May 2011 Moms
Moms of older kids: how much do they sleep?
Right now this whole not-getting-a-lot-of-sleep thing seems like it'll go on forever, so for the sake of hope, could you tell me how old your other children are and what their sleeping habits are like? Also, did you use any particular 'sleep-training' methods with them (plain ol' CIO, No-Cry Sleep Solution, Ferber, etc.), or did they just gradually start sleeping more on their own? Any and all commentary is very welcome!
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Re: Moms of older kids: how much do they sleep?
My daughter goes to bed at 7:30 and sleeps until 6 or 7 am. She is 3 but she has been sleeping 11-12 hours since we did CIO at 11 months. Before we did CIO she was waking every 2-3 hours each night and had never STTN.
Of course we have had the occasional nightmare, illness, teething, etc. where she didn't sleep as well. But yes, you will sleep again.
We did CIO at about 7 months. He is going to be 3 in 2 weeks and sleeps from about 7 p.m. to about 6 in the morning. Sometimes longer if it is a weekend but he usually wakes up on his own at least before 7.
DS is 2 and he sleeps 11-12 hours at night. He goes down between 7 and 8 pm and gets up around 6:30 during the week and around 8 on the weekends. He also takes 1 nap that is usually about 2 hours during the week (at daycare) and about 3 hours on the weekends.
He's always been a great sleeper though, he STTN at 6 weeks old and consistently slept 7p-7a.
I sleep trained my DS around 5-6 months. Since then, he's been STTN about 11-12 hours. He goes down at 7:30 and sleeps until 6:30/7. He also takes a 1-2 hour nap in the middle of the day. He will be 3 y/o in 2 weeks *sniff*
It gets better, but even the 2nd time around I couldn't have prepared myself for the zombie-like-no-sleep stage. It's rough!!
This was true for us too. I know people think it's less stressful on the child to check in/soothe them at various intervals but in our case, it was actually getting her more worked up.
We didn't really follow any books or advice. We put DD1 to bed and if she cried we would go in and see if anything was wrong (position, diaper, spit-up), offer her paci and leave without talking or turning on a light. Eventually, she would cry/fuss for a minute and go back to sleep. 9-7 Once she learned to walk, she would come out of her room and we would have to tuck her back in once or twice. She is now 4 years old and sleeps 8-7:30. Every child has a bad night of sleep every now and again, ours included. We also had to deal with Night Terrors, which I do not include in my sleep training experience.
DD2 STTN (text book 5 hours) since about 6 weeks. We put her to bed and once she woke up we would feed or diaper change or both, then we would put her back to bed. She now sleeps from 10-8 and naps on her own schedule throughout the day.
That being said, I have had to switch to formula exclusively (at 4 months old) and have heard that some breastfed babies cannot make it through the night with out a feeding.
Best of luck to you. It will get better.
This is also completely true for my DD. My DS needed consoling, so PU/PD worked really well with him. She just gets totally overstimulated and freaks out even more when I go in there