Do YOU Sleep Though the Night?

I dont think moms ever sleep normal again for the rest of their lives. I'm a grandma and I still wake up in the night for unknown reasons or to maybe not pee the bed, lol.
My youngest son, age 29, is leaving for Afghanistan in a few weeks, that keeps me awake ..... so even when they grow up, move out, and do well, we still wake up and think about them. If you can get it down to waking only once in the night and able to go back to sleep you're doing good.

I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have slept for 8 hours straight since having kids, and mine are 5 and 6. I feel blessed when I can get 6 :)

I sleep anywhere between 2 hours and 15 hours a night (sum total). But most of the time I get 6 or 7. My choice. If I go to bed at 1am I get 7 hours... but I usually choose to go to bed around 2. Night before last I was busy, so I got to sleep about 6am. Regardless... I'm up at 830. Which is about an hour after my son gets up. ((There's a thing to look forward to: When your kids are old enough to get up, take a shower, brush their teeth, make breakfast, and you come downstairs as they're reading a book or watching a movie. That's my everymorning as of about age 6, although the showering without prodding didn't happen until age 8.))

My body doesn't actually care HOW I get my sleep. I can do 2 hours up for an hour sleep 2 hours up for an hour sleep 2 hours up for an hour doze for an hour and be glorious (7 and 9 are my "magic" numbers... everything else is varying degrees of "fine" but 7 or 9 is perfect). My husband on the other hand actually throws furniture into walls, and yells and screams, and hits and kicks things if he's woken up in the middle of the night. ((Aka... he NEVER got up with our son... or our son's life would have been at severe risk)). Some people can do interrupted sleep, and some can't.

I was told by a number of people early on "not to expect to feel like myself" until my son (or the youngest, depending on how many kids I was going to have) was 2. I didn't believe them... but they were dead on. If your wee ones are 4 and 1... it sounds like you never got that "2 year mark"... because at 2 years you were already pregnant (gotta love those hormones and bladder the size of a barbie shoe). If you're thinking about #3, why not way a couple years? Catch up on some sleep and then give it a whirl?

My son has always been a good sleeper, when he turned 1 and stopped BF then he started sleeping through the night, so for 3 years I got a full good nights sleep. We have a NB now but I feel like she is a pretty good sleeper. I feed her before bed around 10:30 and she will sleep until 4am. She wakes to BF but goes right back to sleep until 7am. Now that my son started pre-k we get up at 6:30 though. I am thankful to only wake up once for 20 minutes!

ny son woke up at 4 am for 2 full years.. he is now 3 years old and still wakes aroung 4 am several nights a week.. so I wake up at 4 am every night.. my body is so used to waking up at that time I just wake up at 4 am.. go to the bathroom adn try to go back to sleep -- I wish I could sleep all night..

I have a 5 year old and a 2.5 year old. I very rarely have a night without being woken up less than twice (sometimes up to 4 times). Number 3 is coming in March and I have this funny feeling that none of us will ever sleep again. I hope I am wrong!

I have a 20 month old son who usually doesnt fall asleep until 11pm or so. So after he is put down, I try to sleep. Then at 330am my DH alarm clock goes off and I rarely get back to sleep after that wakes me up and I am also 35 weeks pregnant so I am up peeing all the time! Pretty soon Ill have a new born and I remember how little sleep I got when my first was born. I breastfed so I was feeding him every 2 hours or more (he was a chunk). At least I can nap with my son during the day, but im usually to busy to actually do it!

For me... it got better once my kids hit 2-3 years old.
Then they slept more soundly.... and longer and better.
But... my kids are both very loud when they sleep.... talking in their sleep or if they have dreams.... they laugh, grumble, or cry if having a nightmare.
They do go back to sleep on their own... or are just still sleeping when they are doing this.

At about 2 years old, it gets better.

But if you can't fall back asleep.... well, I don't know. My Husband is like that... with any little noise.
Its just the way it is. Kids or not.
Even my tossing or turning or snoring... will wake him.
So its not always the "kids" that are waking a parent.

If you have another baby... well, the 2 other kids will be older by then... so they will be sleeping better naturally, amidst their age-related sleep tweaks. Then with a baby, you will not get sleep. Again.

For me personally, I never get 8 hours of sleep. I have my own sleep rhythms... I get about 6 hours sleep.

all the best,
Susan

I've been sleeping through the night since the youngest was about 9 months. The only think that wrecks my sleep groove is DH's snoring. = ) I might trade that for a crying child.

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We are on a funny schedule with our times, but we put the kids to bed between 11:45 and 12:30 most nights/mornings (if my 4 year old is not sleeping when we put the 2 year old down, they keep each other awake for a few more hours). I then finish "winding down" and hang out with my husband for a bit and have been actually making it to bed before 2:00 most mornings (the kids are not usually asleep when we put them down and I can't sleep when the younger one is in there jabbering, so I have to wait anyway). Sometimes one of them wakes up and whines a bit, but not often. I sometimes wake up when my husband comes to bed. I am also pregnant with our third so find that I wake up more or get more restless. I get up for work at 7 and start my day again. I guess I consider a 6 hour night one of the most glorious things in the world and can't imagine the luxury of 8 hours under any circumstances. Enjoy it if you can get it, but don't decide your family size strictly based on sleep. :)

I should probably add that my husband has insomnia and has struggled with sleep issues since he was a child (one of the reasons he works well on evening shift). I am pretty fried most of the time and try to get a nap in on the evenings he is home and some evenings he sends me to bed early and puts the kids down without me, but we miss out on family time that way.

Reading this question brought a smile to my face. I think most moms have disrupted sleep, but I think it gets better over time. My two year old has a habit of waking up in the middle of the night (usually only once) and coming into my bedroom. Sometimes I wake up and put her back in her room and sometimes in a half asleep state I put her in bed with me. Usually I can fall back to sleep pretty easily. The funny thing is she slept through the night the other day and I woke up! In crazy mom fashion, I had to go check on her to make sure she was okay.

I'm a horrible sleeper. My kids are great sleepers; they're 12 and 6, and have been good sleeper since they were a few months old. I've always been a light sleeper, though. I think too much. I'm a high school teacher, and I'm always thinking about how I want to change my lesson plans, or what papers need to be graded, or what is going on in my husband's or my children's lives. I just can't turn off my thoughts. I also hear every little noise. I started wearing earplugs years ago, and that has helped. Now my husband gets up if either of the boys needs anything, which isn't too often at their ages. I need lots of sleep to function well, but I don't get enough sleep.

I get at least 8 uninterupted hrs every night , sometimes more if I go to bed earlier. I love my sleep and I cannot function during the day if I don't get enough , I have been very lucky with 3 kids that sleep really well and started sleeping through the night at around 3 months.....I am sorry to all those parents out there who have sleep issues!