I sit here to write this post as my patience is UP with this little boy. I love him to pieces, but boy oh boy is he giving me a hard time lately. Look at that cute face!! I think that's why I have trouble :)
We're struggling with sleep. At bedtime we are putting him back to bed 10, 15, or 20 times. Over and over with excuses about being scared, or hungry, or having to go potty, or the washer is waking him up, or he wants me to lay down by him. And of course- we don't give in. We don't give him food or let him stay up- occasionally we take him potty. Taking him potty is a hard thing to ignore since we are potty training- but the stinker knows it and uses it as an excuse- then sits on the potty and makes an 'sssssss' sound to try and trick us into thinking he is actually peeing... ha. :)
So I've been worried that he is done with taking naps. The problem is that I still feel like he needs them. He is sleepy (although he should be since he is staying awake until 9 pm some nights, then up at 5:30 am). A couple times this week I let him take a nap on the couch thinking that a lighter and shorter nap would help with bed time. It did not.
He HATES being in Sunbeams, I know it's still January and that he'll get used to going to primary, but right now it is a struggle. He misses just playing with toys (who can blame him?!) Today he went to class fine, but even as I dropped him off he was being naughty to his teacher. Ugh... then during sharing time he wouldn't sit with his class because he sees me in there and wants to sit by me. Which wouldn't be a huge deal, except I have a class of my own to watch, plus a VEDA on my lap because she is also not going to nursery.
On a very positive note- he is ALMOST POTTY TRAINED!! He is doing awesome. It's been maybe 4-5 days of no diapers (Except at bed time). He's staying dry through his nap and even holding it well when we've been out.
He is also very sweet and kind and happy MOST of the time.
Scratch that- he just got up AGAIN.... any ideas? Or places that you've bought straight jackets from that you've gotten a good price? ;)
12 comments:
LOL. Making the "sssss" sound just freaking killed me. Hilarious. You know me, I locked Norah in her room when she kept getting up. I'm hard core. GOOD LUCK. He's so dang cute though . . .
Did I mention this before . . . but do bribes work? Meaning . . . if you stay in bed then tomorrow morning you can have a piece of candy or a quarter?
One week = with a sticker chart = a special thing he can pick out at the grocery store.
I do both . . . the immediate reward . . . . then do the chart so when he makes it xxx amount of days he gets to pick something out.
Just a few ideas. I feel bad for you. Corbyn's been wanting to sit by me too and he's in the new class now. Corbyn was a Sunbeam (my class) but now has moved up.
Gabrielle
Amber, this sounds all too familiar with Hayden a couple months ago he was doing all these things. I know this sounds AWFUl but we put a childproof lock on the inside of Hayden's door. It has helped a TON! And he is potty trained as well but he knows now once he's in bed he doesn't come out. Of course we always have him potty as the last thing of our night time routing. (Bath, Story, Prayer, Potty) He is sweet but I just SMILE reading this because I can relate all to WELL. Best Wishes
I was told they can build up being to tired over the course of days. So maybe he could nap every three days and still recharge without having it effect his nighttime sleep. ???
You are a fantastic Mom! Hang in there some phases are so crappy.
When thad started doing that he got "consequences" for getting out of bed for anything other than going potty. His big one was no super hero shows the next day if he couldn't stay in bed. He turned it around REAL quick for those :)
We also had a Nap Fairy for awhile at our house, who brought rewards to little boys who took good naps. Sometimes he just wasn't tired and couldn't sleep, but if he still stayed in bed quietly until I came to get him got the reward and eventually he got back into sleeping regularly during the day again and we phased out the fairy business. Good luck, he sure sounds like he knows what he us doing with that sweet little face!
After spending a week with him, I'll tell you that i definitely don't think he is ready to give up his naps!!! He seems like a pretty sleep little boy by the time nap rolls around. In fact, while he gave Mom and I trouble with bedtime too, he never gave us trouble with his nap! (Jonathan took naps until he was 5 1/2 and still slept through the night). Wish I could help with the nighttime stuff but I'm not coming up with any brilliant ideas. Hang in there! I love that cute little boy!!!!
The only time he stayed in bed for us was when I threatened to call his Dad and tell him not to bring him a present from the cruise. I wonder if the nightlight is too bright and the white noise thing is too loud. I don't know and don't have any great ideas. Sure love that little guy. Good luck!
oh amber! i am so sorry! i don't really have any advice because we have never had to deal with it. jaxton started to go down that path so i cut out his nap. now, our routine is after dinner, potty, and bath i get him in his jammies and rock him. he's out within 5 minutes and when i put him in his bed asleep he never gets out. so, maybe you could cut his nap out so he is exhausted come 7 o'clock? i bet if you put him in bed asleep, he would not get back up. maybe i'm wrong, tho... it has happened a time or two before :)
i had a friend that posted something about this on fb the other day, and i recommended this site to her:
http://www.notconsumed.com/2013/01/09/how-to-get-your-kids-to-stay-in-bed/
i don't know if it has any useful info on it, but you might want to browse through it.
good luck! just remember we are all fighting battles as parents! and you are not alone with feeling frustrated! but you are a great mom and you will figure this out!
xoxo
p.s. my cousin actually tied their son's wrist to his bed. it didn't hurt him, but it made him stay in bed! sometimes you just gotta do the crazy stuff to survive! i think they had been dealing with it for like a couple years, and nothing else worked - so they found something that did :-) you might have to be creative like that!
Wow. That is rough! You are talking to another mom over here with kids still getting out of bed here and there! I wish there was a magic formula that MADE kids sleep. It seems to me that he is getting all the sleep he needs (probaby 10 hours or more in a 24 hr. period?), so by bedtime, he is not tired. It is like the newborn that sleeps during the day but is awake at night. That baby is getting all the sleep he needs, just at the wrong time of the day. Hendrix just needs to switch from sleeping his hours during the day to sleeping them at night instead. You just have to re-adjust when he gets his sleep hours in that work for you. I love the idea of weaning them off of a nap by giving them one every other day. Grace is doing that now. You could kill the nap over time and then in that process put him to bed a little earlier as well. That might help him make it through to bedtime. Good luck!!!! Feelin' for you!
The only thing that's worked for all 3 of my kids is taking their "things". They love their blankies/stuffed animals and love sleeping with several of them every night. They freak out when we take even 1 thing away. They also like us to sing to them every night and if they're not being good we take "songs" away.
I say find something that's special to him he may lose as a consequence if he gets out of bed. I know that sounds like threatening, but it's worked really well for us.
I think sometimes they keep getting out of bed out of habit, and it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't tired. They just have to train themselves to fall asleep.
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