Sunday, October 28, 2007

Again with the not sleeping?

WHAT IS WITH THIS?!?!! We've skipped nap, we've pushed back bedtime again, we've changed the bedtime routine, we've given him a pillow per his request (the one my grandmother made him; psychic woman that she was covered it in firetruck fabric), we've started letting him choose between sleeping in the crib and sleeping in the floor (until we can get him a "big bed"), we've let him choose between having the nightlight on or off (and he doesn't seem happy with either choice, no matter which he says he wants), and it is still taking more than an hour to get him to go to bed, stay in bed, and go to sleep!

I actually don't care whether he goes to sleep immediately or not. But he needs to stay in his room and stop fussing. This afternoon, we finally turned the doorknob around so that it now locks from the outside. We haven't actually done it yet tonight, as the thought of locking my child in his room is just horrible to me. I don't want him to hate or be afraid of his bedroom! I don't want him to feel trapped. But he has *got* to go to bed and stay there. This is the fourth night of this stupidity. A couple more, and we'll just lock the door and let him cry himself to sleep. And I hate myself for it.

Currently feeling: completely out of ideas

2 comments:

  1. Erin, we've been there, done that with Marcus and I know how truly awful it is to lock your kid in his room. In the end though, it was the reverse that worked for us. We left the door open so he could hear us moving around and didn't feel shut off, and the threat was that if he left his room we would shut the door. Over time, this was the strategy that worked for us. Maybe it's worth trying.

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  2. :( Yuk, I remember going through this stage. Can't quite remember how we got through it though - I think DS just grew out of it. I do remember being a big old grump, and probably he'll need therapy from all of that! Is Luke able to climb those child safety gates? I heard of someone installing one of those across the bedroom door instead of locking the door.

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