Does your child sleep through the night? What?! How?! And how did you get your child to either take a nap or STOP taking naps? What’s your tip on how to transition from the crib to toddler bed? What’s your bedtime routine? What’s the secret? Is it as simple as a night light? Please reveal!!!!!
Search This Site
Login
Follow Us!
Fresh NEW Blogs!
Crunchy Super Bowl Spring Rolls
SUPER BOWL, I look forward to it every year even though I am no fan of football. However, it is >>Why does my Mom’s Cooking taste SOOOOO Good?
Last week I went home to visit my family and of course I had a wonderful time and gained 2 >>Spicy, Creamy Vegetable Soup!
Here we are in January and my normally healthy, highly energetic kids BOTH have stuffy noses and it breaks my >>Three Kisses Spaghetti <3
Why 3 Kisses? Well for one there are 3 main ingredients besides the spaghetti, secondly my son who is almost >>Pan Fried Lamb Chops with Cauliflower Mash and Cabbage Slaw.
4 Lamb Chops 2 cloves finely chopped garlic 2 tsps dried oregano salt and pepper to taste 1/4 cup clarified butter or olive oil _________________________ 1 >>
At night My son loves getting out of bed every 5 minutes to ask me to lay with him or scratch his back or check on him and all that. His bedtime is my time to wind down and have adult time so I figured out a trick: “honey, I promise to lay with you and scratch your back when you are sleeping ok? I will ONLY check on you if you’re sleeping.” my friend saw this strategy the other night and she plans on using this trick. I’m not sure how long it will last, but it’s been 4 months and I plan on milking it!
My boy used to wake up to every little sound. He would sleep at the babysitter’s house just fine and it hit me that she always had a loud fan on in the room. Guess what I did? Yes, I bought a loud fan. Guess what happened? Yes, he slept throughout the night!
Here is what worked for me for the transition into the big boy bed:
1. Give my son a bath, brush teeth, and brush hair (like normal).
2. Dim my son’s bedroom light, turn on night light light, and read a book with him in his bed.
3. Tell my son it’s time to rest and turn off the bedroom light. I scratch his back and I softly tell him my own made-up story. BIG TIP RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!! I tell him realistic stories that will help him every day. For example, if he is having tantrums lately, I tell him a story about a boy who has tantrums and how one day he stops and people love him, etc. If he has issues with sharing, I tell a story about a boy who shares and a boy who doesn’t share and goes into time-out. We ALWAYS discuss and reflect after.
4. After this, I tell him I am going to do some things in the house and come back to check on him. I remind him to rest and stay in bed. I found that if I do not check on him quickly, he will come out and get upset or request I come back in the room, so I learned to come right back within a minute to tell him “See….told ya I’d check on ya….sweet dreams….I’ll be back to check on you….” And, yes, I come back right away, then spread it out.
***This takes effort and time.
***When he comes out of the room when he should be sleeping (and he knows the deal….that I will check on him), I gently hold his hand and walk him back to his room without saying one word (I think I got this from the TV show Nanny 911). AndI repeat this process until all is good!
It took three weeks for my son to be comfortable sleeping in his own bed and THROUGH the night! But before the three weeks, I had tried for three months! I bought him a cool superman night light. , His grandparents bought him a Lightening McQueen bed, I put glowy stars on his walls, I bought him a DVD player so he could watch movies before bed (I know, I know)., So none of this worked until I got the scoop from you guys!!!! THANKSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m telling you! Here’s what worked:
A Fan,
Scratching his back,
Checking in on him from time to time,
Putting him back in his room without talking,
Telling him special bedtime stories (check the link above),
Being consistent
PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE RECALLS. WATCH THIS!!!
Here is a great article about the “Cry it Out” vs. “Attachment” method of parenting. This really comes into play with bedtime…I’m more of an attachment person, I cuddle both my kids to sleep. The 3 year old gets a bedtime story and then I lie down with him until he falls asleep. The almost 4 month old gets the nursing and rocking to sleep, I hold her for a while after she has fallen asleep, about 20-30 more minutes until she is DEEPLY asleep, no squirming if I move and then I put her in her crib.
This works for me, the toddler sleeps through the night (most nights) the little one after the 3 month mark sleeps anywhere from 4-8 hours, then nurses and goes right back to sleep for a few more hours. I feel like they feel secure and have a sound sleep.
http://drbenkim.com/articles-attachment-parenting.html
I think these types of articlesl really play of our emotions as parents and put a huge guilt trip on us. I think there is a big difference between comforting and your child/baby being able to get to sleep on their own. I have never let my kids cry it out, but I do assist them in falling asleep on their own. That took time, especially with my 4 month old (still working on it), and various techniques of settling.
I think its imporant to understand sleep in babies- that is the stages of sleep, active vs. quiet, light vs. deep. While some babies fall asleep quickly, others sleep lightly before going into a deep sleep. And they wake briefly after each sleep cycle, we don’t even notice this. And some children/babies will call out for help to resettle, others will do it themselves.
From then its a personal choice, if you are ready to do this, that is wake to resettle, then that’s fine, but personally for me, I couldn’t do this.
My son at times still wakes up every 1.5 hours and I help him resettle, other times he’ll sleep till next feed. I NEVER let him cry it out, I try to settle him in his bed, if I see it’s not getting better i will pick him up and calm him down and then back to bed.
A really good friend of mine sleeps with her kids, so that works for her, and I’m sure she’s getting more sleep than I am, at the moment anyway.
I am not saying that cuddling/rocking to sleep is wrong, I am just saying it does not work for everyone. I remember feelig so guilty after reading these attachment parenting articles. But my kids get plenty of hugs/cuddles during the day, they are happy, healthy kids and I feel confident in what I am doing. If you feel like you are doing the right thing, then that’s whats important.
PS
When I put my baby to sleep, I settle her in my arms, when I see he is calm and starting to fall asleep, I place him down, usually he starts to cry a bit so i try this:
A settleng technique that has worked for me for both of my kids is the patting technique:
Face your baby away from you.
Place your hand gently on your baby’s shoulder.
Cup your other hand and pat your baby gently and slowly on the bottom or thigh.
Make the patting as rhythmic as possible.
By the way sorry for the interchanging her/him, his/hers… I have a boy and girl so I’m thinking of both when i write.
We cosleep with our son; for naps and bedtime. We have the crib set up as a sidecar with the convertible side removed (it’s one of the cribs that converts to a toddler day bed). My son nurses to sleep at night, and is usually either walked/rocked to sleep or falls asleep with a bottle when he’s home with my husband during the day. The sidecar crib is a new addition, since our son is a sprawler, and we got tired of waking up to feet in the ribs or kidneys.
He has never been willing to sleep in the crib or even a bassinet on his own, so rather than fight out bed time, he has been in the bed with us since day one, including during our post partum hospital stay (at the encouragement of the nurses, even!). This has worked great for us, even if it can be frustrating to have to set our bed time to his bedtime. Once he’s deeply asleep, I usually shift him into the crib area so that we all have room to sleep. This works maybe 3 out of 5 times since this is still new for us. The other nights, he stays in the bed.
The downside is that we can’t use nap and bed times to get things down that we can’t do with him awake and exploring. The upside is that we all get as much rest as possible!
I feel very strongly that our son has benefitted from cosleeping, and although this was not initially what my husband and I had planned to do, we are glad that this was the route we went. Parents who want to consider cosleeping should make sure that they’re cosleeping safely, especially with newborns.
http://babyparenting.about.com/od/sleeping/a/cosleep.htm
http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/familybed.html
http://www.drmomma.org/2010/01/turn-your-crib-into-cosleeper.html