Do Your Kids Sleep Through the Night?

[kellsbelles]

I would love to do an informal poll and see what the general consensus is since I am in a 3.5 year long sleep deprived hell. So:

-What is your child(ren) age(s)
-Do they sleep through the night? If so how old were they when they regularly started?

Please also send spare sleep vibes my way

[kellsbelles]

3.5 y/o DS still wakes maybe 2/3 times a week and needs to be comforted back to sleep

6 month old DD waking hourly alllll night. No hope in sight!

[abs]

Yes. She started sleeping through the night at just under 3 months. Sorry, she was a unicorn sleep baby. She made up for it in other ways, lol.

She is 8 though and has a harder time going to sleep now than she ever did as a baby. She needs a lot more hugs and snuggles and reassuring. So apparently sleep issues last for the entire time they live in your house.

[jenny1223]

I feel bad posting this...
DS1 is almost 7 and has slept through the night consistently since 4 months. DS2 is 3 months and sleeps about a 7 hour stretch at night before waking to eat (so usually 1 wake up for me each night).

[estrellita]

E is 3 (4 in Feb) and STTN early. Then he got to be about 3 and is impossible to get to sleep. He's in and out of his room, yelling for us, needing 10 million things, waking his sister up, etc for at least a couple hours pretty much every night. But once he finally goes to sleep he stays asleep.

A just turned 1 and she's been up at night more than she's STTN. She still wakes up at least several times a week. We stopped giving her a bottle at night unless she won't let up but I told H to give her water now (he usually gets up with her since I'm currently still getting up early to pump, but I'm weaning now). Idk if it's her teeth, if she's actually hungry, she just wants to be held, or if something else is going on. I wish she could tell us 🙁

[gastro]

Yes they do but they are 7 and 3.

They were terrible sleepers as infants/toddlers. We did a lot of cosleeping to get through the night.

[hopecounts]

DD- 8 yes usually 7:30/8-6/6:30
DS - 9 weeks nope

DD started sleeping through when we Ferbered when she was 7 months and with the exception of when she is sick has slept through ever since.

We will Ferber DS if he doesn’t STTN by 6 months or so.

[redpenmama]

My worst sleeper is now 7, and sleep is easy. She didn't STTN until I weaned her at 18 months.

My almost 5-year-old wakes a couple of times a week but just needs a quick rub on the back to go back down. I nursed him until 2.5 and we coslept, so he would occasionally wake and nurse at night until he weaned at 2.5.

My youngest is 21 months and has been my best sleeper. She woke up to nurse for the first 12 months, but by like 6-7 months, she was down to 1 wakeup a night, so it was easy. She generally sleeps straight through now unless she has a cold or is teething, and then all bets are off.

So, I will say that at this stage, I am getting better sleep than I have in 7.5 years. You will get there. It takes longer for some of us than others. Hang in there!

[pinkpeony08]

My daughter took 18 months to sleep through the night even once. Then at 25-26 months she moved to a toddler bed and we had a different kind of terrible sleep with taking forever to go bed/not staying in bed. She's 6 now and sleeps.

My son didn't sleep through the night once until 21 months when we did sleep lady shuffle sleep training. He's 3.5 now and still wakes up a few times a week and wants someone to "cover him up," which is I think his code for "I'm all alone and I want someone to show up." My kids share a room, so he's not actually all alone, but still.

My husband does the wake ups now given I woke up a zillion times to nurse the kids when he slept. Now it's his turn because he doesn't need me for this job. And my 3.5 year old is currently daddy obsessed and requests him anyway.

You could try talking about things he could do to try to help go back to sleep without mom or dad - snuggling a lovey, looking at a night light, etc. I hope it gets better for you.

[icedcoffee]

Yes. He sleeps 12-14 hours straight through at 24 months.

