At the moment we are going through a stage of trying to create some good bedtime habits for Daisy. I will be the first to admit I have molly cuddled her for the past 6 months or so, but now is the time to get her in a habit of realising her bed is her own, it's Daisy's little safe place where she can snooze the night away happily, it's just getting her to the stage of actually being happy in there!
She actually does love her bed, she is happy in the day to play in there and often asks to be lifted in to play with her babies (teddies) but getting her to stay in there all night can be tricky at times. I have to say this never used to be an issue, she used to sleep merrily in there for 10 hours straight, but it seems teething and become a rascal of a toddler have played a part in changing her mind!
The first place I started was getting her to drop off on her own when we put her to bed. I was happily cuddling her to sleep in my bed every night when I was feeling yuck with pregnancy sickness and when she was asleep I was transferring her. I don't regret it, I loved every second of those cuddles and the way in which she dropped off in less than 5 minutes every night told me she was content and loved it too. But for me I needed her to get into the behaviour of settling herself at night night time in her cot.
It actually took probably 3 nights of a few tears and paddies before she just started saying na night and getting into bed and dropping off within 10 minutes. The first night she cried for about 15 minutes which really did break my heart, but the next night is one 10, and the next 5 and now nothing! I didn't leave her to cry, controlled crying isn't for me, I've not got the staying power or heart for it. Nothing against it, in my opinion what ever works for you - do it! As long as everyone sleeps and gets rest and is happy then that's your business :) This is just what we have done and my thoughts on it!
So we seem to have cracked that bit, which will certainly help in a few months time when her baby brother comes along. Although I am prepared for a little unsettling, it would only be natural.
Daisy will sleep right through some nights but others she is up about 2-4am and just will not settle herself in her cot. She will cry and moan until we go in there and that's where the fun really begins! She will thrash around, scream, kick, throw things and cry shouting down!! Meaning get me the hell out of here!!!!! And I'll put my hands up again and say of course I've followed her bossy little demands several times (okay maybe more than that!!!) and she's ended up in our bed! Again I don't really regret it, so don't start saying you made a rod for your own back and all that crap!!
It is going to take some perseverance and persuasion to get her to enjoy her own bed all night and not the cuddles and warmth of our bed! I can't really blame her, our bed is pretty comfy!
It's proven that co sleeping when done sleeping actually makes happy, content babies who actually show developmental advances to those who may not. Believe what you like, I did it purely so we could all sleep! And 2 out of 3 nights that she may be with us for part of the night she goes straight to sleep and we have a good lie in too! Not many people with a toddler can say they get a 9am start most days!!!
The other thing I have started to introduce is a
GroClock. Basically it is training your little one to understand night and day, when the sun goes down off the monitor and the moon pops up they know its time for sleeping. And again in the morning when the sun pops up they know its day time and they can get up. I think Daisy may be a little too young for this yet but she does wave to the moon and say "na night" to it and "hiya" to the sun in the morning, so she is getting to understand night and day at least. Even if the understanding isn't quite there to stay in bed until the sun pops back up! I think we have a few months yet until this happens. But for me it is all about building habits and routine, she will become familiar with the clock and that can only be a good thing. I have heard some great feedback on it and couldn't wait to test it out.
This is what the GroCompany say about it:
How do you get your children to understand when it's time to get up? SIMPLE "stay in bed until you see the sun!" The Gro-clock uses fun images of the stars and sun to communicate when to go back to sleep and when it's time to get up. Due to popular request, this 2010 version of the Gro-Clock has a new feature allowing parents to choose whether or not to display the digital clock during the usual ‘stars to sun’ countdown. So for older children, they can now start to learn digital time, as well as look for the arrival of the sun!
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Image Source: www.Johnlewis,com |
Let me know if you have had success with it, I would love to hear all about it!
Lots of love,
A sleepy muma xxx
We were kindly send the Groclock in return for our honest feedback