Sleeping through the night - don't make me laugh!!

My baby girl is now 9mths old and has not slept through the night since the day she was born.  She'd always been a light sleeper; even in hospital overnight when all the other babies on the ward slept through everything that was going on, my little precious would wake at the slightest sound that was made.  Every time the midwife came to check on the mums and babies she would wake, every time someone spoke she would wake and every time a mum came into the ward with her new baby, my little bundle of joy would wake.  I therefore spent all night following her birth walking her around the ward and chatting to the midwives on reception.  Unfortunately, I have never had more than 2hrs sleep at a time since then.

When, I wonder, can I have a good night's sleep?  Not any time soon by the looks of things.

My husband is reluctant to try any kind of controlled crying techniques as he has to get up at the crack of dawn to get to work so he wants a good night's sleep without listening to all the crying.  Therefore, it is down to mummy to go sort the baby out when she cries in the night.

Some nights have been particularly bad, and conscious of what the health visitors have said about not fussing over crying babies, not picking them up or taking them downstairs, I've opted to climb into the cot bed and sleep with my little baby!  It certainly helped to settle her and so far I've only done it twice in two months, usually when she is feeling particularly poorly.

How different my two girls are, the older one always slept well and had her first 5hr stint at around the 5mth stage.  Since then we've left her to cry herself to sleep (which thankfully didn't last long) and she quickly got the message that mummy and daddy aren't going to get her and has always managed to settle herself at night.

Unfortunately by little baby has not granted me such a luxury but I'm still hoping that as she gets older she will be able to sleep better and let me do the same!!