 1-3 hour naps and sleeping 5-6 hours straight (Ill take it) but then the last 2 nights its been a nightmare up ever 2 hours again and not falling back asleep after and terrible naps again. I want to cry I thought we were there. I keep telling myself itll be ok, Drake didnt sleep through the night till 11 1/2 months but still part of me wants to cry. I truly hate this part about babies.
kiwi / 511 posts
15 MONTHS!!! I don’t want to scare you but I just want to say I can feel your pain. It was 15 months before my littlest slept through the night with no 3 AM feeding (which was quick it took about 20 minutes but still that sleep interruption was havoc inducing on my sleep schedule despite being able to do it sleepwalking and dropping right back to sleep. My DH was not so lucky, he couldn’t go back to sleep so he often wore earplugs and I took it because overall it was better for our family.), I remember it well it was Labor Day weekend. Granted he woke up between 5 and 5:30 AM (usually closer to 5) but hey it was all night.
Right now he is 18 months and he is more of a 5:15 waker, but I want that extra 15 minutes and hope to get him to 5:30 at a minimum. Part of our challenge is we have both boys in the same room so we are walking that delicate balance of letting him wake and play in his crib but not waking up his brother.
blogger / nectarine / 2608 posts
For me, bed-sharing is the magical cure. She doesn’t sleep all night? I don’t care. Actually, at this point, I don’t even notice. She can help herself to get latched on and nurse some, and I stay asleep. Neither of my girls have been early to “Sleep Through.” Lorelei is a “better” sleeper than Ellie was, but at almost 21 months she still wakes once or more a night long enough to fuss and nurse briefly. Ellie, at age 6, has great sleep habits. She is able to fall asleep on her own, and sleep all night in her room. She nursed to sleep until age 5! We never night weaned. Good sleep does come, and in the meantime you just have to figure out ways to make sure that the adults get enough rest, as well. It’ll come. In the meantime, continue to be easy on yourself (and him)– you hit the nail on the head when you said that it isn’t anything you did or did not do. It’s just his needs right now. And, fortunately, those will change over time. I hope you start feeling more rested soon!
pomegranate / 3565 posts
The lack of sleep is so so hard. But I have to say that once I let go of the thoughts that I messed up his sleep somehow or I didn’t teach him right, I felt infinitely better. No, he doesn’t always STTN, but I’m ok with that now. He’s a baby! He can’t tell me what’s wrong yet, so I’m his mommy and I’ll be there for him whenever he needs me, even if it’s in the middle of the night and I’m tired. One day, the lack of sleep will just be a memory. Eventually, he will sleep!
squash / 13764 posts
13.5 months was when it happened for us! And honestly nothing we did before then really helped…he just wasn’t ready til then I guess! It is so tough though…coffee coffee coffee is how I got through it, and getting out of the house as much as possible (if I sat down I sometimes felt like I would just pass out).
Regardless of your views on sleep training/CIO, I highly recommend reading Ferber’s book, Solve your Child’s sleep problems. It has a ton of scientific info about sleep and is just interesting and puts a lot of “Sleep problems” into context!
guest
No advice….but my little guy turned 9 months yesterday and we are in the same exact boat. Know you are not alone! Do what works best for you and your family. We also went through this with our now 3 year old and she is finally a great sleeper. Don’t beat yourself up…sleep will come
pomegranate / 3053 posts
Aaaw… what a cutie LL is… I miss that age so, so much! Sorry about your sleep deprivation though. I can only imagine how tough it is. I was super lucky b/c both of my boys have slept through the night since 6 months but b/c of CIO. My oldest who is 4.5 now wakes me to “fix my blanket.” As much as I hate it I do it anyway. I thought I “fixed” it a while back but it started again recently…
I have no advice on sleep deprivation except to continue to eat healthy and stay hydrated with water so your body is not lacking the nutrition for you to function throughout the day. It’ll help your immune system stay strong so you don’t get sick despite the lack of sleep. Hang in there. Hopefully one day you can post about how your LO finally slept through the night. But do it when he’s way past all of his milestones. I have such terrible luck with posting something and then it backfires at me.
cherry / 159 posts
THANK YOU for doing that poll on the boards and for writing this post. Seeing a whopping 73% of those who responded to the board post say their Lo’s where not sttn at four months is helping me let go of some of my expectations. I have experienced so much anxiety and self doubt about this issue. It is nice to know what I am not alone.
blogger / grapefruit / 4836 posts
@Mrs. Chocolate: First, how is Juliet 6 months old already?!? Holy cow! Second, I am so sorry you guys are having a hard time I hope things get better soon! Hang in there!
