sleep. . . a foreign concept

Sleep: A natural state of bodily rest in which there is a decreased ability to react to stimuli. REGULAR SLEEP IS ESSENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL.

I'm not sure how exactly to get this message across to my oldest child. He is almost 18 months old and is still a HORRIBLE sleeper. As of late, he has been sleeping with us in order for us to maximize sleep hours. However, this has backfired on us. While we get to escape having to wake up and try to get him back in bed (which may take anywhere from 15 - 30 minutes otherwise), we now have to deal with feet, hands, head, and bum in our face, on our head, chest, hips, legs, etc. He is at the head of the bed one moment, and at the foot the next. Then, he decides that neither of those is quite right and it would be better to lay sideways to get sleep. We have a queen sized bed, and our 18 month old son (who is small for his age) takes up about 2/3 of it (if not more). My husband and I, more often than not, end up clinging for dear life to the edge of the bed (my husband sleeps inside so he is protected by the wall, I don't have that luxury, haha). I don't understand the child. How can he function during the day? and then he'll wake up at 9 or 9:30 in the morning REARING to go. . .

What's even MORE frustrating, is when you hear about babies that are 2 months old sleeping RIGHT through the night! I used to get so frustrated with that. . . I couldn't understand why my child wouldn't do that. How is it that one child never sleeps, while other children sleep right through? It's even more frustrating (although, a welcomed change) that my 3 month old child sleeps throught the night better than my 18 month old. My 3 month old goes to bed and will sleep for 6 hours straight (ex. 11 pm until 5 am). How can two siblings be so different?

Apparently, it's a family trait, though. I was a horrible sleeper (and still am, I wake with the least little thing), my cousin used to wake up during the night for a snack until he was 11 years old. . . and then he still woke up, but he just got his own snack! I just don't know what to do about the sleep situation.

I don't think there's any need for him to be waking up during the night. He's only a small boy, and he eats all day long! We've tried the "crying it out" method, but after 4 hours of crying, and not letting up, and throwing up everywhere, we decided that the method just was not going to work with our child. We tried taking his nap from him during the day, and it was even WORSE during the night to keep him asleep.

Ultimately, I keep trying to tell myself that it won't be like this forever. Eventually he'll grow up and I'll probably be wishing that he were sleeping in our bed again, cuddling into us throughout the night. However, lack of sleep is making me a little crazy. I have become forgetful, stun, and ultimately I feel like I'm sleep-walking my way through the days most of the time. My husband is wonderful and we share the load, but that just means that we're BOTH exhausted all of the time.

I love my babies, but I would love to have a little sleep as well, haha. I'm not going to wish my time away, but I refuse to quit trying to find ways to make my sleeping situation better. Feel free to comment and leave suggestions!