DS was a god awful sleeper when he was born. I basically couldn't ever put him down and I think it was starting to send me down a very scary path emotionally. At DS's 2 month visit the pediatrician basically told me to start sleep training. We did it in 2 phases. The first was to let him learn how to put himself to sleep (no more rocking). Then at 4 months the pedi told me to try to cut out MOTN feedings so I did and within a few days he was sleeping 12-14 hours most nights. It's been a really long time since I had to go into his room MOTN. I was hesitant to "sleep train" since he was so young, but it ended up working out really well for us.

[Mrs.flang]

DD is about 28 months. She is not totally reliable to sleep through the night, but generally I would say she does, knock on wood. It's maybe around 2/3 times a month or so. When she does wake up she calls for us so she doesn't go back to sleep on her own. Last night she was up but it was only around 11:30 so not terrible. Sometimes she's up for the day at 5 which is also annoying. I don't really know when it started, it seems like there's always some kind of interruption in her pattern.

I'm sorry you're having it so rough, it must feel like it will never end.

[dcn]

6 and 3.

Yes, they generally sleep through the night. Ds1 since about 15 months and ds2 since about 10 months. We Ferbered both.

[scm1011]

DS is 24 months and has consistently slept through the night since 14 months when I night weaned. Before that he was a nightmare who was up 4+ times a night and didn’t nap. It’s like he’s a different child now; he takes consistent 3 hour naps and sleeps 11-12 hours at night. I don’t know how I survived that first year and I’m hoping DD will be different.

Sending you sleep vibes!

[JRo]

5 and 2. They both consistently sleep through the night and have since approx 8 months old when we sleep trained. The 5 year old occasionally (maybe once every couple weeks) comes into our room in the middle of the night with a complaint, but we are able to just walk him back to bed.

[mccallister84]

If we are talking like put them down for the night and don’t see them until I’m ready to get up (as I define STTN) the 2 year old does and has done so since 4.5 months.

The 5.5 month old is there about 50% of the time. However 95% of the time she gives us at least an 8 hour stretch so I can’t complain.

[krystee]

The 3.5-year-old either does or wakes once and crawls silently into our bed at 4 am, which doesn't bother me since I don't wake up from it.

The 10-month-old has since 10 weeks, except for last week when he was sick and woke hourly. If that was his regular pattern, I would have to sleep train even if I didn't want to because I was completely unfunctional and it felt dangerous to drive with how tired I was.

[VillainV]

C is 4.5 and sometimes sleeps through the night (maybe 2-3 times a month). Rarely he’s up 3+ times a night, but it’s usually just 1-2 times and he goes back to sleep pretty easily. I, on the other hand, do not go back to sleep easily, so that sucks. Even when he does sleep through the night, I don’t. I have maybe slept through the night 1-2 times this entire year.

[vtdiamond]

I have 4 year old twins. They started sleeping through the night at around 6 months old. They've consistently STTN ever since.

[pooh8402]

Mine is 3.5. He mostly STTN, occasionally wakes up for nightmares, peeing out of his pullup, etc. He started STTN about 15 months once he got his 1 year molars in and night weaned, but has had regressions here and there for teething, illness, etc.

I'm fully expecting an overall regression when #2 gets here in the spring.

ETA: E woke up hourly when he was 6 months old too. He literally did not know how to sleep without a boob in his mouth (we coslept). We had to do full on extinction sleep training (the checks with Ferber method only pissed him off more) just to get him to space out his wake ups to every 4 hours or so.

[lulubella]

My older one does (she’s 5 and started at 16m and hasn’t looked back). My almost 3.5 year old (almost) never has. Maybe a month or two this summer he did but we are back to up once or more a night and taking 45 min + to go back to sleep as we lay in his bed. He also takes about 40+ min to fall asleep at night (post books) with us laying in his bed and wakes for the day around 5:30. We are so tired.

[Deleted]

Yep. 15 months old. She slept through the night on occasion prior to being night weaned. But when I did that (somewhere between 10 and 11 months, can't remember exactly), she's been pretty consistent about it. We've had a handful of rough nights, mostly when she's sick or when we traveled, but I'd say 9 out of 10 nights she's down 6:30pm to at least 5:30am.

