How Do You Sleep?
Ever since they were toddlers, I have never known my kids to be tired.
No nodding heads, no droopy eyelids, no incessant yawning.
If we're out on a hike, or at the park, they'll complain of sore muscles and the need to rest, but that doesn't mean they want to go home and take a nap.
Getting my kids to sleep at night means not just putting them into bed, because they would read until dawn if I let them. It also means forcing them to put down the book, turn out the light, and then lay there in the dark until some mysterious force within their brain instantly flips a switch to off.
I've never seen either of my kids drift off to dreamland. I don't know if this is normal or not. I've seen funny videos of children falling asleep in their plate of peas at the dinner table, but I'm sure that isn't normal either.
How do your kids sleep at night? Do they drift away into gentle slumber, or do they simply shut down like a piece of machinery?
No nodding heads, no droopy eyelids, no incessant yawning.
If we're out on a hike, or at the park, they'll complain of sore muscles and the need to rest, but that doesn't mean they want to go home and take a nap.
Getting my kids to sleep at night means not just putting them into bed, because they would read until dawn if I let them. It also means forcing them to put down the book, turn out the light, and then lay there in the dark until some mysterious force within their brain instantly flips a switch to off.
I've never seen either of my kids drift off to dreamland. I don't know if this is normal or not. I've seen funny videos of children falling asleep in their plate of peas at the dinner table, but I'm sure that isn't normal either.
How do your kids sleep at night? Do they drift away into gentle slumber, or do they simply shut down like a piece of machinery?
Permalink posted by Idaho Dad at 1:50 AM
5 Comments:
For Seth's first three years of life, he fought sleep tooth and nail. I finally "taught" him how to fall asleep with a mixture of stories, song and tough love.
Several tricks I've used:
A set routine that rarely varies in the short term. (Over the long-term, I've adjusted as school skeds changes, etc.) In our case, the pattern starts with dinner, pjs, homework, snack, teeth and bathroom and 10-15 minutes of down/play time
Once in bed: story then songs. Sometimes I vary the words and sing things like, "No kicking, picking or licking each other." (They laugh at this.) My kids prefer to share a bed even though they have their own rooms.
On some nights, I employ my "warning" voice. In other words, "Knock it off!" said in a deep, firm voice.
Other tricks: I often forbade the kids from wriggling and squirming. I've learned that as long as they are moving around, they are less likely to fall asleep.
Lael usually falls asleep in less than 5 minutes. That used to be true for Seth, too, but recently he went through a growth spurt that has lessened his need for sleep somewhat. He usually takes 10-15 mins to fall asleep, but I don't hang around to check anymore.
Not sure if this method would work for everyone, but it does the trick for us.
Em's slept with us for the first three years, then the transition was awful. We finally ended up buying an Indigo Dreams mediation CD to help her. It's a series of stories that help you to relax your body. After that and a week of sleeping on the floor in her room she did okay.
She still has a hard time settling to sleep. Mostly these days because she is reading, and as you said would read ALL NIGHT LONG, if she could.
Boo is the exact opposite. She goes so hard all day that she literally is asleep when her head hits the pillow.
They each get a story read to them and then they get 10 minutes to read on their own.
Em's bed gets checked for smuggled Junie B Jone's books hidden under her pillows.
Since our separation and move though they have regressed and moved back into my bed. Though I love having them there, it's time to get them settled back into their beds, so thus will begin the sleeping on their floors again.
My older kids sleep like logs. Our youngest STILL sleeps fitfully...which also means, I sleep fitfully!!!
Funny story...like the "falling asleep in the peas" story you alluded to...our oldest, when he was about 20 months old, fell asleep at the kitchen table while he was drinking his bottle of milk. Funny stuff, that.
Little man will lie in his bed and fall asleep by himself while the night light is on, lately with the new bed he did got up a few times in one week to tell us about monsters.
The teens, same thing, put that book down now!! Turn your light out now!! etc. So not sure which is normal either.
I have 4 kids, 2 of them have to be checked for books or they would read all night long, the other 2 have 2 speeds on and off and nothing in between!!
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