I think it’s pretty safe to say that Brent and I have had our hands full when it comes to our son and sleep. We’ve had 2 major catalysts that caused issues that we were able to slowly overcome, but it has been a long, vicious battle! We worked hard when he was a baby to establish good habits. After a few months, we taught him to fall asleep on his own and prided ourselves that we could put an awake little boy in his crib, and he would fall asleep. He took great naps and was easy to get to go down. It was work to get to that point, but it was so worth it. And then…
First, Trent climbed out of his crib right at 2 years old. He had been sleeping in a sleep sack since we stopped swaddling, and one day, at about a month before his 2nd birthday, he looked at me and said ‘No sack.’ I asked him if he wanted to stop sleeping in his sack, and he said yes. I was surprised but let it go. BIG MISTAKE. Within a few weeks, he had learned to scale the side of his crib. We had to convert his crib into a toddler bed, and Disaster Situation #1 ensued. From the minute that child had full access to his room, it was awful trying to get him to stay in his bed and go to sleep. The very first night, he was up until 11:00.
It got so bad, we started having to lock him in his room. {Please don’t call CPS on us, we have since removed the lock.} It took months to teach him to stay in his bed and GO TO SLEEP. Lesson for Drew? She will be sleeping in a sleep sack until she graduates high school.
Our next battle began when we quit the pacifier. Our school told us 1 week before Trent moved to the 3s class that no pacifiers were allowed in that class. Um, thanks for the notice so that we could slowly remove his comfort object from his life. {And yes, we realize that 3 is a little old for a pacifier, but it helped him sleep so we weren’t really in a hurry to get rid of it.} We ended up taking it away cold turkey over Memorial Day Weekend. For the first time ever, Trent did not take a nap. And it took HOURS to get him to fall asleep at night. LOTS of crying and begging for ‘night-night’. The kid even rummaged through the kitchen trash can to dig out a thrown away pacifier and hid under the covers sucking it. Getting rid of ‘night-night’ made climbing out of the crib look like a walk in the park. 15 months later, I can say that his sleep has never recovered from this. He naps about 50% of the time and is easily up for up to 2 hours at night playing in his room. He still talks about ‘night-night’. But Brent and I have remained consistent that he can’t come out of his room once we have done our bedtime routine, and he mostly obeys. Consistency has been key. Lesson for Drew? Our plan was to cut out a pacifier at 1 year, but thankfully she never took one!
I think what Brent and I have learned through our bedtime battles is that we must remain a united front and consistent. Things will happen that set us back in the sleep department, and we just must work together as a team to get our kids back on track! And of course, laughter and a big-A glass of wine {or two} don’t hurt either!
What has been your biggest bedtime challenge?
