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Ummm..no. Except that I know she just wanted to sleep right next to me, when SHE wanted to. We tried/read everything and I finally surrendered to cosleeping. If it is any consolation, she has slept like clockwork since 5 yrs and never a fuss at bedtime. Puts herself to sleep. Also wakes herself up almost everyday for school.

Nope. I'm thinking of asking the dr to look at my 4 yo to see if he has enlarged adenoids or tonsils. His sleep is terrible, he snores, has night terrors and multiple night wakings every night. Getting desperate over here.

No. He just was terrible until 3 and then one day he started sleeping through the night. We tried everything and had 3 different sleep consultants... nothing worked. He still takes a long time to fall asleep but we're weaning him off needing us there with him. He's 4.5 now and sleeps through almost every night (unless he drank too much water before bed.)

My LO would do the same thing. It was so bad that my newborn was sleeping through the night before my 3 year old. After talking about it forever, I finally bit the bullet and put her in her own bed. The first week was hard, but after that we both sleep so much better. Her bed is right next to mine, but at different heights. I think having her own space actually helped her sleep better and she wasn't waking up and looking for me to comfort and fall back asleep. She's able to put herself back to sleep most of the time as long as she can see me.

For my kids it's either been digestive issues (mostly as infants), teething (especially for my 3 year old who still has 2 teeth that haven't come in yet), illnesses, and totally ridiculous but socks. They all need to have their feet covered or they are up all night.

No, never found a reason. It seemed to be partly a way to hang out with me, partly temperament (very high strung kid who must loudly announce to the world when she's not happy). We had to sleep train around 18 months, but she still has some bad nights.

My husband is a terrible sleeper, so I think my son got it from him!

In all seriousness though, I do think my husband and son exhibit the same kind of issues, so I am watching my son for snoring and sleep apnea.

@emilye519: I had a chronic early water and tried everything including magnesium and nothing helped except time. Now at nearly 4 she sleeps until at least 6. But prior to that I just put her to bed early by 7 because she was up by 5 everyday no matter what. I really wanted the lotion to work though!!

My son was a beautiful sleeper as a baby but started getting worse and worse past 6 months (incidentally when he began eating solids) He went from waking up once or twice a night at the beginning to eventually 18 times a night at about 18 months. Yes you read that right. 18 times a night. We were told by several peditricians that that we were causing/encouraging this behavior despite the fact we had worn ourselves thin trying every trick and theory in the book. At one point I was so over it I put the camera on him and let him CIO for nearly 5 hours straight. During that time he never once stopped fussing or sat down. It was the thing I needed to finally pay attention to the little voice in my head that was telling me something was wrong. My first instinct was to test for celiac disease because I have it and it had, oddly enough, caused insomnia for me as well. My ped (who is lovely and listens to my instincts even when she thinks they are ridiculous) agreed to run a celiac panel on him. At about 20 months he came back positive for significant malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies but negative for celiac. Our doctor put him on vitamins and supplements and referred him to a gastroenterologist for further testing. Within two weeks of beginning vitamins and iron supplements he was down to waking up only three to four times a night. After 6 months of back and forth and a second opinion we found a gastro who told us that, despite him coming back negative for celiac, every other test pointed in that direction and he had no other solution than to trial him on a gluten free diet. Within two days of going gluten free he slept through the night for the first time in about 20 months and, with the exception of a few blips here and there, he is now nearly 4 and has slept through the night ever since. Mommy instincts are a powerful thing. If you sense something might be wrong don't be afraid to push for answers!

Not really a discovery, but I believe my 4 year olds sleep issues are related to sensory processing disorder. As an infant he needed to be vigorously bounced to sleep on the yoga ball. I think the big movement was calming to his system. As a toddler he wanted to co-sleep but would only calm by shoving his hands and feet under my body (talk about aggravating!). At this stage he often woke 2-3 times a night crying/thrashing around.
We have a good routine going that I think is helping, although he's still not a great sleeper but getting better. Here's what we do now:
- about an hour before bed we do some sort of rigorous movement (jump on the trampoline, my husband throws him into pillows on the couch, go on the swings, etc.)
- before bed we do a few yoga poses, particularly ones where he hangs his head, like downward dog (supposed to help organize his vestibular system)
- then brush teeth/read books
- after books, one of us will lay in bed for a few minutes and provide some deep muscle/joint pressure (basically squeezing his arms and legs, starting from shoulder to fingers)
These are all things we've found to help with some of his sensory processing challenges. The main issue for him, I think, is not having an awareness of where his body is in space. During the day he has found some coping mechanisms but at night he's so disoriented so we are trying to find ways to help him organize his system. These ideas have come from a number of sources including Occupational Therapists, pediatricians and articles I've found online, I'm not sure if any of this is helpful but may be worth trying.

I'm sorry you're going through this. My son who is nearing his 3rd birthday didn't sleep through the night for the first two years of his life. I blamed myself for breast feeding him to sleep, feeding him in the middle of the night, and co sleeping. But those were all things I had to do for my own sanity as he would not sleep without them. For naps he has gotten a lot better but when he was younger he needed lots of motion or to be held.

He is currently being evaluated by early intervention and it is possible that similar to @jaybirdie my son has sensory processing disorder. From what I can tell He needs sensory input (namely touch and motion) to get and stay asleep. He thrashes when he sleeps with us and tries to push his legs under mine also. We have pretty much cut out co sleeping since we both end up in the edge of the bed.

One thing that helped is that we recently moved and his room where he sleeps is only his crib. No toys, books or anything on the walls. I do lie down with him to fall asleep but once he gets down he mostly
Sleeps through the night. We have a very simple bedtime routine of bath and then lying down with mama. I dream of the day he will just fall asleep "on his own" in his own bed but right now it's just not realistic

Mrs bee has some really great posts on sensory processing that helped me, it may be good to check out even if just to rule out the possibility