We have been having trouble with Ty going to sleep lately. Between his protests of “I’m scared!” and “I can’t fall asleep, I don’t know how!” he hasn’t been getting enough sleep. I suppose I should have listened to Kevin several months ago and stopped laying with Tyler until he fell asleep. Now I need to reclaim bedtime, and it is probably harder than it needs to be, because I have been loath to give up my “cuddles” at bedtime.
The new routine we are trying is to go up, read stories, lights out, cuddle for 10 minutes then I get up and go sit in the rocker until Ty falls asleep. This is step 1. After we get that going ok, I will start going to my room after cuddles. The first night didn’t work, he rolled around and fussed and carried on for about 40 minutes until I gave up. So the next day I decided to add a sticker chart for motivation. He gets a sticker each night he doesn’t fuss and goes to sleep without me in the bed. After six stickers he will get a special treat. He’s got two stickers so far.
He didn’t nap today, and was already tired to start with, so we went up extra early. After stories, he kept proclaiming that he was hungry. I kept telling him that we would get something to eat in the morning (I thought he had plenty at dinner time). Finally he said “mommy, please may I please have something to eat?” So I told him he could have one GoGurt. He said “can I have oreos?” I told him no and he said a GoGurt was good. 🙂
Well, he must have actually been hungry, because after he finished the GoGurt, he said “My belly feels much better, now. Thank you mommy, now my body and brain can sleep!”. We cuddled for a few minutes, then he rolled over and fell asleep.