The boys did pretty good getting up earlier today, and seem to be getting back into the groove of having Daddy gone to work again. Let's hope it helps with nap and bedtime too.
The week after Christmas we transitioned Colby's bed from a crib to a toddler bed. This is how it has gone since then...
day 1: he went right to sleep the same way he did in the crib... woohoo this was easy!
day 2 and 3: he came out and played with Blake in their hallway and then went to sleep on his own... oh this is doable.
day 4-7: he came out and stood at the gate and cried, or in Blake's room and cried, or in his room and cried... do you see a pattern here?
On day 4, I sat in his room with him and rubbed his stomach until he fell asleep
On day 5, I sat in his room next to his bed and helped him settle down
On day 6, Richard and I sat in his room for a while, which didn't work. So we put a gate up in his doorway to keep him out of Blake's room at least. Then he finally asked for milk and fell asleep after drinking a glass of milk (he didn't each much for dinner that night so we said fine).
On day 7, he settled quickly, but Blake didn't so then Colby didn't. Then Blake settled again and Colby was up. We put the gate up again so we could keep Colby's out of Blake's room. I ended up sitting on the floor in Colby's room just reminding him to stay in bed until he finally settled down.
Oh joy oh joy.... makes for tense nights!
So we made a few changes for tonight. I rearranged Colby's room to put his bed in the darkest corner of his room. I also moved his toy box so it is not near his light switch since every time he turned on his light Blake came out of his room. Tonight we are going to start bedtime later (we tried starting it earlier already). We have noticed that no matter what time we start bedtime both boys tend to finally start settling down around 8pm. So tonight we will start bedtime at 7:30 instead of 7:00. The other added benefit of this is they will get more time with Richard at night.
Will this work... who knows! But we need to do something to help them get a better night sleep, so that Richard and I can also have some down time before bed.
Sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteI remember when Justin was out of his crib...it was chaos for the first while. It was really bad because he shares a room with Caleb! Eventually they got over the initial excitement of it...thank goodness, because I was getting tired of running up and down the stairs (good workout though!)
Good luck.
Oh my. Our kids hate going to bed, so bedtime is always a struggle. The girls sit and giggle and chat. Last night they were singing at volume 10. Ugh. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteCute blog! I used to teach, too. 27 third graders in the inner city... but I love staying home now.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the bed transition! After all of our kids got settled in their new beds, we had to put a child proof knob on the inside of the bedroom door. That might sound horrible, but it eventually wasn't very rewarding to get up 500 times every night.
;0)
Glad I found your fun blog!
Mrs Nurse Boy
Oh good luck, it's always a bit of a challenge to get them settled but you have a good plan of attack. He'll get there.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! It must be hard with two kids.. Leala did great when we switched her over.. but she does usually get up at 4 and comes to bed with us.. I just recently weaned her though, so now her bedtime is later.. but we're trying to get on a better schedule around here too.. We'll see.. lol. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI hear ya! We kept the gate across Riley's door when we moved him to a bed....now we have taken the gate away and it is terrible. he doesn't stay in his room and for no reason that I can understand in the middle of the night he gets out of bed, sits on the step and cries for me. He used to sleep- now he doesn't. I'm so tired! I hope your home returns to normal soon!
ReplyDelete