[puppylove64]

Ds who is 6 slept great until about 2 when we put him in a real bed. Then we spent forever getting him to sleep and stay in bed. I gave up and he would sleep in his bed but come to mine at some point during the night. He did this regularly until the past year or so. My 4 yo co slept from the get go. He moved to his bed at about 1 but came to my bed when he woke in the middle of the night. He is just now staying in his bed mostly every night.

I like my sleep and am not good at trying to get them back to sleep in the motn wake ups. I said screw it, if you wake up, crawl in my bed and go back to sleep. It lasted a few years, but it will be over before you know it and now I wake up lonely in bed in the mornings 😂

[pennylane]

DS is 4 and is up at least once, usually twice, every night. He STTN for a month at like 17 months and then never again.

DD is 15 months and is up 2-Way too f’in many times s night.

I have not been doing great recently as a result.

We have tried literally everything I can think of with DS and nothing has worked.

[zarapipe]

Both my 8 and 4 year old sttn. My four year old sleeps with me though. Both take forever to go to sleep. Need snuggles. Books. Water. Hugs. Kisses. Yada yada takes forever.

[corgimom]

DD will be 7 months next week. She sleeps through the night a few times a week and has since about 5.5 months. On the nights she wakes up she usually only wakes once after 5-7 hours to be changed/fed and then is back down. However, we're working on her falling asleep on her own which is hit and miss.

ETA: She really only started sleeping so well once we moved her out of the bassinet in our room and into her crib in her own room. I was hesitant to move her but now we all sleep much better.

[Susie]

DD is now 3, and has been reliably STTN since about 6 months.  She started doing it sometimes around 4 months, and it got more frequent pretty quickly.  There are still some exceptions of course, but they're pretty rare.  We recently transitioned from crib to full size bed, and the STTN continued.  I know we're very lucky with her sleep.

Where we struggled was bedtime and getting her to sleep at the beginning of the night.  Around 7 months we sleep trained, and that was clutch.

I'm sorry you're struggling so much with kid sleep.  I would be such a zombie.

[Velar Fricative]

I'm so sorry you're having a rough time with sleep, kellsbelles.

Unfortunately my response will not give you any opportunity for commiseration with me...

DD1 = STTN at 6 months after Ferber. She had been waking up hourly since 3.5 months and we were zombies. I thought she was just so hungry but nope, she just couldn't connect her sleep cycles until we did Ferber successfully. She was a slow gainer during those first six months so I felt uncomfortable with Ferber until we were at our wits' ends at 6 months. I did Ferber expecting that maybe we could get down to 2-3 wakeups/feedings a night but she has slept through consistently since then (and has been a much faster gainer since STTN, which really was a relief for us). She's 5 now and I do not recall any significant regressions at all since then minus occasional, quick wakeups when sick which is rare.

DD2 = She was born knowing how to sleep. She began STTN consistently and all by herself at 8 weeks old and at 18 months old now, she has not experienced regressions and we have never had to do Ferber or any other kind of sleep training with her.

[ssmjlm]

She does now, but it wasn't an easy road. Not sure if that helps?

We had to sleep train at 5.5m because she was taking hours to fall asleep. She was one that still spent months crying at bedtime from 5-15minutes. None of this magic roll over and sleep crap the books talk about. Then we had to ST for night feedings.

Then she hit 3 and all hell broke loose. She would take hours upon hours to fall asleep. We had to lock her in her room. Then she would wake MOTN and go to the bathroom, then wouldn't go back to sleep. It was horrific and even the pedi wasn't sure what was going on. This lasted 9 or so months. We ended up bribing her with a bed tent and that worked.

She will still sing, play in her bed, or "read" most nights. Rarely does she fall right asleep, even if she's had a long, active day.

[ohgillian]

DS is 8. He started to sleep thru the night at around 8 months. Around age 4 he had a spell of night terrors and would wake up crying, but that was brief.

DD is 6. She started to sleep thru the night at 18 months. I was physically and mentally wrecked by the time it happened.

[Aquatica]

DD is almost 3 and usually STTN. Lately she's been waking up to come crawl in bed with me. I don't remember when she started STTN.