My baby loves to sleep. 10 months old and naps 2-3 times a day for 3-4 hours total and then gives us about 11 hours over night. I was looking at sleep info and it says the range is 12-15 hours a day. I'm on the higher end of that and I was doing the math and that means a lower sleep needs parent has to be an active parent for 3 extra hours a day! 21 hours a week! that's like a whole extra day of parenting!! nearly 3 work shifts more than me. seriously, god bless any of you with low sleep needs babies. i have no idea how you do it 😭😭😭

I swear every older person I talk to thinks I'm crazy because im stuck contact napping every damn day, multiple times per day. I have a 2yo and a 7week old and neither one would ever nap without being held. Every time I mention this to older people, they say "we just put our kid down and they slept." And I dont know how tf they do this. My mom hadn't even heard the term contact napping before. How did they "just put them down". Every time I try, LO wakes within 2 mins crying. Our 2yo finally started napping on her own after sleep training, starting at 6months and finally had her mostly on her own by 10 months. I'm worried we are in for another year of sitting in the dark for hours and never getting time for chores or myself. But mostly, how did older people do this???

i told my baby's pediatrician that she wakes up at 1am and 4am to feed, and she told me that at this age she's supposed to be sleeping through the night entirely, and to start the CIO method.

i personally HATE the CIO method. it's cruel. it teaches your baby nobody is coming. yes she can self soothe, although her way of self soothing is weird, but the CIO method is a strong hate for me.

do your guys' babies sleep this long? is that normal???

Curious if you co slept, why/not, when, how long, where you’re from? Keep it short and sweet

Our son is now 6.5 months and I have always done every night solo. My other half works 6-3 (not from home). Reddit seems to give the impression shifts are actually pretty common. Am I daft for being so sleep deprived alone?

I read all sorts of horror stories, especially on the Reddit /newborn, about how sleep deprivation almost killed them, having hallucinations from the lack of sleep, children waking up multiple times a night until they were 6, 7, 8 years old…

I LOVE children and have 1 mediocre to bad sleeper, I want more , but I’m so scared of the sleep deprivation and having a terrible sleeper..

Did anyone just have a baby who slept relatively well from early on? Not even perfectly, but well enough that you could function during the day?

I just wanna get it out there - it’s COMPLETELY NORMAL if your babies sleep is sh*t. If they wake up a lot it’s normal. If they sleep through it’s normal (and a blessing!)

They’re all soooooo different. It’s just finding a way that works for you and keeps you semi sane. Don’t feel like you’re doing anything wrong, it’s just how they are

It’s a season, and it’ll pass

Edit: some didn’t like the title - soz

For those with a LO under 6 months who sleeps through the night — where does your baby sleep?

I see a lot of posts from parents saying their 8 or 10-week-old sleeps through the night, sometimes 7–7, and I’m genuinely curious: are these babies sleeping in the parents’ room, or are they already in their own room?

I think I’ve been assuming they’re all sleeping in a bassinet/crib in the parents’ bedroom, but now I’m wondering how often that’s actually the case. And maybe they are!

We’re trying to follow the recommendation to room-share until at least 6 months for SIDS risk reduction, but I strongly suspect our baby would sleep longer in his own room.

There are two adults + two animals in our bedroom, so even when he starts stirring and might otherwise resettle himself, one of us inevitably makes noise or wakes up and intervenes (partner is back to work and needs to sleep so it’s hard to let LO sort through it for too long).

So I’m mostly looking for a reality check: if your baby under 6 months is sleeping long stretches or through the night, are they doing it while room-sharing with you, or in their own room?

Mine tends to do 3-5 hr, wake, 2 hr, wake, then 1 hr. Which I recognize could be worse but nothing I seem to do extends that first block.

Today’s thread: “Here’s photo of my husband, passed out in bed snuggled up next to my newborn baby. Post yours below!”

Followed by HUNDREDS of similar photos.

I honestly had no idea so many people co-slept, let alone with small babies.

