My son is 18 months and has never been a great sleeper. He was EBF and I was always second guessing if he was hungry so I always fed him when he woke up. Magically from 12-14 months he STTN without me changing anything. Then he got sick and his sleep got bad again. Even now at 18 months he is really difficult to get down and when he wakes up in the middle of the night we bring him into bed with us. I keep holding out hope that it will magically get better on it's own again. Am I dreaming?
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I've heard the 18 mo sleep regression can be a brutal one...
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@Zbug: I was sort of hoping it was the 18 month sleep regression but his sleep has been bad since 14 months! Although worse now and harder to put down so I guess that could be it. I'm just not wanting to sleep train but at the same time I'm exhausted!
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@QBbride: I feel you. The 9 month one lasted forever for us. Things are getting better at 14 mo, and we are starting to gently night wean. I'm terrified for 18 mo but just hoping we may finally get lucky.
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@Zbug: are you following a plan for gentle night weaning? I was just reading about Dr Jay Gordon's night weaning plan. He still nurses at night and I'm thinking if I can cut that out his sleep might improve too. So tough!!
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My LO is 22 months, we followed a modified version of Dr. jay Gordon. He worked amazingly well. His sleep definitely improved afterwards!
He will still have nights where bedtime is tough but we can usually figure out what has caused it. Some nights he'll sleep through, others he pitter patters into our bed. Hope it gets better soon! -
@QBbride: we tried that one at 12 months, and it was a big fail. I thought it would be easier bc my LO rarely nurses to sleep (she still wants to nurse at every wakeup though). She cried for an hour while dh tried to comfort her. I tried for another half hour before we called it. I think she just wasn't ready.
This time dh goes in (we moved her to a floor bed in her room at 12 months from cosleeping with us) and deals with wakeups until he can't console her. Some nights are better than others, but things are getting better. She's taking less time (usually) to settle for him, and there have been a few nights I didn't trade places with him until after 5am. There has definitely been crying, but I feel better knowing that one of us is there for her - even if she's not getting what she wants. It's hard though.
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My 3 year old has always had periods of waking, and periods of sleeping through. Lately her periods of sleeping through have gotten longer and are now 'typical'. Although I might change my tune if she goes through another period of waking often.
I think that most children will tend towards sleeping through, eventually.
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I never specifically night weaned my daughter.
She mostly sleeps through the night at 2 (as in will go months without waking up - and then hit a bad patch of a week or so) -
I feel you! I posted a similar thread a few months back and here we are at 17 months and her sleep is still awful! E still wakes once a night and needs a bottle of milk in order to settle down...... and getting her down for the night is usually difficult. I'm praying our just clicks for her one day!
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I co slept with my now 2.5 yr old til 20 months. She now will only sleep in her bed. She won't even sleep in a bed somewhere else. It's only her bed.
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My lo moved on from part-time bed sharing, started to consistently STTN at around 20-24 months and gave up her night nursing without any intervention from us although my supply did tank due to pregnancy. I believe LO was genuinely hungry as she was dropping day feeds but not yet eating enough solids to make up the difference in calories.
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At 2.5 our sleep ebbs and flows. Once I stopped nursing over night a couple of months ago things got much better! I don't think he was 'ready' before then though. I do remember 12-18 months being really rough and then it got better from there. Now at 2.5 bedtime is about 30 minutes (we rock to sleep) and if he wakes he will come in with us and go right back to sleep. I've never tried to soothe him in his room, I am a WOHM so sleep was always more important to me even if it meant co-sleeping.
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The turning point for us was when my son dropped his afternoon nap. He has always been a challenging sleeper, I think there was a period of two years where he didn't sleep through the night once. And this is after 12 months of age.
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it does get better, and then we hit a bump and start over with a new issue. the 20-month sleep regression or whatever it was, which coincided with a short overseas trip, really messed with us. that was bad. bad bad bad bad bad.
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Thanks for your experiences ladies, I appreciate hearing all of them!! It's ironic because we never, ever co-slept when he was little (he was in his crib from day 1) but out of necessity for sleep he's been sleeping with us pretty much since the summer. Last night when he woke up I explained he could have milk in the morning and he fussed a bit but went back to sleep. I have a feeling things will get better if he doesn't nurse overnight. hubby and I decided we will do everything to get him to at least sleep in his crib at the beginning of the night then bring him into bed when he woke up. We will see.
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