@Mrs.Maven: It doesn’t scare me…it makes me feel more normal haha Glad to know we aren’t alone!
@erwoo: Thank you! His sweet face makes getting up at 3am a little easier When LL was one month old I wrote about what a good sleeper he was. I am convinced I cursed us for life
@scotchbonnet: You and me both! I asked out of desperation, and it made me feel infinitely better about our situation to know we aren’t the only ones.
pear / 1837 posts
My LO is 16 months and still wakes 2-3 times a night. Nursing is the ONLY thing that will get her to go back to sleep. I’m beyond exhausted…. but she has to sleep eventually, right?
I feel like a failure as a parent every night when she wakes up- but she’s just not a great sleeper- never has been. It’s hard for me to understand that it has nothing to do with me… something I’ve been struggling with for about 16 months now. So hang in there! Drink coffee! Invest in some under eye concealer!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
Right there with you. LD will be one next week (!!!) and we just in the past couple of days have gotten down to one night waking again (it’s been 2-3 for months). I have felt like a complete failure. I’ve read every book, website, board…just kept thinking I must be doing something wrong. It is so hard for me when most moms around me have had restful nights sleep for months. I hate being tired. I’ve always been someone who really needs a lot of good sleep to function. Just know (as you already do) that you are not alone! Stay consistent in bedtime and how you handle night wakings and hopefully LL will start sleeping better. And when I’m sleep deprived I find that rating healthy and getting even one 15 minute nap in really helps!
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
Ours started sleeping through around 7 months and we did sleep train starting around 4, and yes that did include CIO, but as Weissbluth does discuss, some of that CIO can be mitigated by installing useful sleep practices from the outset, which we most certainly did NOT do!….not sure if that is true, but it is something that I would love to experiment with future LOs, if we were so lucky.
For me, what turned the corner for us re: CIO or not was when rocking and comfort didn’t work anymore. Eventually ours wouldn’t sleep with us, and would scream when rocked. I realized he was crying from sheer sleep deprivation, and then I had the sad realization that keeping him up would only make him more miserable. So we did CIO and his daytime disposition improved so much, I took it as a sign that we did the right thing.
Last week at 15 months he regressed and started night waking again and it was awful. I don’t like doing CIO now so I tried cosleeping a few nights and he was miserable. Now that he is used to a crib, he thinks of time in our bed a playtime and it took hours of him pulling up on us to get him to sleep. I eventually resorted to CIO (although it was a lot less than it had been before, it was mostly whining and talking for a long time before he fell sleep) and he slept 13 hours straight! I think he was making up for lost time. The regression lasted about a week and he has slept through twice in the last few days.
One thing Dr. W says is to look for your baby’s sleep cues and to put them down as soon as you see them, no matter how soon it has been since they last slept. I think that is the most important piece of advice I took from that book. As soon as mine rubs his eyes I know he is sleepy. Once he could communicate some, he started doing this thing where he rubs his fingers across his mouth to make a blub blub noise (hard to explain); now that is my second cue. Biting and pinching are third, and it know to make sure he is down before that happens! Even at 15 months my son’s awake time is still no more than 2-3 hours before he wants to nap again, and he still takes two naps daily unless we go out.
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
The target moms don’t realize that sleeping through the night means just five hours….. I swear by the nosefrida snot sucker and the Merlin’s magic suit….. That may help a bit with his muscling it out during the night? Do you have work to go to the next day or are you a sahm? The most helpful thing I’ve read for my piece of mind is, it’s not a problem until it interferes with your life. If you can go back to bed easily and have the time to sleep in, then you just have to let go of the notion that he _should_ be sleeping longer and itcould be easier to deal with. If you work, then my hugs to you
pomelo / 5621 posts
I feel you. Almost 9 months in and he STTN once!! Things were improving greatly, then he had a cold. We are now back to two night wakings, which is better but still tiring. His world will be rocked in 9 days when we move, so I know that we will all be a bit more tired.
DS doesn’t do so well with sleeping in new places and takes 4+ days to adjust.
I’m sure one day these guys will learn how wonderful it is to sleep all night.
pomelo / 5678 posts
Don’t worry… it is tough but normal for babies to keep you from getting sleep. I learned early on in pregnancy not to listen to general guidelines. The do not apply to me or my baby. IRL my friends were all walking zombies when they had babies. I listen to my intuition. My baby is hungry. She needs to eat in the night. Every baby is different but I feel proud to have handled my not.big.on.sleep baby and feeding her in the night apparently paid off… she is 90th percentile for height!
