Thursday, July 20, 2006

Help Me Mammas!

Ugg. This kid will not stay in his bed! Aidan has a toddler bed (and shares a room with Toby) He gets out of his bed, he gets demoted to the crib (sometimes it is coupled with a swat). Right now, instead of taking a nap, he's up there shouting around and kicking at the mattress. How can I get him to go to bed, stay in bed and go to sleep?????

7 comments:

Jenn-Jenn, the Mother Hen said...

Aidan didn't sneak any doughnuts today, did he? (sorry, couldn't resist!)

How old is he again?

With a little more info, I may be able to help. But my memories of napping days are very fuzzy - Jamethan's 8 now. There are days when I'm so tired I wish he DID still nap, though!

Mom With Bipolar said...

When Josie turned 3, she very adamantly refused to nap. I think some kids just give up naps early. Then, the up side is that they go to bed (sleepy) earlier. The downside is no afternoon nap, but maybe you could plug him in with Evan? The other negative thing is you have a crabby apple in the later afternoon, but it soon gets better once he's used to the schedule.

Tara said...

It isn't nap!!! It is bed, period. Nighttime too. Sorry, everyone assumes the problem is just nap, but it is night too. He was in the crib again.

Tooz said...

Another thought I just had--is this crib/bed/not wanting to sleep thing something new that has come up since you got back from Iowa City? If so, it ought to go away over time.

Jenn-Jenn, the Mother Hen said...

Well, when it comes to bedtime, I can't give any advice. Jamethan has always hated going to bed. He'll fight tooth and nail to keep from going to sleep. (I recently found out this has a lot to do with his ADHD, but some of it is sheer stubbornness!) So, if anyone can anwer the bedtime question for you, let me know so I can try it on Jamie! I could tell you what my mom had to do to me to get me to sleep. She had to spank me (not hard, mind you, it was more of a love tap, but just loud enough and firm enough to scare me, then I'd cry for a little bit, and be so exhausted I'd fall right to sleep). I haven't tried that on Jamie, but I've been REALLY tempted at times!

Tara said...

Oh yeah, I've done that after several "rebootings" he gets a spank. Yup, puts him right to sleep.

Mom With Bipolar said...

No, I didn't mean it was nap. I meant that if you put him to bed early at night, without an afternoon nap, YOU wouldn't get an afternoon nap yourself!

Here's my idea in different words:
Take away Aidan's nap time completely
Give him quiet time and that's it
Then, he will go to bed sleepy at night and might stay in bed.

Leah