More Sleep Follies
So G is a great sleeper. I take full credit for this. I walked the hard road of "sleep training" from months 5-7 and all the little blips in between (including sitting up and moving to a big kid bed). The philosophy in our house is one person takes point and the other person backs that up. Which essentially means ... Lewis did what I told him (on the sleep issue, not much else!).
So the new thing, which we all knew was coming, was G is now comfortable enough and acting out enough to climb out of his twin bed. The space between the rail and the floor was now short enough for his growing legs to feel comfortable jumping down. The bed is really only 18 inches off the floor. Lots of other children would have climbed out at a year from such a distance.
So he's getting out of bed after bedtime. Which really, in the old house, wouldn't be too big of a stomach ache but with the stairs ... it quite literally gives me a heart attack. It's sort of a mixed blessing that I'm getting up three times a night with D because I can check to make sure he's still in bed. Frequently.
So with this new sleep issue I consulted my beloved book. Lewis wanted to simply move the bed time back. I'm hesitant on this because really it appears to work for him. I feel comfortable backing it up half an hour. So we will do that (with the blessing of my book, of course) and then we're following the rest of the advice.
Walk the child back to his bed, silently, avoid eye contact. Say not one word. Do not smile. Do not frown. Do not do anything. Mechanical. They want reaction (good or bad). So I tried this approach at nap time today. Knowing full well it will work because I swear it's magic and it worked before (the no eye contact is key). Now I did cheat and give him a kiss on the forehead before I left. But no eye contact, no words. And guess what? No stall tactics.
And really the stall tactics are what kill me. Mama juice. Mama hungry. Mama more songs. Mama need another bath. Mama more toys. Mama songs. Mama songs. Mama songs. I can not tell you how many times I've sang "Feed the Birds." The ABCs. Mary had a little lamb. Jesus Loves Me. Over and over and over. Can't sing a new song. Has to be one of the old stand bys. Sheesh.
So the silence earned me no stall tactics. I still had to watch on the monitor and use the intercom and say "no" when he tried to get out again. But he only tried twice and then he laid down. We'll see what the night brings.
Honestly it's not that bad. Eventually he does just give up and go to bed. But it would be better if there was a way to avoid the stalling, and hopefully some of the tears. So that's what I'm trying to do. It'll all work out one way or the other.
But it's times like this that I miss the old stair-less house and the new house with it's stairs scare me. I'm sort of confident he'd make it down okay (he walks down without help but I walk in front of him). But in the dark? Tired? Upset? Yeah it's not worth thinking about how bad that would be.
And I have a gate blocking off his hallway. But those gates aren't fool proof. I had to get up and check to make sure it was closed securely twice last night. Yes, I'm crazy.
So the new thing, which we all knew was coming, was G is now comfortable enough and acting out enough to climb out of his twin bed. The space between the rail and the floor was now short enough for his growing legs to feel comfortable jumping down. The bed is really only 18 inches off the floor. Lots of other children would have climbed out at a year from such a distance.
So he's getting out of bed after bedtime. Which really, in the old house, wouldn't be too big of a stomach ache but with the stairs ... it quite literally gives me a heart attack. It's sort of a mixed blessing that I'm getting up three times a night with D because I can check to make sure he's still in bed. Frequently.
So with this new sleep issue I consulted my beloved book. Lewis wanted to simply move the bed time back. I'm hesitant on this because really it appears to work for him. I feel comfortable backing it up half an hour. So we will do that (with the blessing of my book, of course) and then we're following the rest of the advice.
Walk the child back to his bed, silently, avoid eye contact. Say not one word. Do not smile. Do not frown. Do not do anything. Mechanical. They want reaction (good or bad). So I tried this approach at nap time today. Knowing full well it will work because I swear it's magic and it worked before (the no eye contact is key). Now I did cheat and give him a kiss on the forehead before I left. But no eye contact, no words. And guess what? No stall tactics.
And really the stall tactics are what kill me. Mama juice. Mama hungry. Mama more songs. Mama need another bath. Mama more toys. Mama songs. Mama songs. Mama songs. I can not tell you how many times I've sang "Feed the Birds." The ABCs. Mary had a little lamb. Jesus Loves Me. Over and over and over. Can't sing a new song. Has to be one of the old stand bys. Sheesh.
So the silence earned me no stall tactics. I still had to watch on the monitor and use the intercom and say "no" when he tried to get out again. But he only tried twice and then he laid down. We'll see what the night brings.
Honestly it's not that bad. Eventually he does just give up and go to bed. But it would be better if there was a way to avoid the stalling, and hopefully some of the tears. So that's what I'm trying to do. It'll all work out one way or the other.
But it's times like this that I miss the old stair-less house and the new house with it's stairs scare me. I'm sort of confident he'd make it down okay (he walks down without help but I walk in front of him). But in the dark? Tired? Upset? Yeah it's not worth thinking about how bad that would be.
And I have a gate blocking off his hallway. But those gates aren't fool proof. I had to get up and check to make sure it was closed securely twice last night. Yes, I'm crazy.
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