Just like they don’t tell you what clogs are really like in breastfeeding… or that it is painful and difficult at first. I think honesty and intuition are important and will help women more than guidelines that makes us think we aren’t good enough.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
Caffeine is my best friend for those sleep deprived nights! At 4 months, I was just happy that I was only getting one night waking! One thing I’ve learned is that sleep is not linear… even the “lucky” ones who get good sleep early on may be in for a surprise later on. My toddler slept sooo well for the longest time, then we transitioned her to a twin bed and that all went kaput.
grapefruit / 4120 posts
Now that I’ve been through this twice, I really have to say, my advice is to stop focusing on sleep. With my first, I was so fixated on sleep, comparing, reading, etc. I felt pressured to sleep train, which I did, and had constant setbacks, which made me more stressed and tired.
Since then, I have thought about it a lot and concluded sleep is something developmental that shouldn’t be forced.
With my second, I have not sleep trained, we cosleep and I feel more rested now with TWO little kids than I did with one!
My one-year-old does NOT sleep through the night, and sometimes her brother wakes up, too. I have just accepted this is how it’s going to be for awhile. Mind over matter! Stop counting the hours and the wakeups and just keep moving. It will all be over before you know it
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
Mine STTN early, but wouldn’t nap. I was overwhelmed and exhausted because even if he slept 9 hours, that didn’t mean I slept 9 hours and when he only napped for 7 minutes during the day, I certainly didn’t get a nap! I was totally fixated on sleep. I read everything, tried everything. Nothing worked. Then I let it go. And poof (yes, really poof) one day he napped. And the next day and the next. They just grow up, things change and “poof” happens. My best friend told me and I remind myself every day: nothing lasts forever. Unfortunately the good stuff doesn’t last either
grapefruit / 4291 posts
I really believe that if babies were meant to sleep through the night at an early age then the sleep training industry just wouldn’t exist. I totally understand the need for sleep but what the books don’t tell you is that night feeds are NORMAL, needing comfort in the night is NORMAL and that having a child who needs a parent in the night is NOT FAILING!!!!!
@mamimami: my 14 month old doesn’t STTN and I just gave up worrying about it Life got so much easier when I just let it go and accepted that she just wasn’t that kid!
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
just want to send you some internet hugs. C slept through around 6 months, but we’ve had interruptions in that pattern during all of the issues you have mentioned. Even at 18 months, we have rough nights here and there. Nine months is a big sleep regression month, so hopefully time works in your favor and things get easier soon. Til then, an earlier bedtime for mama also helps.
kiwi / 511 posts
@Mrs. Chipmunk I think that many women are aware that sleeping through the night is 5 hours of consecutive sleep, and that is what is meant when talking medically. But from a non medical perspective it means something very different, it means through the night as in letting the parent/parents sleep through the night. Both are drastically different things and when people ask if the child is STTN they are not asking from a medical perspective.
With my LO he was technically sleeping through the night because he went to bed between 6:30-7PM and then woke about 2:30-3 AM so he certainly had a 5 hour stretch. However I nor my DH did, because we had to care for our other child, do dinner clean up and prepare for the next days lunches, and we might actually want to relax a bit and talk to each other so that meant we could not be in bed at 8.
I knew that what he was doing was perfectly fine and most of the time I realized I was not a failure. However it messed with my sleep and my husband’s sleep that it did become an issue because it didn’t help our perpetually exhausted state, not over tired mind you but exhausted.
And extra caffeine was not the answer, my little one reacted poorly to it in my breast milk and just made things SO much worse. For those that can have a bit extra with no ill affects, my hat is tipped to you.
My answer was cat naps in my car with my phone alarm set.
grapefruit / 4187 posts
Since I posted on that thread a few days ago I think I have been asked another 10 times if DS is STTN! It’s always said in a way that implies he should be too..
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
Oh goodness. I felt like the first year that was all anyone ever asked us, how he was sleeping.
I’m with @Mrs. Sketchbook on this one. The MINUTE there is a tired cue we swoop Little P off to bed. When he’s cranky and/or irritable I take that to mean he’s tired and we put him down, even if he already had a nap, etc. Last night he was asleep at 5:30pm because he has had a cold and he was READY!
About STTN, we were VERY luck that Little P STTN at 12 weeks, but it was SO helpful considering I had to go back to work just one week later. But, even then STTN meant going from “dream feed” around 10/11pm to 6-7am. We thought we were “masters” but really we just got lucky. Once he started teething he has never slept so well again and he’s 18 months old! There are definitely nights he sleeps 12-13 hours a night, but between teething, milestones or colds, it’s pretty common for him to wake up at least once a night. It’s no fun, but also realized that CIO isn’t helpful in those circumstances, so we soothe him for a bit and he usually goes back to sleep pretty quickly, thank goodness.
