1. My review of mom-blog-thology Sleep Is for the Weak is up today at The Full Mommy.
2. Speaking of sleep, my son is trying to kill me. No matter what we try, it takes an hour to put him to bed. An hour of hands-on shushing, corraling, returning-to-bed time. It just seems to take him that hour to wind down enough to fall asleep. Short of drugs (which believe me I have contemplated), what else can we do?
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12 comments:
Start the bedtime routine earlier?
Yes, have tried that. It does help in that at least I am less aggravated at the end of the hour (because MY entire evening hasn't been ruined) but it still takes an hour.
Is he taking a nap at school? If so can you have them make sure to shorten it as much as they can? At Finns school I remind them constantly to keep him up as long as possible and wake him up first. It's not much of a suggestion but it helped us- a little.
I've been through this myself and I can't tell you a thing to do except remember that he will outgrow it.
Here's what we've done to facilitate CJ's bedtime - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't:
1. Get the jammies on early.
2. Call a halt to the racing around about 20 minutes before bedtime.
3. Tell her that we'll read two books, but then we're leaving the room.
4. Allow her to keep the light on, read, play with toys in bed, etc. But she must stay in her room.
5. Send her back to bed immediately if she gets up. No requests for any sort of beverage are honored. Well, except maybe a hot toddy.
Not sure if any of this will help, but if nothing else, I can commiserate.
Arrrgh. If I had to grade myself on motherhood, I'd do very well during the day and MUCH LESS SO after they are supposed to be asleep. This is a tough one b/c I think it's often related to growth spurts, so your sort of stuck with it for awhile.
How about backing up the time, as Heather suggested, reading/bathing/whatever you usually do, then he can have "book time" of his own (looking through whatever he wants) until it's time for lights out, while you go get something else done? Might be worth a try...
And, of course, grab a beer.
I dunno, but when you figure it out, let me know.
earlier nap. it sounds like he could be napping too late. And perhaps a shorter nap as well.
When you say goodnight, mean it and don't go back in (this is MUCH easier said than done).
LOVED the book.
Our nighttime routine is pretty long too, but SwingDaddy takes care of most of it while I'm nursing and putting the baby to bed. When I emerge it's always interesting to see if which one has gotten to sleep faster for the night.
No advice from this here quarters. Just me slunking away, knowing I did it all wrong but discovering, finally, that they all sleep fine and dandy on their own. Eventually.
No real advice here other than to cut back on naps if he's still taking them and also to start bedtime earlier. I've heard from several people who swear that if you put the kids to bed earlier it makes all the difference because of the whole sleeplessness cause sleeplessness. Bribery worked well for us a couple weeks ago to get our older son out of our bed every night!
A few things we've done that have helped:
- start getting ready for bed earlier.
- keep to a strict bedtime routine (for us, that is dinner, bath, one 30-min show, two stories and then we leave the room.)
We also allow them to read on their own/play quietly in bed with the light on until they drift off, but don't let that turn into calling for you every 5 min for this or that.
Good luck. It can be maddening, especially at the end of the day when everyone is worn out.
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