Mayaness - we could be twins with our sleep 'methods'! LOL. We too don't spend hours trying to make DS sleep. If he's not sleepy, then he stays up. I too believe we've reaped rewards of this, for one, we haven't stressed about his 'bad' sleeping habits (yes we had bad weeks with teething etc - but yes, they too passed!).. and he's worked out his own sleep routine now, albeit a loose one, we pretty much have a routine now.. which is him coming to bed with us anytime between 9.30 & 10.30pm each night! It works well, we're all happy, DH gets time to play with him in the evenings after work (he'd never see him if I insisted on 7pm bedtime) and night wakings are becoming less frequent. We've always worked around DS. I think as a result he is actually very flexible.. and people comment on how quickly I can put him to sleep when we're out LOL. Sometimes I put him to bed in his own room (and he comes in to us in the dark if he wakes) sometimes I just bring him straight into bed from the outset. And yep, he'll sleep in if he's had a late one too. I think we're finding a nice balance of give & take in our sleeping relationship - I've never stressed him about sleeping, and he's quite compliant if we need to get up early some mornings, or if he gets to sleep in. Of course we have the odd overtired moments, but he gets over them.

I know a family that taught & fought their babies to sleep, and well, lets just say they've been fighting this battle for the last 12 years.

Ryn, I know it can feel like it will go forever, and I was seriously expecting to be nightfeeding 4hrly for 2 years the rate we were going! But things do smooth out and you find your groove with each other.