I've never really had a hard time putting Noah to sleep.... we have rough nights every now and then, but it's generally a breeze. We read a book or sing a song, and then I put him in bed with his doggy and leave him to his thoughts. He still takes a bottle sometimes, if he's having trouble. I'm just letting him go at his own pace. Anway, we've had a lot of trouble this week getting him down. He still sleeps in his crib, and has learned how to vault himself out of it. Then he opens his door and tries to run down the stairs to where we are. It takes hours to get him to sleep, because he won't stay in his bed at all. He acts like he wants to sleep in my bed, which is alright I guess, but he wants me to stay with him, and the only time I really have to get my stuff done is when he's sleeping. I tried to get him to go to sleep in my bed and then move him to his, but he wouldn't have that, either. The other night we had to pretty much baricade him in his room after we put him down, just because I'm afraid he'll get out and fall down the stairs. I left the side to his crib down though, so he wouldn't fall as far when he jumped out, because I knew it was inevitable. I had to just let him cry for a while. When I went to check on him later, he'd crawled back into his crib. I don't know what to do. I've hardly slept this week. If he's not keeping me up crying, he's kicking the crap out of me in bed. I feel so helpless when stuff like this happens, and I get scared because I feel like I'm not doing my mommy job right and I don't want to mess him up. I also get really stressed out, and sometimes I worry about getting a temper with him. I don't want to do that. Geez, I'm too young for this. Anyway.... if anyone has any tips on what to do about the sleeping problem, I'd really appreciate it. han
god, i dont know, happyhaha, we never really went the way of the crib and the bottle. my kiddo (age3) goes to bed with the boobie and his mama when he's here, and when he's at his dad's he goes to bed with stories and his papa. i usually read or something when i'm putting him down, and then if i dont fall asleep too, i get back up and do my own thing. i hear you about only having your own time when your kiddo is sleeping though! it's rough. my mom always did the kid/bottle/crib thing with non-infants/toddlers, and i dont ever remember it working out very well. there was always a lot of yelling and spanking and kids screaming. it's always worse when you're sleep deprived. i know! can you put a pillow or a stuffie or a bolster or something between you so that when he kicks he's not kicking you? hopefully he's just going thru some transitional stage and he'll grow out of it really quickly. i hope other mama's will have some other gentle ideas that you can try too. ps, this is a really nice article kind of related to what you're talking about: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0838/is_n58/ai_9332496/print
I've done the pretending to sleep thing with him, and it usually works, but then I fall asleep, too, and don't do my homework. I guess I could have someone wake me up. He'll go to sleep in my bed, but I just don't want him getting in the habit of sleeping there. Today I put him in the playpen downstairs with the door open. I'm thinking the poor kid is just afraid of small places, like his crib..... I've been meaning to get him a cot or something.... maybe it's about time?
We are having problems with Dakota. Actually he hasn't slept since we took him out of the crib over a year ago. He will not sleep in his room at all. He sometimes falls asleep on the couch. Otherwise he is up until we go to bed. This means 3 hours of screaming at him to lay down and go to sleep. When he goes into his little bed in our room he will toss and turn until we turn the lights out. Then he will go right to sleep. But only if he is sure that both of us are in bed for the night. I've tried laying down with him, but it doesn't work. We have to both be in bed for the night before he will go to sleep. For a long time he would only sleep with us in our bed. He doesn't have a bottle or anything like that. He just refuses to go to sleep. If he does fall asleep on the couch we leave him there. Sometimes he will sleep there all night. Other times I hear him crawl into his own little bed in the middle of the night. We3've tried everything, but he's just a little night owl. And he hates to get up in the morning. Don't know what to do, what to do what to do zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... Kathi
