How long it take you to get your baby to sleep through the night..?

Me.. 5 very very long years..!!!

I can't believe I am actually typing this, because I know that I will tempt fate and she will stop sleeping through once I hit the send button.!

The whole grail of motherhood is getting your baby to sleep all night, and you hear the stories from Mums saying that their baby slept through from 6 weeks.. god I hate them..!

So where did I go terribly wrong, god knows, having the girls only 14 months apart didn't help me, (I have getting drunk at a BBQ to than for that one.!) Mia was a very sickly baby, lots of respiratory problems, and we found out at my amniocentesis that there was a chromosome problem, so maybe I was over-cautious with her.

But the main reason is that she is stubborn, (and actually she doesn't need that much sleep) Mia would wake up each night and not want to go back to sleep, I would try to get her to sleep for 2 hours, all she would do is scream, and if I left her to cry she would vomit or throw herself out of the cot.

My 1st try with a sleep consultant got me into a routine and we had 3 whole glorious weeks of sleep, I remember going out for the night with friends and saying how wonderful life was now Mia was sleeping, only to find her up and in the babysitters arms when we got home.. I could have killed her..!

She was sick again, and I could not get her back into a routine.. we then moved to Vietnam, and that is where I tried with another sleep consultant, this one claimed not to do the controlled crying but had great techniques, so I paid my money and got mentoring over the phone.

I had to get Mia to sleep on her own, so I was not in the room when she fell asleep, after 3 weeks of 2 hours a night of trying to get her to stay in her room I gave up, she was just not giving in and would scream and cry until she passed out.

Then we went to the doctors (there has to be something medically wrong) he went through her medical history and recommended me sending her to Singapore for a sleep lab test, I showed her what this would entail from a YouTube clip and guess what she slept that night, that is when I realised there was nothing medically wrong with her.!

So what did I do? I  put a blow-up bed in my room and said if you want to come into my room you sleep on the blow up bed and not in my bed.

Finally I started to get some sleep, then we moved to the UK, and we had another period of upheaval, we stayed at my parents house for 8 weeks and I slept in the girls room, then the move into our house just 10 weeks ago.

But for some reason she is now sleeping all night and has done for about 2 weeks, I still have to sit with her as she goes to sleep, but I don't mind as it is a nice quiet time of the night. She is even getting up in the morning and taking herself downstairs and getting her own drink, and the thing I love is that I hear the girls having a little chat when they wake up.

Sleep deprivation is the worst form of torture, I remember losing my mind, feeling depressed, not wanting to go out at night with friends because I knew I was going to be up for hours in the middle of the night.

Now don't get me wrong here, I was very fortunate to be living in Asia where you have help, so I was able to take myself off and get some me time, and didn't do any housework (OK its out there now!) and there would be  some nights where I would ask Elsa to put Mia to bed because I couldn't face doing it.

If I was in the UK having to do everything myself, maybe working and dealing with Mia and the nights I think I would have need some form of medical help.

So why is she sleeping now, I really don't know.. maybe she feels settled here in England, or that Philippe is around all the time (before he would be travelling for at least 2 weeks of the month) and we have the family close together, my Mum and Dad are down the road and my sister and her kids are only a walk away.

I still have the blow up bed beside mine, and I don't know when I will stop putting it down each night, I think the night I don't do it will be the night she wakes up..!

 


3 comments


  • Ali

    I know where you are coming from here. My youngest, this is the bad news, now 10 still wakes in the night.

    The last few months he has finally got better maybe once or twice waking up in a week.

    The mattress beside my bed still remains. If he has a friend to sleepover or sleeps over in his sisters room he always sleep through.

    I have to take the genic blame as I too used to get up in the night and go into my parents room at his age :-/

    I now stay in my own bed, if that’s any hope for you!!!

    Hope she keeps sleeping well xxx


  • Karie

    Wow. Congratulations. Sleep deprivation is torture Charlotte there is no question. Enjoy! xxK


  • cassie

    my little boy of nearly 4 still doesn’t always sleep through the night – now we are expecting our second I was desperate to find a strict routine that would assist me in achieving this but I have despaired over some of the advise and routines that are recommended. I have come to the conclusion that no matter how sleep deprived I am you cannot beat the pitter patter of tiny feet creeping into your room in the early hours of the morning and climbing in for a little hug 9 (these days it is more like 5am rather than 3am) – lets face it they are not going to want to do it when they are 18 LOL xxxx


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