2/22/08

Sleep Issues


Noah use to be the BEST sleeper. He would go down around 8 and wake up around 7. Sleep was great! Then I had this brilliant plan to move him into a bed at 20 months because he would not take naps at his Grandma’s house, and his aunt Megan was going to start watching him and I wanted him to take naps on a bed for her. Things started out fine; he would curl up in his ‘big boy bed’ and sleep the night away. Then I don’t know what happened, but he started wanting mom to sit by his bed until he fell asleep and he started waking up at 2 so I could do the same. I slowly made my way out the door so I was sitting by his room, but this was killing up 30 to 45 minutes of the night. I am a working mom and those 2 – 3 hours I have between putting Noah to bed and me getting to bed are like gold. And he was still getting up at night
So last weekend I decided to be a ‘mean mom’ and I put Noah in his bed, shut the door and walked away. As expected he came out after me, I picked him up, didn’t say anything, and carried him back to his bed. After 1 hour and 20 minutes of this Noah tired out and fell asleep on his floor. Since the night Noah only comes out of his room once or twice and as soon as he sees me he runs back in, slams the door and pushes against it so I can’t get in. Then he lies by the door and cries himself to sleep. We are still working to follow the same procedure in the middle of the night (sometimes sleeping on his floor for an hour wins over fighting with him for an hour, hopefully I can do better this weekend when I know I don’t have to be up at 6).
My question to all of you is: have you moved your kids into bed kid beds? Has anyone else experienced problems like this? If so, how did you overcome it?
Right now both Noah and I HATE bed time. He knows I am going to leave him and I know he is going to throw a fit. Will this ever be a win / win situation?

4 comments:

Gonzalez said...

Coco-
I deal with this DRAMA everynight of my life as well, except for the child is a 4 year old. I too have to be up early (4:30am to be exact) and what ends up happening is Brandon ends up laying down with me until he falls asleep and then my husband will put him in bed. Probably not what you wanted to hear....My 2 year old on the other hand still sleeps in his crib. And I think I will keep him in there until he is 18...I can't imagine dealing with 2 kids not sleeping!

P.S. I am Rachie's sister (in law)

Rachie said...

I have no advice for you. The twins are still in their cribs. I hear some people lock the kids in their rooms. Sounds cruel, but it does the trick. I think that whatever you do, you need to be consistant.

Good luck!

Crystal said...

Yuck! I don't have any advise either, but I for sure think consistency is key. It's sooo hard when you have an alarm to get up to in the morning though!

Amy said...

I don't have any advice of my own. I do however know that my sister-in-law locks her son in his room. They do their normal bedtime routine and then let him know it is time to sleep. They lock the door and it took time, but he goes in his own bed now and sleeps. So it might be worth a try.