Why do my children hate sleep??

Please tell me I'm not alone in this...

Caught up today with some friends. Friend 1 has two boys, same ages as my two DSs, just about. Friend 2 has one boy, 2yo, and number 2 bub due in 5wks. Asked 2 how she is feeling about baby arriving and she said she's not looking forward to waking up overnight again. Friend 1 says how it's easier with the second baby, or she has found the night-wakings easier anyway, the second time around. Then she goes "S (her 5mth old) only wakes once anyway. So that's ok."

Friend 2 is nodding her head going "that's ok, I could get used to that, and hopefully he or she will be like S (her 2yo) and sleep through by six months anyway."

I know Friend 1's DS2 is only little, same as my DS2, 5mths. So his sleep could change. But my DS2, same age, wakes many times overnight. Many.

As for sleeping through, well, let's not go there.

Then I realised her DS2 is waking the same amount of times as my DD. I reckon 4 nights out of 7, my 4yo DD wakes and needs something from me. A drink, the toilet, a cuddle, a tuck in, whatever. DS1 will wake overnight maybe once a week, but wakes for the day between 5 and 6am.

Why do my kids hate sleep?? I love it. Why do they hate it so??? And why do I seem to be surrounded by friends with kids who sleep?

:wall:

ETA: and now DS2 is awake. Sigh.

:hug: OP, we should hang out more. My two don't like to sleep and wake often.

No you are not alone. :hug:...it's been so long for me, that on the rare nights one of them does sleep through (yes I am including miss nearly 7), I have to go and check on them.

You aren't alone with friends like that either. I felt like everyone else was sleeping except me.

a. Because your children are typical and the ones that sleep are weird... I mean, unique!
b. Because your kids are tough and sleep is, in fact, for the weak.
c. Because your kids have been skyping my kids over night and workshopping parental torture strategies
d. Because you are so awesome that they cannot be without you for 12 hour periods :)

Santosha needs to write a book :)


Most of the people I know do not have kids who sleep like that.

HotI, be there in the morning :D

Kim... On the nights that DD doesn't wake I go check on her... :redface:

Santosha - you are too funny :) Love your work.

MadB - I need to hang with your people!!!

:rofl: Santosha! Perfectly said.
And yep. If DS (3.8yrs) is still in his own bed at 4am I may or may not wake up anyway and freak out a little that he might have somehow seriously injured himself overnight or died :redface:

Out of my 4 its only the 7 & 10 year olds who sleep through. Thankfully DS (5) doesn't wake me, unless he wets & needs a 'wee shower', but most nights will come into my bed.

I'm only just convincing DD3 that sleep is ok... got her down to one wake up (2.5!) & she goes & gets the flu!! Hoping she settles again though...

Maybe our babies will get all the horrible stuff out now & be easy teens????

You're not alone! It's hard feeling like you're the only one dealing with sleep deprivation :hug:

Our Moo is 3.5 now, all his little friends still have day sleeps while he dropped his years ago. He finds it really hard to switch off so is in and out of bed multiple times before he finally crashes and usually one of us has to sit in there with him. He wakes up several times per week plus will have a bad night where he is up screaming numerous times once or twice a fortnight. He has nightmares and night terrors. He comes into my side of the bed every single night and when he does he is up for the day! Never mind if it's 4am or 5am, he's had enough sleep thankyouverymuch!

One day our kids will love sleep and I am very much looking forward to that!

Love it Santosha :clap:

OP- :hug:

:

---

One day our kids will love sleep and I am very much looking forward to that!

---

Oh gosh me too!!! Do you promise? :lol:

:

---

Maybe our babies will get all the horrible stuff out now & be easy teens????

---

I hope so!!!

Well last night, DS2 only got up twice - so maybe we are finally getting to the "sleep through" stage? He's 3.

DS1 on the other hand takes himself off to bed, never wakes me throughout the night and gets up on his own without too much fuss in the morning.....He's 18.

I spoke to one of the dads at Aikido on the weekend and he said that with their twins, when they first went into beds, he had to sleep outside their door for a month to get them out of the habit of getting up.

Nope. Your not alone. Hugs xx

Definitely not alone! Mine are hard to get to sleep and none of them sleep through (not even the 6 year old).

