Sleep

[Stardevil]

2:03 am in Montana and my son who is almost 3 is still awake ...Well he went to bed at 10:30 pm on the couch and I did not move him immediately because he has a tendency to fake sleeping. This is not the first time this has happened...


My son does not like to go to sleep in his bed, in his room, without a TV, and he screams and cries and drives me bonkers. I have had him on a schedule and it works for about a month and then he decides nope no more of this. He does not take naps. I have done lavender baths..I have taken the TV away. He doe snot have a TV in his room but I do not know how much more of this I can take. I am out of ideas any suggestions are welcome... I do not work because of an injury so I am a stay at home mom but I need my sleep.....

[indigo rain]

i'm not a parent myself, but i have a niece that's approaching this age, and what my brother, her daddy, does basically, is exhaust her so she'll sleep. he tries to keep her really active, playing with her, taking her places, always keeping her busy, trying to avoid letting her nap late in the evening. she isn't really allowed to watch that much tv or just sit around much, so when it comes time for bed, she's usually tired and goes to sleep with no problem... of course, all this tires the parent out as well. :) that's how it goes...

[Drisel]

My two year old (almost three) has the same problem. I have found that putting her to bed early and letting her "read" in bed and sing for awhile helps to let her relax enough so when I come by an hour later and say lights out she tends to go to sleep. There are still the odd days however that she will try every excuse in the book from I need to pee to can I have a drink.
Out of cuiosity what were his sleep paterns like as an infant?

[Semele]

I wish I had better advice for you, but each kid is so very different when it comes to bedtime behavior. We had a horrible time with Trey and he never really started sleeping in his on room until we broke down and ...lol..got him a t.v. for in there. Then he would sleep in there. Gradually as he got older and started school we had to set rules of course about no t.v. on school nights and he learned to adapt. However he is notorious for leaving his room in the middle of the night and ending up in the gameroom on the couch, downstairs on the couch, or even at the foot of our bed on the floor. I think they are just too stubborn to change sometimes.

We started early with Trinity putting her in her own bed to sleep at a very early age, never letting her sleep with us and that has worked well, but I tend to think that even that may be a personality thing because she likes it very quiet.

Sorry, I am no help, I just wanted to say you are not alone. I wish you all the luck in the world!

[mol]

And to add to Semele's post I will say...buy some earmuffs. Sometimes you have to let them kick and scream. Eventually...eventually...they will fall asleep. After a while, they will lose interest in kicking and screaming.

[WillowSageheart]

I feel for you, I really do. My son kept me up all night from the time I could feel him kick. The boy is 10 now and STILL doesn't seem to require sleep.

I had to resort to drastic measures to get him to stay in his room at night. I took his door down and had it cut where the top could stay open and changed the door knobs so the door locked from the outside. And then I went thru hell for several weeks just letting him scream.

My room was directly across from him, and I kept the hall light on so we could both see each other, and it did work. He still doesn't sleep much, but at least he stays in his room. He now has a TV in his room on a timer and knows that when the timer shuts the TV off, that's it, so he actually tries to fall asleep before that instead of fighting sleep.

Good luck to you, and if it helps, after a couple more years you won't really miss the sleep anymore. LOL

[amathera]

My youngest son did the same thing. DO NOT LET THIS CHILD RUN OVER YOU!!!!! At 8:00 or what ever, put him in bed. Drinks, potty, etc. is done first. Then that is it. You ignore him. If he screams he has to go potty, he'll just have to sleep in a wet bed. Get tough. He pulls what he does because he can. Even at three (especially at three) they need discipline. If they can learn to obey the rules, it will pass on to other parts of their lives. I believe in freedom of choice but a three year old will always choose chocolate cake over broccoli. Let the freedom of choice be in art or something like that. A fun project can be a nice reward for going to bed nicely for a few nights.

[Amethyst Rose]

When I was that age, I refused to stay in my bed.... my parent's tied my bedroom door shut and let me scream. :) I turned out all right.

[Autumn]

However you choose to set it up beware of setting up an intermittant reward for bad behavior. While I would be reluctant to do CIO with an infant, a three year old knows you are there and will be back in the morning...

Oh and, NO NAPS!!!! wear the kid out, is there a preschool or some other activity you can do daily?

[Stardevil]

well now that I got a couple of hours of sleep here is what happened through story..


Zach fell asleep watching TV with my brother at about 1030. He is usually asleep around 9 to 10 and I do not mind I am a night person and he wakes up at 8 anyway. For a while he did really well. We were on vacation at my mothers and he was sleeping in bed going to bed at 8 pm it was SO nice then we came home and he did GREAT for a whiel..he had his TV time till 9 and then it was up in bed to read and do whatever... But I think I know what the problem is. I have these neighbors. I live in a town house my neighbors are absolutely atrocious and I have talked to them. They call my landlord for me playing my music at 3 in the afternoon... We moved our TV to a different spot in the living so we could actually hear it over there TV. They are up and arguing and making all sorts of noises till ungodly hours of the morning and it is nerve racking. I have talked to the landlord he tells me to talk to the police about it but I live in a small town and I do not want to make an enemy. Since the noise has gotten worse from next door we have had problems with monsters and I have explained it to Zach that the monsters are eating the bugs and everything is fine ..But I think it is the uneasiness of the arguing next door that is getting to him..when it is all quiet in the house and he can hear it he will put his little hands on his ears and tell me to make them stop..I have done as much as humanly possible. I think I am going to give him a TV for his room to help him sleep in there. It is not his fault that my neighbors are absolutely impossible. Ty all for you advice... I have to go neighbor hunting tonight...

[PeleRising]

Hiya Star.... I didnt know you frequented MW too... :bouncysmi

Im glad you figured out what Zach's prob was... maybe now he can get some sleep and mommy can too. :zzz:

[Stardevil]

Hiya Star.... I didnt know you frequented MW too... :bouncysmi

Im glad you figured out what Zach's prob was... maybe now he can get some sleep and mommy can too. :zzz:

Hi rainn I am actually new to the board here figured I woudl get a feel for all forums and nto jsut mine..Nice to see a familiar face though .... Yes with help I am figuring out his little problem...I turned his room around figuring a little change was over due in his room and he has a ngiht light with stars now that shine on the wall...I am hoping this works..I also put away a lot of his stuffed animals ( 3 garbage bags) I amhopign that the strange shadows help..he fell asleep watchign piglet tongiht but I hope this works for tomorrow...