When will my son settle ?

Sleep is a huge part of all of us and for me I have always went to bed late but hated waking in the morning. I always wished my children would have a sleep pattern like their dad, he can sleep any time , anywhere . 

Since I had my 1st born son 4 years ago his sleep pattern has never been great.
At first he was like any other baby, he slept for four hours ,woke for a feed and a gurgle for an hour then slept another four hours till the next feed.

There was a one thing I had noticed from the start though and that was he would not sleep anywhere but our bed. 
Although it used to be advised not to sleep with baby, my son would not sleep anywhere else .
We had him in the moses basket, bouncer chair, rocking lullaby swing chair and yes we even carried the whole pram up each night to see if that would help but no matter where he was placed he would not settle.

When the time came to put him in a cot we thought if we placed it to the side of the bed it would help and then we slowely began to move it away from our bed as the nights went by.
My son would scream and scream and so we tried placing our clothes we had worn that day inside his cot as a comfort with our scent on thinking that may help and it worked for a short time till he twigged it was not actually us and was a piece of clothing.
 
I have never had sleeping problems with any of my other children nor my step children.
My girls in fact basically slept for a full 12 hours on a night even as babies and were always in a fantastic routine. 
This time however I think I may have either spoilt my son or have less patience to argue. 
I am not sure if my son has my genes and just likes to stay up till really late or is it really my fault?
Maybe I was just cursed with a none sleeping baby to get me back after being so smug at how great my girls slept as my friends struggled with their children as I am now.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact there are more of them now and I just let him sit with us till he falls asleep, after all it does seem the easier option.

The thing is when he was born , my husband used to sit with him on his knee whilst he played on the computer games and my son would fall asleep, but this was late at night. He rarely ever had naps and so when he started school for half days I thought it would tire him out , but it has not .
I used to take him to bed at 7pm and lie there till 11pm with his crawling all over me giggling and wanting to play. I was knackered so I have no idea where he had all the energy from. He was sleeping only 6 hours like me at max sometimes but it never showed.

It does not seem to be the only problem though.
 My 4 year old is still in my bed with me and my husband and as you can imagine although we love our special hugs from him still as he falls asleep , it is starting to become a routine that he will not get out of or we feel it to be that way. 

We decorated his bedroom last year in aid of getting him to sleep in his own room. He chose the wallpaper and colours and bedding but it had no effect. He said he did not like it in his room .
After only 3 months of the bedrooms been decorated nothing was helping and so we decided to try and swap our bedrooms around. We moved the boys into a much bigger room where they could have more space and feel more comfortable and we placed our bed into the tiny box room which was once theres just to see if it would help.
Still another 3 months later , my son is sleeping in our room and although we have nights where he will fall asleep at 7pm on the sofa, we can carry him to his own bed but then find him crawling in with us at 10pm onwards.

Each night we leave the bathroom light on , which is outside his bedroom in case he feels scared and needs the toilet , thinking this will help also with any fears he may have but not helped, so then after trying to turn it off in case it was giving the opposite effect and keeping him up we found it made no difference at all.


I have tried the hot bath, warm drink and lying on a bed with him till he sleeps but it simply does not work.
I have never been one for going to bed early and find myself up till very late usually around 12am to 2am sometimes and I honestly think this child has been given my sleep pattern.

My son has slept at family members and went to sleep straight away so my conclusion is there are way too many children in the house for him to want to go to sleep, especially sharing a bedroom with 3 brothers sometimes 4. It has to be either that or me and my husband are being to soft and allowing him to sit with us till all hours and waiting for him to fall asleep.
With having so many already it is hard to even have the energy to argue most nights and I honestly have tried letting him cry his eyes out till but he never gives in before we do and it can take hours. 

My son can be up till 11pm at night and wake up before any of us totally refreshed but I just wish he would fall asleep earlier like the other children . 
Having 6 living under our roof already it is hard to get time with my husband already and having a 4 year old who will not go to bed can be a pain .

I know all children have their own times and ways of getting into their own routines for bedtime but it seems I have been truly tested with my son or maybe he was sent to me to teach me a lesson as I was exactly the same haha.

As we keep trying new ways to get him to at least fall asleep at a normal reasonable time , we are currently looking for a bigger home . 
I am hoping this will help as he will have less people sharing his room to make more noise and wake him but for now we struggle on , hoping one day soon he will just wake up and decide to do it himself.
Maybe when he starts full time school in the coming September, who knows, can only hope .

Have you had a problem with sleeping with your little ones or even have any tips as to new things I could try to help him . I would appreciate your help?


Mummy needs a break !