Monday, February 1, 2010

Sleep Help!

All three kids are really good sleepers. We have been very lucky. But now, at 3 1/2, Big Man is fighting sleeping in his room - more specifically, sleeping alone. It is hard to blame him. Afterall, I DH and I sleep together, and the girls sleep together (often even in the same bed!). He is the only one sleeping alone. And just last week he decided he HATES it. WE let him sleep with the girls on the weekends, but on "school days" he has to sleep in his room.

Is that fair? I don't really care where he sleeps, I just figure if we don't stick to our guns now, it will be even harder to get him out of there when he gets older. Thoughts? We just redid his room last spring, so its not that he doesn't like his room (he has a cool car bed!). He just realized he is alone, and doesn't like it. HELP!

8 comments:

Rebecca said...

I'm having the same problem with my 3 year old. He's been such a great sleeper his whole life but recently he comes into our room in the middle of the night asking to sleep with us or wanting to go downstairs. We're usually so exhausted that we let him crawl into bed with us but it's making things worse and I think encouraging him to do less self soothing back to sleep. We need to get back to the hard job of being strict about staying in his bed. It's so tough not bending the rules in the middle of the night but I think it's the best way to help them sleep better.

Sorry for the long comment! :)

Jill said...

he needs a super cool brand new giant stuffed animal to sleep with! That way he's not alone, that animal stays in HIS bed, and cant' come out! then stick to your guns!

Jill said...

it wouldnt hurt to say that he will eat any monsters that come near him and will also solve any other problem your boy can come up with!

This Mom said...

Another idea might be to let him "invite" one of the girls to have a sleepover in his room. Which serves 2 purposes. Let's each on the girls have a night alone in thier room and lets them have some quality time with brother.

I like the animal idea but it need to be BIG.

Good luck.

3XMom said...

lil mouse - he has so many stuffed animals in there - but maybe one that just stays in there and guards his bed..That might work - thanks!

This Mom - that is a great idea - will try that tonight! Thanks.

Katherine @ Grass Stains said...

I'm more of a stick-to-your-guns type of person, but if little Jakey decided he wanted to bunk with the big boys every once in a while, I'm sure I'd let him do it. It's hard to say not to those faces, isn't it? I figure as long as I'm keeping all three of ours out of OUR bed, I'm still winning. ;)

CynthiaK said...

Yep. We've been there. Our oldest (7 year old girl) had desperately wanted her own room and now that she's got it and the boys share a room, she feels left out. She's the only one with her own room.

I say stick to your guns. Once they start crawling into bed with others, it's really really really tough to get them to stop!

Thrift Store Mama said...

Try asking him what would help him and then trying it. A light on, door open, etc. If he says that he wants to sleep with his sisters, talk to them separately about it and see if they would mind. Perhaps a simple Ikea mattress on the floor (that could be easily picked up on the weekends when everyone is home to make more space) would suffice. I tend to think that pretty much any habit can be broken at a later age, so I don't typically worry about starting "bad" habits now. Because, really, how can being comforted while sleeping be a bad habit ?