When we arrived to our new place, James was sleeping in a pack and play. We had tossed his crib prior to our move. It was really old (a hand me down from my sister) and had started falling about. It probably wasn't that safe for him to be sleeping in, but we jimmy rigged so it was still usable.
Once Tracy's fellowship money came through, we purchased a toddler bed. A very cute toddler bed. :) A picture was posted of it in a previous post. The first week or was it two James did great. He would stay in his bed waiting for us to get him in the morning and after nap. Then he realized he had a new freedom, he could get out of bed on his own. Which meant he could get out of his room too.
The battle of the bedtime/nap time began. Nap time seemed to be a thing of the past and bedtime was a nightmare. James sometimes wouldn't go to sleep till 11, which meant our time together didn't happen. There was also one night he woke up at 2 and wouldn't go back to sleep till 5. Lets just say we weren't the best of parents during this bedtime struggle. I broke down several times and James became a very sleep deprived 2 year old. The terrible twos and lack of sleep don't mix. In between all the craziness there were a few cute moments.
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| Sleeping on the floor |
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| Sleeping in his reading corner. |
James is obsessed with lights. They have to be on or he gets mad. He goes around our apartment and turns on all the lights. We came to the conclusion with his light obsession he probably is afraid of the dark, so we purchased a couple of night lights and a lamp that he can control. His room doesn't have an over head light. A lamp is the only way to light his room, so we purchased one that he can reach to turn on and off.
It seemed to help but we still needed to come up with a way to keep James in his room. In comes the discovery that if you pull his door closed he can't open it (well, he can open it if he tries real hard but he doesn't very often). However he would throw a huge fit when he couldn't open it and would scream and bang on the door. That wasn't going to work for us.
We decided we needed to make his room a place where he wanted to be and that it was a fun place to be. After all it was a new place, new bed, new lots of things. We started reading time before bed. A time when mommy and/or daddy would hang out with him and play with him. The reading corner idea was actually becoming useful. At first we'd read whatever books James wanted, but as his library is growing we now limit him to 4 books of his choice.
However with all we had done and changed it still wasn't fixing the problem completely. So, we soon started sitting with him till he fell asleep. At first it would take an hour to get him to fall asleep, but slowly the time lessened.
At nap time I did a different approach. I would bring up his favorite toys and make it a quiet time. He had the option of me staying with him and going to sleep or playing quietly in his room. Surprisingly he often chose to have "mommy stay", as he would say.
After a couple of weeks, we had our nights back. James no longer fought to go to sleep. He no longer required us to sit with him. Some times he'll play quietly in his room and will fall asleep on the floor, but it is nice to not have to fight him any more. I'm am glad to have my sleeping champ back! Of course this all happened back in October and haven't had any troubles since. Who would have known moving and a new bed would make things so difficult.
These pictures were taken recently. A couple of cute ways he falls asleep.
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| Holding a train car he received for Christmas. |
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| You can often find him sleeping with his hands behind his head. Oh and car basket always has to accompany him to bed. |
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