My chid doesn't sleep

If you think I'm joking, you are wrong. My 2,5 y.o. toddler has always had big problems falling asleep.

Back in the baby days, I solved this issue simply by co-sleeping and breastfeeding on demand. The older he got, though, the worse his sleep became. I've found a way to put him to bed every night, and by following this routine, anybody can put him to sleep by 7:30 pm. But if something deviates from the usual, forget it! No sleep, lots for crying and the night and the next few days are ruined for both toddler and parents. Sleep deprived toddler will be cranky and whiny all day, difficult to settle, not interested in anything, unable to concentrate.

My son will not sleep better if he ran around for hours all afternoon. If anything, he will sleep worse. He will not pass out on my shoulder or on the chairs at the party, he will not even fall asleep in the car on the way back from an event. The more excited he gets, the less chances for a good night sleep.

I've found my ways and little tricks to calm him down and have him sleeping in his bed through the night. We've dropped the nap back when he turned 2. Well, he dropped that nap, and I tried to fight that for a month or so, and then gave up.

I am used to the un-approving glances from the old school people, like my mom, when they hear about our "no nap" routine. They think I didn't set the schedule! Ha ha ha! They don't know! All my days, weeks, months, and even years were designed to set a schedule. Trust me, no nap is better for him. Even if the nap goes from 11 am until 1 pm, no good night sleep is guaranteed in our house after it.

We worked hard on determining that no toys or blankies could help Santino calm down enough to fall asleep. He never took pacifiers (and I'm happy he didn't). The only sleep association he has is music. For a while, I've used white noise recordings, like ocean waves and rain sounds, but that stopped working at one point. Then we switched to the calm songs and lullabies. I compiled all my favorite tunes from the cartoons back from my childhood in one big recording. Now we switched to a CD with soft classical music and birds chirping. As long as it is something quiet, it works for us.

Dinner, bath, book, potty, bed, milk. This is our routine. He knows he has to be quiet and stay in bed to get his milk, and I usually take my time. More often, then not, by the time that I return, he is already asleep.

I am relieved to hear from time to time, that some other moms went through the same ordeal. Their kids also didn't sleep, and that often lasted until kids turned 4 years old or so.  So, I'm bracing myself, trying to stay positive, and looking forward to the other beautiful challenges my beautiful little boy is going to bring me.

On the bright side, at least I have something to share. Sleep-deprived parents, unite!

How do you get your non-sleeping toddler to sleep?

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Avoiding the Bedtime Battle

My oldest is a day away from being 2 years and 9 months, and a few days ago he decided he wasn't going to nap anymore. I had been dreading this moment for a while, but now it's here I couldn't be happier!

When Liam was napping, he went to bed anywhere from 9:30 to 10:30pm, depending on how well he slept during the day. Now he is going to bed at 7:30pm, sharp. When you don't have naps to set the precedent of how tired he/she will be, you can have a consistant bedtime. This is one thing I love because it means having time to myself in the evenings, and children really appreciate the consistancy.

Bedtime routines are a great way to give your child plenty of notice through non-verbal cues that bedtime is coming, and help them to relax and unwind. This is key for avoiding those bedtime battles. For us, our bedtime routine allows for some one on one time with myself and Liam, that he doesn't get a lot of due to his pesky little brother.

Routines can be formal or informal, they can include elabrate massages, or be as simple as reading a book. What's important is that they are consistant and they fit into your lifestyle.

This is our little routine:

We start our bedtime wind down immediately after dinner. First, about half hour of play time. Then a bath, if needed, and pjs. I let him choose one show (Team Umizoomi is what he's into right now) then we brush our teeth, read a book, have a little chat about our day and what tomorrow might bring, then bed.

One thing I find helpfull is to break our routine into steps, pairing something he doesn't like to do with a reward. 'It's time to put your pjs on and then you can watch a show', 'First we are going to brush our teeth, then we can read a book'. So far he has gone to bed everynight without any shinanigans.

Does anyone else have a bedtime routine? What's yours?

Emma

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Nanny Robina and CityLine!

A little while ago we had the pleasure of meeting Nanny Robina! An expert on everything parenting! Of course I jumped at the opportunity to ask her what I could about getting baby girl to sleep through the night because whatever I was doing was not working! I had explained to her that I was having some real trouble getting her into a good sleep schedule. Please visit my blog to read more about Audri's sleep training.

Nanny suggested the first thing I needed to do was get her into a good routine. Routine is everything for babies! Although we did have a night time routine since the week we brought her home from the hospital, her daytime was a little more staggered. Since getting the day time in place we noticed a big difference in Audrina’s sleeping patterns. She usually only gets up once around 11-12 p.m. for a feeding, then sleeps the rest of the night! Notice I said usually. All of a sudden over the last few days she has been waking up between 2-3 a.m. Some nights she puts herself back to sleep, other night she screams bloody murder until I go in and shush her to sleep. I’m so worried this is going to set her back again and it’s back to no sleep for us all. 

On Wednesday Aud and I went down with Nanny Robina to a taping of CityLine! It was lot’s of fun and a busy morning! It will air on Wednesday August 15th on City Tv at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. tune in as I will ask Nanny Robina why this could be happening! Please tune in to our blog, as Nanny agreed to guest blog for our Goober Gang Mag, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have her give some of her expert advice on parenting!

