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How to Get Your Child to Go to Bed!0-6 Month Olds When a new baby is welcomed into the world, one of the first adventures the new mommy has to encounter is the wonderful world of nursing her baby! Nursing is a wonderful experience if you can do it and requires a lot of sacrifice on mom’s part! During this special time of nursing I highly recommend that you keep your baby sleeping with you in the same room. We always purchased a play pac or portable crib and kept it on my side of the bed. The play pacs are very convenient as they can be adjusted so that the baby is almost level with mom while mom is sleeping. When the baby starts to sit up and move, just remember to move the play pac to the original position of being more level with the ground. In any case, that is what I did. Some people do schedules, some don’t. However you do it, it is important to try to get the baby to eat her last meal as close to midnight as possible. I always tried to feed my baby at 8pm and then again at 11pm or 11:30pm. After this meal, it is time to put the baby in the crib and allow her to sleep. Even if she is not tired, it is time for bed so the best course of action is to lie the baby down in the crib. I always put the babies at a 45 degree angle just in case they spit up. I propped up a pillow under the hard part of the crib and put something below the baby so she would not slide down. It is important to teach your baby from the very beginning that they need to fall asleep on their own. If you get in the habit of rocking your child to sleep or holding their hand until they fall asleep.. you will still be doing that when they are two years old, three years old, and possibly four years old! When the baby wakes up for their next meal at 3 or 4 am, it is important to not turn on the light, not talk to the baby, and not to provide any more stimulation than necessary. Allow the baby to nurse or take her bottle and then lay her back down in her crib. Some babies will want to be held. I always gave them a pacifier at this age if they still wanted to suck. You can easily hold the pacifier on her mouth and stroke her cheek with your fingers to calm her to provide her some comfort. If she does cry, stay strong. She will only cry at most 3 days before she is trained to fall back asleep in her crib! If you are concerned about pacifier use, please know that at about 6 months we get rid of the pacifier. The pacifier is only used at nights for helping the baby sleep at night! When the baby turns about six months old, it is important to move the baby from mom and dad’s room to the nursery! If you wait too long, it will be harder later. Plus, it is about time for some husband and wife privacy! Some people might object saying, but we love Johnny too much to put him in the baby’s room! Well maybe Johnny would like to have a brother or sister one day and as long as he is in the room, that ain’t going to happen! (TV’s in the bedroom is another top leading factor of having only one child but I will save that for another day!) 6 months to 1 year At this age your little princess is learning to crawl, explore and play. By the time she is one or soon after, she will even have learned to walk! This by far is the most exciting time in seeing your children grow! As she gets older, it is important to have a routine for bedtime. Some parents have a routine of giving their child a bath every night before putting them to sleep. Others might play with them for 30 minutes or read them a book. Our family has the habit of reading the good Book together, singing some songs, repeating a Bible verse and then praying before sending the kids off to bed. Whatever you do, it is important to have a routine so that the child will know what to expect. When you do put your child in the crib to go to sleep be sure that all their needs are met before. Make sure the diaper is changed, the bed is comfortable, and the temperature of the room is fine, that the baby is not hungry or needs to be burped. Lay the child down in the bed, give little Susie a kiss good-night and leave the room. That is very important. Leave the room. Let me say it one more time… leave the room. You can stand right outside their door if you like to make sure nothing happens to Susie. If your little one decides that it is not bedtime, then very quickly go back into the room and lay Susie down on her back in the crib and say, “It is time to go to sleep.” Stay there until she does not stand up again. If she stands up, just keep putting her down on her back and say firmly “It is time to go to sleep”. Once she realizes that every time she stands up you are going to put her back down, and then you can leave the room. Don’t go too far though… just outside the door is far enough. As soon as you hear Susie standing up, quickly go back in the room and repeat the same steps. Lay her on her back and tell her, “It is time to go to sleep”. Don’t get angry or frustrated. This process might take an hour the first time you train her to obey you! If you get tired, ask your spouse to stand in. Parents it is important to be united with your child training! If little Johnny starts screaming for mommy when daddy is trying to put him to sleep, mommy should come in and re-enforce the exact same thing daddy is trying to do. Even if you don’t agree! In the middle of child training is not the time to argue about child training techniques. Support each other. Be a united front. After the mission is accomplished and little Johnny is sleeping, then is the time to talk about how you would have preferred to handle the situation! If you follow these steps consistently, it should only take about 3 days to have your little princess trained to go to sleep when it is bedtime! Age 1 to 2 years If you have already trained your child from the age of a few months old till now, you should only have one or two episodes when Johnny learns to crawl out of his crib that you will have to deal with! Just do exactly the same as you did when he was less than a year. Have a routine, put him in his crib, and leave the room. As soon as he gets up and tries to crawl out of the bed, quickly go back in the room and put him back in his crib! At this age it is up to you if you want to also make them lie down. I was okay with them just being in their crib. Also it is up to you if you want to allow them one favorite toy to play with. This has positive and negative benefits. Our first child was attached to a clown from Gymboree! On a trip to grandma’s house I knew I had packed it in the car but apparently at the last minute he had taken it out of the car to play with it one last time and had left it in the living room. When it was time for bed it about broke my heart when he was crying softly for his little clown. After being away from home for a week, he did not want or need the clown anymore to go to sleep! If on the other hand you have a child that is one year to two years old and has already acquired the habit of being rocked to sleep or has some other requirement to go to sleep, your job is double fold. First you have to break the bad habit, and second you have to form new good habits! Let’s use the rocking to sleep example. Believe it or not, your child does understand. They are very smart! They know just how to tug at mom’s heart strings to get exactly what they want. They know just how to cry to get daddy to tell mommy to give him what he is crying for! The first thing to do is to agree with your spouse that you are going to be a united front. Talk about what you would like to be the routine for Johnny to go to sleep. Talk about what are going to be the consequences and how you will enforce obedience. Talk about, “Ok when Johnny starts screaming, then we are going to do this..,” “If Johnny throws himself on the ground then we are going to do this…” Find some middle ground, agree, and then choose the night you are going to win the battle. Turn off the TV. Unplug the phone. Turn off the computer! Tonight Johnny is going to learn to go to bed! To be continued! |