Although, when we’re in nap transition time (like from 3-2 or 2-1) we have had AWFUL sleep. Sigh. I would consider N to be a very good sleeper, both daytime and nighttime, but we still have bouts of horrid sleep, so you’re not alone! At least you won’t have a huge transition to the “big boy bed” because of the nursery you have now.
pea / 14 posts
Oh man. Sleeping through the night feels like a pipe dream to me. She slept better as a 3 month old (slept through the night multiple times) than she does now as a 7 month old. And the teething screams! Absolute worst thing to wake up to. My doctor got mad that I kept giving her tylenol at night, but when it’s 1am and nothing else I try has helped, I’m gonna give her the juice so she can feel better and we can all get the sleep we need. Thanks for making me not feel so alone!
coffee bean / 32 posts
I feel you. My LO is 16 months and only just STTN (once) last month. We haven’t formally sleep trained but we now put him to bed awake or drowsy and he doesn’t nurse to sleep. I really believe sleep is like crawling…there are things you can do to help them out but ultimately they will do it in their own time. Hang in there!
blogger / grapefruit / 4836 posts
@Modern Daisy: Yes! WHY! Don’t they remember?!? haha I posted this on my fb page, and a friend told me that she thinks it is just like when people ask pregnant women when they are due…they want to say something and that’s all they can think of. I am going to try not to take it so personally. I think I am probably projecting my own insecurity on them a bit
guest
I could have written this myself! My daughter is JUST NOW sleeping through the night and she is 13 months. My sleep was constantly interrupted at night, not to mention it usually took us like 2 hours to get her to fall asleep at night! It was so hard not to feel like it was my fault when every other mom I knew had a baby that slept through the night at 8 weeks! Looking back, I now understand that it was my baby’s temperament. Not her fault. My fault. She just needed some extra love to get her rest and I am glad I was able to be that for her. Hang in there. IT DOES get better. YOU WILL sleep someday.
persimmon / 1178 posts
@Mamasig: @hilsy85: @Mrs. Lion: @LulaBee: @Mrs. Deer: Feeling like a failure sucks. Been there. Still kinda doing that.
We did everything ‘right’, too, but we have what I like to call a ‘challenged sleeper’ ;-0. Um, she is 19 months now. We tried everything. She now sleeps through 3 nights a week or so. It is still not enough. Hang in there mamas!
PS- still nursing, so I am afraid of the caffeine. I have one cup….would one more cup a day hurt, you think?
guest
Thank you for writing this. I hate when people inquire about my LO’s sleep- even at 18 months. She doesn’t sleep through the night, but it works for our family right now and it’s no one else’s business. I stopped talking about sleep or lying. I was tired of having to justify my decision to continue to go to her or nurse her in the middle of the night.
Our solution to sleep deprivation- transitioning her to a queen mattress on the floor instead of a crib so I can sleep with her. Everyone gets better sleep. It won’t be forever and I know once she doesn’t need me throughout the night I’ll really miss our snuggle time, so my advice is to own your decision to do what you feel is best as his momma and don’t feel like you owe anyone an explanation or excuses.
GOLD / apricot / 341 posts
You are so not alone in this and I think the expectation (and the constant questions) makes it so much worse. Interestingly – expecting a baby to sleep through the night at just a few months of age is not the norm around the world. Our first baby was born in the US and from the time he was four months old, we really felt like we were not keeping up with “normal” developments since he wasn’t sleeping through the night. Our second baby was born in Sweden – here people are pretty surprised still that both of our kids (now almost three years old and 16 months old) generally sleep their 12-13 hours per night in their own beds, in their own rooms, without waking. Sleep deprivation is never easy to get through, but feeling like a failure doesn’t make it any easier.
If it’s any consolation at all – I have to say that my very strong feeling after two kids is that they just do it when they do it. Our first was a good night sleeper but woke once per night to nurse until he was 10 months old. We tried everything but in the end he just slept through when he was ready to. Our second was up nursing 3-4 times a night and I thought it would never end, until suddenly, one night at 10.5 months old, he just didn’t need to anymore and he has been sleeping through since then. With him, we didn’t try anything – we just let him do what he needed to do until he didn’t need it any more.
It’ll get better – and it can happen quite suddenly. Hang in there!
kiwi / 511 posts
@lizzywiz everyone including infants react differently to the levels of caffeine. I can have some after dinner and still go to sleep at regular time with no ill affects. If my DH has caffeine after 2 PM he has issues sleeping.