Madeleine
 

You can read more about Nanny Robina here, or on her website: http://www.nannyrobina.com.

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Nanny Robina for Goober Gang Mag.

ROUTINES:

• Establish a routine as part of your daily pattern of care.
• To a new baby a routine may be more comforting than any single soothing technique.  You need to let your baby know daily what is about to happen
• As soon as you bring your baby home, establish a simple routine, like bathing at the same time each day or Reading the same book, humming the same lullaby.
•  Being able to count on the same things, day in day out is comforting to a new baby.
• At around three months keep the routine and start to introduce a schedule. Babies on a schedule settle far more easy that those that do not have one.
• Your baby will now be ready for a new sleep schedule as they begin to come out and transition from all that sleep that was needed for the first three months of their fastest growing time.

 Once your baby turns three months you may notice a change in their sleep pattern as they take on less sleep.

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Just a little sleep deprived.

I haven't slept a full night in so long I think I'm starting to go loopy. How am I supposed to give my kids the best start in life if I don't have a good start to the day?

When people found out my kids were going to be 2 years apart, a common response was 'you're nuts!'. I'm beginning to think they may have been right.

The sad part is, my baby isn't the problem, it's my toddler! When we were planning our second pregnancy, Liam was just over 1 year old and sleeping through the night. We switched him to a twin bed at 1 1/2 so we could get the crib set up for the baby, and it took months before he got used to it. Just before the baby was born was when Liam started sleeping through the night again. We were so relieved, but then when Lucas was born, Liam started waking up again, out of curiosity and possible regression. Liam has been sleeping through the night for months, now he has just started to become a problem again. He is 2 1/2 now, and the dreams and nightmares have started. He was perfectly comfortable sleeping in the dark until recently, now he won't sleep without the door open and the hallway light on. He also has his last molar coming through which is affecting his sleep.

This is really taking a toll on my well being. Some nights both kids take turns waking me up, and I'm lucky to get a couple hours sleep. It doesn't help that my husband works nights so is not there to help me deal with this. He does let me sleep in on his days off which is really appreciated and necessary.

So my coping mechanisms are: 1. Coffee! I didn't even start drinking coffee until i had my 2nd baby. Now I wish breastfeeding would allow me more than 2 cups a day! 2. My parents. They have been an absolute godsend, taking Liam for sleepovers once a week. I am so lucky to have them.

If only I could afford to have my toddler in daycare, life would be bliss. That sounds awful doesn't it? Some days I just can't find the energy for him!

Mind over matter, right?

How do you find the energy for your kids?

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Little Bedtime Fakers :)

A new trend occurring in our home is (what I hope to be) typical toddler shenanigans :)  Bed time nightmares seem to be starting up again at 2 year old.  Just when I thought we had things down pat!

The latest and greatest of Mr. Jonathan's excuses at bedtime include:

Mommy "snack" :    aka faking that he is hungry.  What kind of mom am I sending my kid to bed hungry?  Right?   So I cave but I am smart about it ;)   I bring in The BANANA!  What does he do you ask?   Says.... ""no mommy...cookie please?  chips please?".  With very good manner of course and the cutest voice.   I think not!  back to bed!

a few minutes of "fussing" later I go back in....

"Mommy.... Poopy Toilet!".  Are you kidding me?  now?   but of course we are toilet training in our house and I don't want to discourage him from using the toilet or telling me that he needs to; so, once again, I cave.    He sits on the toilet for several moments just talking to me about anything and everything.  lol.  Suddenly the potty seat has turned into a drum.  He is banging on it.  He is telling me about how Elmo does PP in the toilet (lol... an excuse I probably used once to get him to go that has stuck).....   Talking about the pictures on the wall.   "Hi mommy...hi mommy".....Tons of genitalia exploration happening on his end (boys will be boys, right?)  God, would you just poop already!   Several minutes later I give up and head him back into bed.  I'm calling another bluff....

...now he's angry!  so he's crying.  But its way past his bed time.  I know he's tired.  Over tired now.  So I let him fuss a bit.

THEN HE PULLS OUT THE BIG GUNS -->  I hear a noise in his room..... throwing up!     OMG!!!  Is is actually forcing himself to vomit?

Now we need to call in for reinforcements.  DADDY!!!    ...There is vomit everywhere.  Pillows, sheets, carpets,  stuffed animals and all over him.   Mom deals with the baby (another bath time!) while dad deal with the mess (his favourite...NOT!).

After a couple hours of shenanigans he finally gets back into bed and falls asleep.

What's your toddlers bedtime "faking it" routine?  Please share!

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Sleep issues and transition to a toddler bed

This is a Part II of a sleep struggle saga I described in my personal blog. To spare your time, I didn't transfer the history of my son's sleeping issues over to this article. If you are interested, please visit http://pipidinko.blogspot.ca/2012/07/twinkle-twinkle-falls-asleep.html.
 

So yes. I won. I struggled for 3 months. Sometimes I thought that I just should let him be and let him sleep when he can without my schedule. But then I kept going, motivating myself, that I'm the master, not my toddler. I tell HIM what to do, and if I give in now, he'll have no structure and will spin out of control. So I decided I didn't want to be managed by a toddler and insisted on standing my grounds and go by the rules.

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