I was checking out the message board a couple of weeks ago desparate for an answer to Jack's sleep-or rather Non-sleep issues.
Well, since I could relate to so many moms that were telling the same story, I thought I would share what worked for us.
First off, the problem was that every night we had a routine of pj's brushing teeth, and 2-3 stories, and cuddling in the rocking chair and then getting into bed. We just switched him to a toddler bed about 2 months ago. He would fall asleep on his own, although he would come into our room a couple of times during the night and I'd walk him back to his room and then that habit seemed to just stop.
So far, no problems, pretty easy transition from crib to bed, but then...
Jack started to really hate going to bed, the bedtime routine began getting longer-more stories, longer cuddles in the rocking chair, then he didn't even want to get in his bed. So then I took some of Dr. Phil's advise I had seen on a mother who had this problem. He suggested that she just sit in the room until he falls asleep, but not to rub his back or prolong by reading stories. He also said to be occupied with something like reading a book, knitting or whatever so that your child sees your busy and and not doing anything that's fun-to him- and he'll fall asleep eventually, and as time goes on you will need to sit in there for less and less time.
Well, it worked! I would sit and read my Oprah magazine, and actually enjoyed a little quiet time. That lasted about 3 weeks.
So then, again with some Dr. Phil advice, there was another parenting show I had watched where a mother was having problems getting her kids to bed at a decent hour. He said kids don't want to miss out on what's going on after they go to bed. Now, I knew that already! But what am I supposed to do go to bed at 8:00 also? Well he made the suggestion that you need to have at least 30 minutes of "wind-down" time.
Oh My God-it really worked!!! Here's what we do:
Jack loves to watch "spongebob", so it's on at 7:30, and he and his dad watch the show.
At 8:00, the tv goes off, I don't care what "must-see" show is on, it's time to wind down! I put on Norah Jones, or some other soft music, and Jack and I read a bunch of books or he plays quietly with puzzles, he can color. It really doesn't matter as long as he's not running around. He did the first couple times, but I let him get it out of his system and I would get some books and we read on the couch. He has really taken very well to this addition to the bedtime routine. After about 20-30 minutes, we put on pj's and brush his teeth, 2-3 stories, and then sometimes he hops off my lap and says "bed"!!! He actually wants to go to bed on his own! I will sit next to bed for about 10 min and he's asleep-it used to be about 45 min when we first started, but now that we've been doing this for about 3 weeks, he falls asleep faster.
Plus, he rarely comes running into our room during the night!
Anyway, hope this helps another tired mom out there! I know it's a LONG story, but there it is!!!
Deb