The same thing is going to happen to an infant it depends. I only had one cup because did have more and my LO went nuts-o and I felt terrible, because he was cranky and tired but couldn’t sleep, wanted to be held but didn’t want to be held. It was miserable for both of us.
I think the only way to tell for sure is to experiment by either adding another cup at once or slowly increase until you notice a difference that is counter productive. (BTW I hate that answer because I don’t like trial and error but unfortunately I think that is pretty much the way of things with infants. You have guidelines but you still have to tweak them so they work for the specific baby and family. I like definitive but parenthood is not an academic experience you have to try and fail and try again rinse and repeat until you find your magic balance.)
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
I could totally hug you right now!!
DS is 4.5 months old and he’s had 1 night where he slept one 6 hour stretch and maybe a handful of nights where he slept 3-4 hour stretches, but that’s it! We tried sleep training, but then he got sick. Again. So he’s caught two colds in the past month and was waking up every 1-1.5 hours the past 2 months. Ai yai yai. We started co-sleep the past month and that’s the only way I’ve gotten SOME sleep in. I put him far away from me to not fully rely on me to sleep, but I can easily scoot/roll over to him to nurse him to put him back to sleep vs getting up and down to go to his room and get him. I’m still waiting on the magical day/night when he pleasantly surprises me with a decent stretch of uninterrupted sleep….
blogger / persimmon / 1220 posts
Oh dear. Hang in there mama!
guest
Ohh man! I know what you are feeling. My daughter is about to be 14 months and she still wakes up 2-3 times at night. Either because she wants to be rocked or to breastfeed. I was able to wean her from breastfeeding during the day but at night I am just too tired to say no! Hopefully things get better though! Except she just got her first tooth coming out at 13 months so who know….
blogger / apricot / 366 posts
Hugs! I can only imagine how hard this is…stay strong!
guest
I feel your pain. I’m so sorry you are having to go through this. It is SO HARD. Neither of my children, who are now 4yrs and 2yrs, slept through the night by your definition (and mine) until over 1 year old. I read every book, I tried every piece of advice. I cried. I pulled my hair out. I felt like if I could just find the right solution, I could “solve” their “sleep problems” and get them to sleep. But after going through this two times I’ve decided that while you can certainly make things better or worse by how you handle your child’s sleep, it’s mostly up to them when they are going to sleep through the night. So, as for how to survive this? Get help from hubby or other support so that you’re getting a decent chunk of sleep each night (at least one 4 hour uninterrupted block to have a full deep sleep cycle and feel like you slept at all), take your vitamins, eat well, try to exercise and do what you can to boost your energy levels in healthy ways. Take the opportunity to nap or at least lay down whenever you can. Try not to worry too much about what you should be doing differently. Just do what feels right to you. I was about to say some stuff like “remember to enjoy this time with your baby because it will be over too soon,” but I remember those type of comments falling flat with me when I was SO TIRED and the thought of even a few more months of not sleeping was overwhelmingly depressing. But it will end! And you will feel rested again someday! So hang in there!
blogger / pomegranate / 3300 posts
Not sleeping is so hard. Even now with my boys being 5 and 4, there is usually someone waking up at night. It’s awful! I have no solution except commiserating with other tired moms.
guest
Wow, I am so sorry that he still gets up in the middle of the night. My mom said I had colic and I would hardly ever sleep through the night, so she feels your pain. I hope he sleep through the night soon, for your sake.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
olive didn’t sleep through the night until 16 months. when i write that out, and i realize that i woke up a minimum of 2 times a night for 16 months straight, it sounds crazy! but here we are 10 months later, and all that seems like a distant memory.
we sleep trained charlie at 4.5 months and he took to it like a dream. i vowed to sleep train any future children, but olive was so tiny and needed the calories that i couldn’t bring myself to do it! every child is truly different and even the second time around, you’re still learning and changing all the time.
i hope sleepier nights are in store for you soon!
guest
Hubby is making me feel like its my fault she doesn’t sleep through the night. Could cry reading your post. Very helpful and true. I concluded months ago that the fact every person I meet asks whether she is sleeping through must mean they all know it is a significant event when it happens. My little one can settle herself to sleep peacefully every night at bedtime, loves bedtime, and has slept through. But not regularly. She is 18 months now, and last night screaming due to teething & Eczma. but my fault apparently!
kiwi / 511 posts
Oh @Pix that is a horrible thing for your husband to do many hugs to you.
We are going through a round of teething issues right now for my 19 month old fortunately he isn’t waking his brother or himself but he is very restless and does cry out. He also has eczma, so I feel for you.