Sleeping Secrets

I've had several people ask what I did to get Erik to go to bed on his own.  Here's my routine.

After working in child care for the last 20 years the thing I have listened to parents complain about over and over again was getting their child to sleep in their own beds.  I can't tell you how many parents have come to me complaining that their child will not go to  sleep without them in the bed, or sleeping with the parents.The parents were tired when they began it as infants, and years later when they still have 5 year olds in their beds it's a hard habit to break. I took LOTS of mental notes through those years and swore to myself that I would never sleep with my child.

Wow...that is such an easy thing to do (co-sleeping) And it works for many families and many parents - but what I've learned the most after being a parent is you just gotta do what's right for you and your family and who cares what anyone else thinks of what your doing.  Co-sleeping does not work for me....and I don't want to have to teach a 5 year old how to soothe themselves into sleeping without me there. So, I chose to do it now

I tried to sleep with Erik a couple times when he was sick because I just wanted him to go to sleep, so I could too.  It was a miserable night of baby feet kicking me.  Never again...those feet grow!

Here's our formula, and so far so good.  We keep the same routine and the same bedtime every night - even if his nap was longer or shorter than usual - still the same 8:00pm bed time.

1) We get PJ's on after dinner if we don't take a bath.  I'm one of those Mom's who doesn't give her kid a bath every day.  It's one less chore I don't need in the evenings and right now he's inside all day so he's not dirty, I'm sure summer will bring more baths.
2) Playtime until 7:30
3) A bottle a 7:30
4) "Snuggle Time!" This is what we call it, Mike and I do that together (I love that he does this with us).  We say goodnight to all the photo's on the wall (that's Erik's thing) we "throw" him in the middle of the bed and yell SNUGGLE TIME! and then give him tons of kisses and tickles.  We lay him in between us and talk about what happened during the day (we went on a walk, what he ate for dinner etc) then we sing about 10 songs and read 2-4 books.  We end with the same two songs (You are my Sunshine, SING!) each night so he knows that's the end of snuggle time.  We give kisses, say I love you's and walk away.

The first few times was ROUGH - I started this routine when I had several nights home in a row so we could be consistent.  He loved it all at first, except the walking away part.  He screamed and I would say "I'll be back in to check on you in 5/10 minutes", and I would go in and let him know we were still there but it was time to go to bed.  Every night he cried less.  Now he happily gives kisses and puts himself to sleep.  It has all translated to his naps as well. 

I think every child is different, and every family is different - so parents need to be flexible and do what works for them.  This works for us....maybe pieces of it, or the whole thing will work for you!
Sweet Dreams!