Elizabeth is terrible at falling asleep. There is no other way to say it. She's had the same bedtime routine for years and it does nothing to calm her down. For Isaac, the ritual of the bedtime routine does something that strikes the sleeping trigger.
Getting Lizzy to stay in her room has been a battle since she moved out of her cot at age 2. Finally, I think I have found something that works for her. I give her two cards, which are her "get out of bed free" cards. Once she has used these she is not allowed to leave her room. She usually uses them within the first 5 minutes. Card one is usually a trip to the potty (despite the fact that she went at the beginning of bedtime) and card two is usually to tell me something.
After the first two nights though, I had to fine tune my cards. She has now been given a night-time potty trip card and a morning sun card, as well as the "get out of bed free" cards. Our first night, she wet the bed but didn't leave her room and the second morning I came into her room in the morning to see if she was awake only to find her laying on her bed. She jumped up and said "Is it morning? Can I get out of bed?"
It seems counter-intuitive, but it seems to work. I think she feels in control, because she's actually allowed to get out of bed and doesn't get in trouble for it. Hahaha. There is nothing like mother manipulation.
2 comments:
Brilliant!!! Wish I'd thought of that when we moved Jesse out of a cot. Would maybe have saved a lot of tears and hysterics (from both him and me)
That is so cool. Maddy hasn't developed bad bedtime habbits. Only because she's so tuckered out by the time we get to the bed-time routine and so am I! Lately Madeline falls asleep during goodnight prayers and then I slink off to my room to do the same! When it did used to be a problem getting her off to sleep I used to say goodnight and that I loved her and I'd see her in the morning and that she was to close her eyes and go to sleep in her bed and not get out of her bed. Setting up the expectation worked well - Until we both became exhausted!! Now just crawling into bed works well at my house ( :
Love Em
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