I'm so used to waking up that on a recent trip to tassie - without children - I still woke up every two hours at night.

So now I don't sleep through the night either it seems :lol:

I'm another with a normal kid :p He goes down, with help from me by 7.30 at the latest (or we've missed the window) Then it is VERY rare if he doesn't get up looking for me before I go to bed, and I have to go and lay back down with him again. Through the night he wakes a few times looking for me, he's happy to just touch me to know I'm there and I have a mole (yes :rolleyes: a bit odd) that he likes to touch, or pick as he calls it to get himself back off to sleep. Things will be very interesting when the new baby is here in a few weeks. Maybe this one will like to sleep ..?

He's 3 now, turned 3 last Dec, but until he was 2 he woke every two hours every night. We did have a win on that with a no numbers restricted diet. But he still seems to need me through the night.

Right there with you OP!

Do you have time to read? (Is that a silly question?) I think you'd enjoy Kiss Me! by Carlos Gonzalez

Sleep? Whats that? I dont remember such a thing, and my girls, well they definately dont know the meaning of it. :hug:

Mine are both nightmares to get to sleep EVERY night, tonight still not asleep I have been and put them back to bed a million times and screamed like a psyco about 5 times!! So so so unimpressed as same everynight!!!!

DS2 generally comes down between 0430 - 0700 and DS1 0530 - 0630.

My DS usually still wakes once a night for the loo (is almost 4) and if he does he hops in our bed, if he sleeps through he wakes just after 5, so I actually dont mind him waking and coming in with us as he goes straight back to sleep and then sleeps till 6 or 630.

DD slept like a dream until 5 months, I was only feeding once overnight, so your friends luck may change. DD was waking multiple times per night from 5-6 months and has just now only gone back to one wake per night (at almost 8 months) - and co-sleeps with us in a sidecar cot

I think my children are normal :) Heck, I dont even sleep through the night, I get up for the loo, or a drink too! I'm 38!!

DS is getting worse with sleep (if that's possible)! He used to go to sleep at 7:30 now it's more like 9:30 - every night!

He wakes up at least once a night and is usually up for the day by 6.

Add to the mix, DD's nightly feeds and the fact that I'm a horrible sleeper myself, and I feel like a zombie daily.

Fingers crossed it gets better.. Right?

I reckon some parents, like myself, get so used to waking up overnight tending to kids that they forget half of the nightly wakeups! I know I've often thought I'd slept well and assume I didn't get up but can't honestly remember! :rofl:

Our 3 year old DD1 has always been a good sleeper but that's not to say she hasn't had her fair share of ordinary sleep :lol: She probably wakes once a night 3 times a week. She does go down easily (most nights) by herself after her story around 7-7.30 and starts the day around 6.30-7am. Sometimes she's climbed into bed with us but it's a stealth mission, often the first we know about it is when we wake for the day :lol: These continually good sleeping patterns started around 3yrs 2 months.

DD2 is a different ball game altogether. She started sleeping through regularly recently, so around 12 months BUT she is often hard to get down for the night (1-2hrs of stuffing around) and may need a pat, cuddle or a bottle overnight. Every now and then she throws me a really nice curve ball and has a 2 hour party in the middle of the night :rolleyes:

So yeah, you're not alone. I feel like my kids sleep well but I definitely tend to ignore the brief wakeups when I'm reflecting on how our night was :lol:

lol
i have
Child 1 - who wakes up at the crack of a sparrows fart in the morning- age 10
Child 2- who doesnt go to sleep till its almost midnight most nights- age 10
Child 3 who only just starting sleep through the night some times- age 4

Plenty of time for sleep when the kids are grown up I say
make the most of quality time one on one with your bubbas in the middle of the night
blink and they will be teenagers and sleeping all day every day and not coming out of their rooms except for food lol

lol
i have
Child 1 - who wakes up at the crack of a sparrows fart in the morning- age 10
Child 2- who doesnt go to sleep till its almost midnight most nights- age 10
Child 3 who only just starting sleep through the night some times- age 4

Plenty of time for sleep when the kids are grown up I say
make the most of quality time one on one with your bubbas in the middle of the night
blink and they will be teenagers and sleeping all day every day and not coming out of their rooms except for food lol