Nap Help

Ayja tried that a few times. I went nuts. I just kept on with whati always do, and still left her in there for at least half an hour.. she did it to mike a few times too and he got her up. She also went througha patch about 2 months ago where she would go to bed at night and did the same thing.    We got rid of the bottle and milk, cos she was just wanting more and more, she would have her bottle in the lounge before going to bed anyway, but would want to get up and have more. so we started offering her water and she realised that hey.. i get nowhere, i don't get another bottle and i am still expected to go to sleep.

It passed. If you think he needs a sleep still then keep trying. We found that as ayja has gotten older, she does have shorted sleeps mostly now.. of about 1.5 - 2 hours tops.. we don't put her down to bed until about 1.30 pm now so by that time she itred.. especially since she wakes at about 6.30 most mornings. Yoiu could try pushing him back a bit, and just wake him if he goes longer than 3.30 - 4 pm ish otherwise he won't sleep at night.

when paris was that age she was in a big bed.. (ayja is still in a convertible cot.. that has not been converted..)

she used to getout each night and sit on the floor int he hallway.. watching us in the lounge. and progressively go back and get toys from off her bed to cuddle until she had her whole host of toys sitting there with her.

We put her back sooo many times, but would just put her back to bed say "bedtime, i love you, goodnight" and go back to the lounge. some nights it took a lot of putting back for her to realise it was getting her nowhere. one night we had had enough of putting her back so just ingored her.. after about half an hour, she put all her toys back on her bed, asked to be put in bed, which we did with the same response as always, and that was it. (it did take around 2 weeks of continuously doing this for this realisation to occur)

I think, whatever you do, be consistent.. it makes them get the idea quicker than if you give in once, or change your methods etc, which just confuses them.   

One thing ihave never done is close their doors on them. especially at night as it makes them panic and feel trapped and usually will just end up with them playing up for the fear of having the door closed on them again.. it can actually develop fear more than solve the problem.

When ayja wakes at night time now inthe middle of the night, i go in, amidst screaming sometimes, calmly tell her it's night time, dark time (i dont turn the light on..) and offer her an out clause.. ie "i can pick you up and give you a cuddle, but once i have done that, you need to go to sleep in bed, do you want a cuddle befor eyou go back to sleep?" or sometimes she will say she's thirsty, in which case we usually have a drink bottle of water on her dresser each night.. she has a few sips and will go back down. sometimes you have to feed them a load of bull. mike tried at 5 am the other morning, and got met with screaming, she wanted into our bed.. lol. i went in, did the cuddle thing, calmed her down and told her that yes she could com ein our bed when she woke up again later when it was light, but at dark time she has to sleep in her bed. YAY!! it worked and bought us another hour and ahalf.. which was better than nothing. I feel like sometimes i am the queen of calmly spinning a load of bull.

Edited by mum2paris

He has been wanting to go to bed earlier, around 6, 6.30pm, and he has been sleeping through the night fo r the last 3 nights (YAY) probably jinxed it now that I said it out loud. I do do the calm talking no more boobie only water talk to him when he wakes up at night, and he has clicked on pretty quick. During the day, though, no show! Like you said with Ayja, Janine, keeps singing out for more milk and on and on. I have always had his door shut though, because of the animals, never really seemed to worry him, he has a night light and can turn on the big light. But thats at night anyhow.

I totally know what you mean, SMoody, about YOU needing them to have a sleep, lol!

I will keep on keeping on as normal and hopefully he will give up. I left him in there today till 3pm, which is only about half an hour or so shorter than he's in there when sleeping. He didn't seem to mind, actually, but hell, the room was a MESS!!!

Haleigh does that (well not climbing out the window though) but I ignore her and it may take her 30 mins or more to go to sleep but eventually she gets back into bed and goes to sleep, she bashes really loudly on her bedroom door or on her wall, but she laughs at me if I go into her room so have learnt to just leave her.

Bumping for my poor little friend..