Cordy has been fighting bedtime for the past month, and it’s been very frustrating. Our old method of letting her fall asleep on the couch and carrying her to her room is no longer working. She has become hyper-sensitive to being picked up, and once she wakes up she starts crying and you’re back to square one.
Our new plan is to let her do whatever the hell she wants, as long as she stays in her room. I taught her how to turn her light on, and I leave the door open each night. So far it’s working. The past two nights, she’s only come out of her room once or twice, and gone right back in as soon as I told her. She’s up later than we normally prefer for bedtime, but she is putting herself to sleep without crying and screaming.
Last night she went to sleep in her bed.
How Cordy fell asleep tonight:
I can’t imagine the pain in her neck in the morning.
owwwww!! totally cute, but owwwwww!!!
OK but seriously, how cute is that pic!?
Holy ouchies!!! 🙂
She is just so adorable. I love those curls!!!
I’ve been thinking that when we move Zoe into a bed we’ll be doing the same thing. I can’t imagine she’ll stay in a bed. I’m hoping if we can just keep her in her room… and let her sleep where she will… eventually she’ll figure out the bed is most comfortable? I don’t know… we’re not crossing that bridge until we’re forced to!
Dude… sometimes you just gotta let them do whatever… even if it means a massage in the morning.
At least yours stays in her room… 2 of mine still raid my bed. Nightly. It’s amazing we ended up having the time to make Clutch.
The pic is adorable.. I wanna pinch those cheeks a bit.
She doesn’t seems any worse for wear this morning. Either she got up in the night and moved to her bed, or she doesn’t notice.
Probably the second, since I know from experience that she really doesn’t notice pain much. Warrior princess, you know. 🙂
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get them to sleep. Choose your battles, ya know?
She is absolutely adorable, and I am glad her neck is OK today!
3carnations – She fell asleep around 9:15pm last night, 9:30pm the night before. She normally goes to bed around 7:30-8:00pm. It’s a little later, but I have a feeling she’ll adjust to an earlier time again.
She has never slept much. Her internal clock has her awake at 6:00am, and nothing works to help her back to sleep.
My husband swears that children don’t feel those aches the way that we do. However I remember waking up with a very sore neck from falling asleep in a funny position in the car.
Strawberry wants me to stay with her until she falls asleep and 90% of the time I do only because I unintentionally fall asleep.
We’re the same with Paul. As long as he stays in his room and quiet we usually let him fall asleep on his own. Normally this means he sleeps on the floor in his doorway, I don’t know why we even have a bed for him.
On rare occasions I’ll lay down with him for a while so he can fall asleep that way. We don’t do this often because we don’t want it to be a habit, but sometimes he’s so tired and we don’t want him fighting sleep.
So cute!! 🙂 I was going to say that I wanted to pinch those cheeks, too! I don’t think my little guy would stay in his room, either, so congrats on that!! How is she this morning? Neck aches?
I’m a big fan of whatever works parenting. like you said, things change pretty quickly so there’s no point being stressed. Cordy definitely does not look stressed 😉
Yikes. I can’t imagine that. Bedtime is something that we have always been very consistent about. Our son postpones it as long as he can (another drink of water, another trip to the potty…), but within a pretty reasonable time frame he is in his bed, lights off. How much sleep does your daughter end up getting per night?
Wow, she is totally pulling an “Elizabeth”!! Too funny.
When Sarah was born we let Elizabeth’s bedtimes slide – actually we never had her on a schedule before either but it got worse. We actually found out that if we missed the “window of opportunity” to put her to bed – she gets hyperactive and is impossible to deal with. So now, we have storytime at 7:30 and she is asleep by 8! It took about a month to get her on this program, however she’s almost 6 so a bit stubborn. The only drawback is that we have to lay with her until she’s out – but I shouldn’t complain – I think of it as quiet time for me too 🙂
those curls! they make it all right, I bet.
Oh, what a doll.
But she looks so peaceful.
I wonder what she’s dreaming about?
It’s probably a great strategy. Seriously. In the “learn from your own mistakes” category.
She looks like a little cherub.
It amazes me the positions kids will sleep in — bent like question marks, folded like laundry. And they never have the aches I would have. What gives?
I agree you gotta let them do what ever works for them … haha I alreayd figured that one out and Tatum is only 12 weeks old … she is the queen of our house! Haha
I like your methodology. And regarding her neck, it’s like toddler are made of rubber eh? I mean, B sleeps like a pretzel and never complains. Sending sleepy time vibes to your home right now.
Oh, I love those curls! What a sweet little thing!
I could so use that rocking chair right now. Wish I had one of those in my room!
…she looks adorable btw
You gotta do whatcha gotta do…hope her neck recovered!
Mine slept on the floor until around age three. He usually put his face up to the crack of his door, so we had to be careful!
At shortly after three, we moved to a new house. He decorated his own room, picked his own comforter, and suddenly started sleeping in his bed. (Of course that is also when we started the Feingold Diet.)
She looks like an angel. I love the peace of sleep.
Awww, she looks so cute. And wow she’s grown so much since I last saw her!
CJ has a tendency a lot of times to sleep with his legs bent upright. I have no idea how he can hold his legs up like that in his sleep and be comfortable.
She’s too cute!
Paige has been fighting bedtime too…. one more song, one more kiss, one more story…as long as I comply she is happy, as soon as I say enough and leave she starts screaming and crying. Luckily it never lasts long, I just remind her that she has had stories, and songs, and kisses, and now in is na-night time. She usually cries herself to sleep within 5 minutes. Still I hate just listening to her cry… I mean I now she is fine but….
And funny last night for sme reason she woke up a couple times during the night which is not like her. I had taken Benadryl for allergies and had to get up at 5 for work, so I was not in good shape. She came in once and i got up and got her a drink of milk and tucked her back in. Then she came in my room again kinda crying and whining and I said “Paige it is still dark and still sleepytime you need to go back to bed.” She says, “No, no Mommy.” I say “Paige Mommy is tired, you need to go to bed.” She says, “No Mommy I need you to ROOOck me.” I say “Paige! I am tired and I need to work in the morning, GO TO BED.” She says (in a totally pre-teen 13 year old voice “O KAAAAAAYYYYY!” and she went back to bed and I heard no more until morning.
When I woke up I kinda felt bad for blowing her off and not cuddling her when she felt she needed it, I was feeling like Worst Mother of the Year, but she didn’t even remember it when she got up…..WHEW!
Omigosh, that’s funny. If Sweet Pea fell asleep like that she would eventually drip onto the floor. She seems to turn to liquid when she sleeps, and if she’s not lying down in bed she flows to the lowest point.
My first thought after reading your post and seeing the pictures was that Cordy will have AWESOME sleep skilz for the rest of her life after this strategy. Slipshod had to sleep wherever when he was a kid because his hippy parents were selling driftwood & glass wind chimes at farmer’s markets. They would just stick him under the table at their booth when he was tired and he would nap. Now he can sleep anywhere, anytime, in just about any position. With those skilz he gets assloads more sleep than I do. I’m totally jealous of him and Cordy too!
Yeah, this is what it’s come to with Paul, as well. Oftentimes he’s still awake by 11. This is why I didn’t go with morning preschool this year!