Baby is 4mo. I’ve tried everything to get baby to have an earlier bedtime, but she only goes down around 9-10pm. Anything before that is a false bedtime and she wakes up ready to go. She sleeps well at night and naps 3-4 times during the day, which adds to about 3hrs of sleep during the day. She wakes up between 6 and 7. I don’t understand how I see people saying their bedtime is 7:30, I wish. I don’t know what I could be doing wrong. How did you guys make that happen???

My little girl is 13mo and we still use white noise (it’s like a low fan sound) for sleep at home. It’s totally habitual and because she sleeps well it’s not something I’ve ever toyed with.

Just wanted to know at which age people have stopped? 😊

Edit: "bedsharing" is the correct term.

This may be an unpopular opinion, and almost feels taboo to talk about: But, I LOVE co sleeping with my now toddler. My son has slept in my bed since he was 3 days old. I have always used safe sleep practices. No pillows, no blankets. No loose flowy clothes for mama. As he has gotten older (he's 14 months now) we use a light blanket, that he usually kicks off. But I genuinely enjoy sleeping next to him. My husband works midnights and having him in bed with me makes night feedings/breastfeeding so much easier. It gives me peace of mind and we both sleep so much better. At 9 months, at other people's urging, I attempted to sleep train repeatedly in a crib and neither of us could sleep, both waking multiple times at night. I pulled him into my bed and he fell asleep within seconds and slept for 7 hours straight. Now our nights are exclusively co sleeping bedtime at 8pm..and he stays asleep until around 1am, dream feeds for a minute or so (mostly for comfort I think) and falls back to sleep until 6am. I'm able to sneak away for an hour or two and get things done (laundry, dishes ect) once he initially falls asleep..then I crawl in bed next to him for a solid night's sleep. We both wake up happy, smiling and refreshed..when he starts showing signs of wanting his own independence I will of course get him into his own toddler bed, (which I currently have set up next to our big bed) but for now, I love this time with him full of warmth, snuggles and happiness. Am I the only one out there who a) has no issues cosleeping? and b) absolutely loves it?

For context, we took our almost 6 month old baby in to see if she had an ear infection. (Turns out, she’s just a gunky gal.) She saw a pediatrician on staff but not our usual. That pediatrician said she should be sleeping through the night at this point. But everything I’ve seen and read says it’s normal for breastfed babies (she has never had formula and we just started solids this week) to wake 2-3 times during the night to eat. Which she does. She usually wakes to eat 11, 2, 5. She dream feeds and goes right back to sleep in her crib. I’m up for a total of about 10 mins each time. What are everyone’s thoughts on this? It really upset me when she said it wasn’t normal and my baby needs to sleep more.

I’ve started going to this moms group and today the leader said that 98% of moms cosleep. We don’t cosleep because it doesn’t work for our family and I’m scared of her falling off the bed. I don’t have anything moral against cosleeping for other families, you do you! But the statement doesn’t seem correct? 98%?

Thought this question might provide some insight into how things vary for people over time! I’ll go first:

LO is 11 weeks. Unfortunately this week I’ve been getting 3-4 hours of sleep per night due to his only wanting to contact sleep. Some kind of regression, I think.

How many hours are you getting?

I just learned this!

They are called the Norbertine sisters and they get up at 12 am each night to pray for an hour for mothers.

Somehow, this makes me* feel seen, and I needed to hear this. Hope it makes someone else feel good, too!

*and I’m not even religious

https://aleteia.org/2023/12/25/up-with-your-baby-late-last-night-these-nuns-prayed-for-you/

What age was your baby when they started giving you 5-6 hour sleeps through the night? Or even a full 8 hours?! FTM to a gorgeous three week old baby who can’t seem to sleep a moment over three hours at night, and often less. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have three hours as I know others have it worse! But I’m looking for some other people’s experiences to hold on to that it’ll get better in the not too distant future. So tell me, what age did your LO first have a longer night sleep?

My 2nd baby is 2 weeks old, and we have tons of swaddles from her sisters newborn days, but baby #2 seems to be miserable in them. Did anyone skip the swaddle stage or stop swaddling this early? Even as I’m typing this, I’m unsure what the benefits are over a sleep sack anyway.

My guy is 11 weeks and we just got to 3-4h stretches - I know we’re probably not anywhere close (and maybe due for regression soon?) but wanted to see if maybe there might be some changes we can make that gave others success

Does anyone know the psychology behind the CIO method?

