I've tried bribery. "You can have a surprise in the morning if you stay in your room tonight!" "Ok!!!", says Olivia. She is at her door about 30 seconds later.
I've tried punishment. "If you get out of your room, I'm going to have to take your Tinkerbell light away." She is at her door in 15 seconds. I take the light away and let her scream for about 10 minutes. That night she slept without the light but got up about 10 times.
I've tried the silent treatment. This is the Super Nanny technique: I walked her back to bed without saying ANYTHING and without making eye contact. This made her really frustrated at first, then she started thinking it was funny and she tried coming out about 20 times before I couldn't take it anymore. Dennis took over and ended up having to stay in her room for her to fall asleep.
I've tried singing/reading her to sleep. I will say this HAS worked a couple of times, but one night took over an hour! I almost sang MYSELF to sleep that night. And I really don't want to start the habit of her needing me to fall asleep.
I bought this light today (saw it in Parents magazine,) you can buy it at goodnitelite.com. It is supposed to help with the night wakings. Supposedly, you can help your child learn the difference between night and day by telling them it's "wake up time" only when the light turns into the sun. It's a "moon" during the night and you program it to turn into a "sun" at the predetermined a.m. time you choose. It's pricey, but worth a try in my opinion! I should get it in a few days.
I also bought the following book by Dr. Richard Ferber. Since we used his "Ferberization" technique successfully when Olivia was 9 months old, I thought I would read about his ideas on toddler sleep.
I pretty much research this subject any chance I get, but if anyone has any ideas I would LOVE to hear them. I will try anything other than putting a lock on her door. I just don't feel right about that one. I am thinking about starting a progress/sticker chart but I think she might be a little young to grasp the concept...
2 comments:
Michelle, I have NO advice for you. I'm sorry. But you know that I struggle with this as well. It's so hard. I mean Claire falls asleep in her bed but climbs into bed with us every single night/very early morning. I'm just hoping that one night she'll decide that she likes it in there. One thing I did (you might have done it already) is put those stars up on her ceiling. I told her that if she wakes up and opens her eyes she should just look at those for awhile and that has actually worked a couple times. She looks at them and falls back to sleep. This has happened twice. But it's worth a try. Good luck!
Bedtime battles suck!!! We deal with them nightly as well and I think every parent does! You are doing such a great job being consistent though and I think that one of these days she will just stay in there all night! When you figure out the secret let me know because I could use some help myself in this department!
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