Thread: Go the F*%$ to sleep

Originally Posted by AnnaRO

Wow, I think I might die. That is ridiculous, and hopefully a short lived phase.

I'm very strict about bedtime. 9pm. So every day at 9pm I gather her up and we go brush our teeth (she loves to brush her teeth so it's not hard), then we get her in her night diaper and I tell her it's night night time. She usually goes in there and climbs into bed herself with her water sippy. I put her blanket over her and give her a hug, a kiss and a high 5 and leave, shutting the door behind me. That's it. That's all she wrote. Most of the time it's enough and she'll just lay there and roll around a while and then fall asleep. Sometimes she gets out of bed and plays for a bit. Rarely, she'll yell under the door for a minute but then she always gets back in her bed eventually and goes to sleep. She knows that unless the house is on fire, nobody is going to be coming in there.

this is pretty similar to ours except we are not strict about what time he goes to bed. During the week, he goes down between 7-8 depending on how cranky he is. On weekends he goes down between 8-9. I change his diaper and put his pajamas on, or DH gives him a bath depending on what night it is. He brushes he teeth, we read a story, usually little critter because this kid is obsessed with the little critter collection and won't sit still for any other story. Then I hold him and just rock him in the dark for a minute or two to relax him, give a kiss and put him down. Sometimes he rolls over and goes to sleep, sometimes he will talk to himself for a half hour or so, and on very rare occasions he freaks out. When he freaks out I know something must be wrong or he needs something because it almost never happens. Before he was a year old we would go through phases where this would last a week or so. We had the periods where he would wake up in the night screaming for 2 hours. it wasn't fun

Our bedtime routine is jammies, story time, then I give her a bottle and rock her in the dark. Once the bottle is done, I put her in her crib and close the door. She may talk or fuss a bit, but unless she is really freaking out, I won't go back in and if I do go back in, I won't stay very long unless there is clearly something wrong like she is sick or something. The routine shortened considerably when we switched from nursing to the bottle at around 16 months-when she was still nursing she would nurse and thrash around forever and it would get pretty tiring. But she has been a very easy kid sleep-wise for which I am grateful.

we have some nights where we leave the room and they talk for a bit and then go to bed. Other nights Olivia goes to bed and Ethan is up for hours (like tonight, just fell asleep 1hr45minutes later). Some nights Ethan falls right asleep and Olivia is up for forever or starts screaming. Those are the worst!

Routine is: bath, pj's, vitamin, teeth brushing, books (moved this to the couch recently due to fighting over laps), water, lights out, singing, hugs/kisses then we leave. All together about 45 minutes, but a lot of that is bath and books.

I wish both my kids slept better. Ethan has major trouble falling asleep most nights and Olivia won't stay asleep. It's exhausting!

Bedtime is a cinch here. Clara is the easiest out of the two middle kids. DH does bedtime with them. He gets her dressed, they say prayers, give kisses and drops her in bed. I would pull my hair out if we had to jump through hoops for bedtime.

I hate to brag but he has a wash, goes in his PJ's. Then story, kiss and I leave. Then he goes to sleep. Usually takes about an hour as he plays with his teddies but he's been putting himself to sleep at bed time for about 15 months, when he went off his bed time boobie really.

He's sleeping with DS1 in the same room at the mo (due to a burst pipe in his room) and for a few nights him and DS1 were playing until late but DS1 is really tired most nights and just goes straight to sleep so Tobey has no one to play with

YOU GUYS TOTALLY INSPIRED ME. Last night I did my thing--books, four lullabies--and she was still rolling around WIDE AWAKE. It was either try something new or eat my dinner at 10:00pm...so I left. She cried. I opened the door a crack and shushed her, and left again. It was silent for like ten minutes, and then she started crying for me, and it was escalating, so I went in, told her she needed to relax, think of something nice to dream about, and I'd see her in the morning. I gave her a kiss, left, shushed through the crack once...and that was it! I went out and started eating dinner and never heard another peep!

AND SHE STTN AGAIN!!!!!!! She fussed a little at some point, but not enough for me to even look at the clock, and then woke up for the day two minutes before our alarm. THAT'S THREE DAYS THIS WEEK. I am starting to get spoiled over here...

WOO HOO!!!

Erin we've went through those phases a couple of times with Madison this year. It takes her about a week or two to straighten back out her night time routine. I still stick to it but it's not easy. I go nuts after the 2nd night of dealing with it. BUT it will go away at some point.

Our routine: 8pm, bath/shower, then Pj's, blankie and "mine." And then I sit on the couch with her and get comfy while we watch tv (ban me if you wish but we've been doing this same thing since 3months old and IT WORKS for us). Then within 10-15 she's out. I give her another 10 min to get good and asleep then put her in her crib with her rain noise and projector on the ceiling. And she STTN 98% of the time.

That's how my husband gets Aiden to take naps for him - sits him in his lap with a blanket on the couch and they watch TV.
I honestly didn't mind when he was sick and I was sick, but right now? I can't move the kid to his room up the stairs and I need him upstairs or else I can't do anything other than sit on the couch his whole nap!

No judgment here, there's just no way Adair would fall asleep in front of the tv. She's way too engaged with it--even if we watch adult shows, she watches too and comments excitedly on what's happening. "Sheep! Man walking! What's he doing? Boo-boo! Doctor fix it?" (she really likes Doc Martin, lol!)