Let me rephrase.
Lack of napping troubles.
E has not been able to nap the past two weeks unless it's in the car. We have been trying to wean him from being rocked to sleep or having his back rubbed to sleep. What we have been seeing is a child playing in his room, coming out, and us having to walk him back for an hour. He did fall asleep one day last week.
I go back to work on Monday leaving my mom alone with the boys. I don't want to make it a habit for him to nap in the car everyday. Nor do I think it will be realistic for my mom to take both kids for a ride in order for one to sleep.
Trust me, this child NEEDS a nap. Yesterday he didn't nap at all and it was disastrous. Tears came whenever he did anything or we did anything. Literally. I looked at him and he'd cry.
Besides giving in to rocking him, rubbing his back, or locking him in his room so he can't get out, are there any suggestions? (Money wise, buying a crib is not an option. We are going to have to keep him in his toddler bed.)
1 comment:
I am not sure if this will help you or not since your problems are mostly at nap time but either way here it goes.
So when I finally had to come to terms that it was time teach Nathan how to put him self to sleep in his own big boy bed I researched and found and tweaked the best method I could agree with. I am pretty sure it was on parentsconnect.com during a sleep boot camp that they were doing.
There are three bedtime rules:
1.) Stay in bed.
2.) Be quite.
3.) Try to go to sleep.
We would say them every time they went to bed (nap and bedtime). They would repeat them then they would begin to fill in the blank stay_______, Be_______, Try_____. Carter also would do movements along with them so I knew he understood.
Then Very lovingly I would explain to them that mommy and daddy love you and we will kiss and hug you now but if you get out of bed mommy and daddy will not hug you or kiss you all we will do is bring you back to bed. This is the hardest part and the part I did not want to do but I guarantee you it worked when I was consistent.
So far it is probably a very typical answer to how to get your child to sleep in their own bed but this is where I tweaked it because I believe that positive reinforcement works better then punishment (bringing back to bed) I wanted a way to reward the positive choose that they were making to stay in bed.
I also told them that if they stayed in bed mommy would come and lay with them. For you maybe you could offer a short back rub. Just like any behavior that you want to be changed the reward needs to be frequent so I would check every minute or two and lay with them for 30 seconds to a minute. Then as I was feeling more confident that they knew I would come if they followed the rules I began to wait longer stretches and stay for a shorter period of time.
This worked amazingly well for Nathan I believe I began it about two months before Carter was born and he was pretty good with it by then although I do remember having a night or two when it was rough but I think like anything that happens just be consistent and they will remember what you expect.
Carter on the other hand took a lot longer and it was tough for us and I still struggle with nap time some days but I don't give up until 3 and I just feel that even if all he gets is 30 minutes and then I wake him at 3 (so he goes to bed at night) it is still better than nothing.
I know you know most of this being a teacher but it always helps to see how it could be used in a different setting (like bedtime). I hope this helps and I will offer you my crib if you want it. I know it may not seem like the best answer but if you want to go back that way you may barrow it.
GOOD LUCK!!!
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