We feel like we've tried e v e r y t h i n g!! To no avail! That girl just keeps popping out of bed!! 2, 3, 6, 10, 12, 20 times a night! We've tried reading stories, singing songs, praying, rocking, spanking, no talking or interacting at all, standing at the bottom of the stairs saying "go back to bed"....etc, etc, etc! We'll put her to bed at 7 and it's not for another hour and a half or two hours before she's actually asleep! We're determined to win this battle with her though!! : )
So today I was reading in what has been my most helpful sleep book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth, M.D. I re-read a section that talked about problems like these and he said to make a Sleep Rules sign for the bedroom wall.
So we did!
We also made this cute door sign and when it's on the door, it means she has to stay in bed.We went over the rules over and over and over again! To see the "rules" you can click on the picture. She's like, "yeah, okay, got it!!" on each and every one. And I've still put her BACK to bed three times so far tonight! : )
Three times actually feels pretty good though. And I did it a little differently, I kept telling her, "you can do it yourself...go back to your room...climb back in bed...pull up your covers...goodnight!" She only cried one time while doing it, so maybe....just maybe!
So it's our "last ditch effort" and then, what? Locking her in her room??? That doesn't feel good. Anyone else have any ideas????
11 comments:
We've totally been there with Maggie. I thought spanking was our last ditch effort for this problem...but it didn't work either. Ugh. My mother-in-law noticed suggested using her beloved blanket as her 'currency' right now. When she gets out of bed, we tell her that having her blanket with her is a privilege- and when she shows us that she can be OBEDIENT then she can have the blanket back. (sidenote: I'm a REALLY mean mom, when I take her blanket from her, I put it on a shelf where she can see it.) It has worked well for us...as painful as it may be for Mama to take the blanket away...
:-) Good luck!
How did she do Sunday night?
She stayed in bed after that third time, so yay! I also had put her to bed later than usual, wondering if maybe we need to push the time back a bit.
And thanks Leah for your input! Abigail doesn't really have any emotional attachments to anything, so I'm not sure if something like that would work. We might try though!! Thanks for the idea!
She was getting back up at nap time today, I don't know if she's just testing out this new system, or what. We'll see!
We've been dealing with the exact same issues with Blake and tried everything we think of to get him to stay in his bed. We were all so exhausted that we finally broke down and put the crib back in his room though. If you find something that works, please share! We are going to be going through that battle again before long because we are going to need the crib for the baby that will hopefully be on the way soon! Isn't it weird that they do so good for awhile and then they regress?
We battled this too!! We were at the point were it would take Julia 2 hours before she would go to bed. We started staying in her room until she fell asleep. Some times it would take up to 20 min though, which was a bummer, but definitely better than the 2 hours before. (Brandon would play games on his phone to stay awake while sitting there!) Having us in the room let her relax and sleep eventually took over her. She has always faught sleep so much, so this was the best way for her to no longer fight sleeping. It took a month or so of this before we could leave her room before she was alseep. We still tell her now if she stays in her bed good we will come check her. That also works well for us. We tell Julia if you are good we will come check you, and we do within 2 minutes or so. You can keep checking her until she is asleep. More than likely that will also be less time than the possible 2 hours you are at now. I think the staying in the room technique is actually what 'Supernanny' teaches. She might have some more ideas. For the most part I like her ideas. Good luck! It will eventually pass, that is until something else comes up!! Oh, and Cole sounds way too much like Elijah!
Josh and I were reading The Strong Willed Child by Dr. Dobson last night and he happened to be talking about how to handle kids who get out of their beds. I thought of you and thought I'd pass along his thoughts. His take is that this is one of those battles that the parent needs to win to show that they are the one in authority. He says when you tuck them in, tell them how serious you are and that they are not to get out of bed. If they get out of bed, give them a spanking and tell them they will get another one if they get out again. Then leave the spanking spoon or whatever you use where they can see it and leave the room. Keep doing it until they stay in bed. Don't know if this would work, but thought I'd pass it along!
Thanks Amy & Heidi! We have tried all that!! : ) Sometimes we just lay in bed with her until she's almost asleep or asleep, and then leave. Sometimes it's worked and other times it hasn't. For a time too, we were putting her to bed in our room. She kept asking for our bed and when we finally tried it she would go to sleep right away. Then she fell out one day and hasn't wanted to go back! : ) Bummer. We've also tried the whole spanking thing, leaving the spoon there as a reminder, but it's like she wants the interaction so much that it's worth it to her to get the spanking. We even increased the number of spankings with each time of getting up! Joel has been sitting outside her door the past couple nights reading a book and each time she opens her door he tells her to go back to bed. Still though, she's testing it. It might be helping though, it seems like it's fewer times. Thanks for all the input! It's fun to be dialoguing about this issue!
Well you know we've delt with this for a LOOONG time too. We've been using the pack-n-play as his punishment for not staying in his bed. Since he can't crawl out of it we just leave him there and let him cry it out. We don't have to use it quite as much as before so maybe we're making progress.
Now, I just have to say that I can't believe you are punishing our perfectly sweet grandchildren! At night is a perfect time to cuddle with them on the couch for hours and tell them stories - about their parents of course - and how well they went to bed when they were their ages! Somethings are ageless!
Duct tape. :)
Oh my, we've gone through this so many times with Jackson - ever since he could crawl out of his crib, both before falling asleep and at all hours of the night. Every so often he just goes through one of those phases. We've tried everything, too, and nothing has "worked" like we wanted, but we've made sure to outlast him. Or maybe he just pulled out of that phase. Either way, though, I refuse to lose those battles to a 3-year old - no matter how many frustrating nights it takes!
These issues are so frustrating. How fun to get ideas and read others. We were the lay down with them parents and would have probably felt more guilty but hadn't read that many books to say it was wrong. Tom often volunteered as he would be tired anyway. Mark would turn his face and put his nose to our nose and tell us to quit breathing. As far as I know he sleeps quite well now. Hopefully Amy gets a little more "breathing room" Kitty
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