We've been trying not to do it. Based on my husband's research it increases cortisol and can leave the child feeling like they need to fend for themselves rather than feeling secure. I personally think she (12 months) needs to cry a little, but I'm also at home with her all day and by the end of the day I'm like "let her cry, I'm touched out". My husband doesn't want her to cry at all, which I know is totally unrealistic but I do my best. We will let her cry for a couple minutes on her own and then we go in and let her cry on us until she's ready to sleep. This.is.exhausting.

So the pediatrician told us we need to let her cry it out because she's not learning to self soothe. He said if we let her cry and then go in later then she'll know "ok Mom and Dad are here but I don't need them to sleep". But this totally doesn't make sense to me. If we let her cry for 5 minutes instead of 2 then we're still going in and she's still relying on us. If we go in after she's done crying then she's probably asleep and she doesn't know that "mom and dad are still here". So how does this actually comfort the child?

My baby is 12 days old and I’m really struggling. I would never harm my baby but I’m beginning to feel hopeless for myself and as though she’d be better off without me.

We are struggling hugely with sleep. During the night, baby won’t sleep in the bassinet or crib. We feed, change and soothe but we get a maximum of 15 minutes before she is screaming crying again.

We have been taking shifts between my husband and I but baby has been cluster feeding which essentially makes him useless so I am doing the majority of the overnights.

Tonight she has been constantly on the boob for the past 6 hours. No sleep, two nappy changes which were horrible scream-filled events. I cannot do this anymore. Despite having her tongue tie fixed, her latch is extremely painful though there’s no clinical reason for it.

Can anyone give me some hope?

EDIT

I cannot thank you all enough for the compassionate responses. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, for making this mom feel so much less alone. We had an appointment today where baby was weighed and she unfortunately is not gaining weight so despite all of my efforts breastfeeding she is not getting what she needs ☹️ this hasn’t been great for my mental health or general state of overwhelm and when I mentioned this to my doctor, they’ve suggested it’s baby blues. Not sure where to go next but we have sought help from a breastfeeding support group.

Edit to add: thank you everyone!! What I’m realizing is that I should stop stressing it so much and cater to my baby’s needs and not try to match some wake window schedule all these online sleep experts post.

What time does your baby really go down for bed? I feel like we are consistently getting our 4.5 month old down around 8:30-9 and it just feels so late!

FTM - baby boy will be 11 weeks tomorrow. For the first 8 weeks we flew by the seat of our pants as you do, eating sleeping pooping on repeat. He has always been a good sleeper (as long as it’s contact during the day lol) and as a sleep lover myself I truly find it SO important so I make sure to prioritize it for baby even if that means Ive pretty much sat in my rocker all day everyday for the last 2.5 months. He loves a good 3+ hour nap. Around week 8 friends of mine and my social media algorithms started talking about over tiredness and wake windows etc so I started tracking his sleep in Huckleberry. It’s going fine, I’ve noticed it’s easier to get him down when I abide by the wake window which is great but the one thing that I can’t seem to get on board with is capping naps.

Can anyone explain what the reasoning behind capping daytime naps is? It feels wrong to me. If his body needs the 3 hours, why should I wake him up at 1/2 and keep him awake for an hour? It feels like I’m forcing so much “wake up put down wake up put down”. I don’t know. There must be a science behind it I’m not aware of.

Last night my baby was just not having it in their bassinet/swaddle and wanted to co sleep. Husband and I just took turns awake with the baby to get some sleep but I haven’t had more than 3 hours a day since his birth.

I feel awful. We were on the couch laying semi upright/reclined. I fed and burped him on my chest and next thing I know it’s 2 hours later and we’ve both been out like a light. Obviously this is not safe sleeping and it felt completely out of my control. How are you guys avoiding accidental co-sleep? He’s so little so I know preference for contact sleep is normal but any tips and tricks to get him to sleep in his bassinet would be greatly appreciated.

For those who didn’t sleep train, when did your LO start falling asleep on their own? Like you kissed them goodnight and just walk away? No milk in bed to sleep.