Alright blogger world...
I NEED HELP!!!
The boy is NOT sleeping and we have have ENOUGH!
We have been in our house for about 2 months now and I have NEVER spent the night on my bed.
We are pretty consistent with our bedtime routine.
Dinner, bathtime, stories with milk, brush teeth, prayers then night night.
Most of the time he goes down without a problem and by 7:30-8:00 (as long as I am in the room with him).
Then I leave and he is good for a while (3-4 hours)
Then he wakes up and wont go back to sleep unless I go back in the room.
I dont have to do anything though, I just sit there.
If I have enough energy I go back to our room.
This usually happens twice then I am too tired so I end up sleeping in his room for the rest of the night.
SOOOOO...
Any ideas how we can change this?
Crying it out DOES NOT work!
We tried it when he was 4 months, 6 months and right when we moved in. This boy has STAMINA!!! He would cry for 30mins stop and fall asleep for about 5mins then repeat the process.
We are honestly not believers of the crying it out method...At least not for Hyrum. He could and would cry for 3 hours (or more) straight. And we dont want that.
My theory is that he has major separation anxiety.
He was sleeping in the same room as us up until 2 months ago.
When he was an infant, I would put him in our bed and nurse him back to sleep.
When he got a bit older, I would just put him straight back to our bed whenever he would wake up.
The 4 months that we were in NZ he was on the same bed as me every night.
It just seemed easier that way.
So how do I break it?
Ok, every child is different so what has worked with my kids may not work with yours. SO I was thinking like super nanny and go in when he wakes up & sit abit farther from him each night & a bit closer to the door...but he can still see you. Do that for a week. Then stand outside the door, either sticking a hand under the door so he can see it, or open the door but stand outside so he can see you. And slowly get farther away. OR if you stand outside the door, close the door and sing children hymns so he can hear your voice. Eventually you can get farther away & then one night put him back in bed & don't stay. You might have to continue putting him back in...but he'll know you still love him & he'll get it.
ReplyDeletethat was a lot. Hope something works. good luck
Rach has good advice. I was just going to say that crying it out won't work if you don't believe in it, because you have to let him cry until he goes to sleep and if you go back in, he'll just cry longer.
ReplyDeleteSo my advice is that you should do Rach's idea!
Mygosh ate aissa, LJ is like that now. Ever since he started sleeping in his own bed, he can never get a good sleeping pattern. He will always wake up in the middle of the night, crawl into our bed then I have to put him back so that he can get used to it. I guess, kailangan mo lang sha sanayin, LJ is already 4 and I still get sleepless nights from him. And believe me LJ is even worse. Mygosh. Goodluck nalang saten :)
ReplyDeleteHaha. I was gonna tell u the exact same thing as rach did.
ReplyDeleteDitto with Jen!
ReplyDeletesince crying it out doesn't work..you should definitely try what rach and jen and janice said.
ReplyDeleteanother thing you can try that works on older toddlers (im assuming hes 15mths) is bribery/reward system. depending on how much he understands you. and sometimes they understand WAY MORE than you think they do.
1) you can try giving him a night light or leaving the door open and letting him know you are just outside doing "house work" and he needs to be a big boy and sleep by himself. or a special toy that could sleep with him...but not you. and if he cries: you will take away the light/close the door/take away toy.
2) if he sleeps by himself, give him a sticker for the night. and collect a sticker chart full to get toys/treats
3) or explaining that if he goes back to sleep by himself, like a big boy, then tomorrow he can _______. insert any reward that you want.
when they get older...the crying out method is not as effective coz they have more energy/more stubborn. so the reasoning/bribery/reward method works for me.