Day 151 - What to do when he won't go to sleep......

When I first transitioned Jonas to a toddler bed, he did great. For 3 or 4 whole months he never got out of the bed. We had no trouble at all. I was like "Yes, this is easy!"  But then after those months, it was like it dawned on him that he could get out of his bed by himself. And then the trouble started. It was hard to get him to take naps because he would just get out of bed, it was hard to get him to go to sleep at night on time...it was awful!

But then one day, a brilliant idea came to my mind. It was awesome! I'm a huge believer in giving children choices. I did this in my teaching too. You always give two, or more (if the child is older and can handle three), choices that the child can choose from. Make sure that you don't care which choices the child chooses. Because once the child chooses, you stick with their choice, and then they feel like they have ownership. And you're not always telling them what to do or feel like you're nagging at them. It's great. It's called Love and Logic, and they have books on it for parenting and teaching. It teaches how to get kids to solve their own problems, have ownership over their own choices, it's awesome! I've never read the parenting book, but as teachers we studied the teaching one and applied those discipline principles in our teaching. I assume it's probably similar. It was a mandatory discipline schoolwide at the school I taught. Anyways, it's brilliant.

So after Jonas got out of his bed the first time, I had the idea to ask Jonas if he wanted to sleep in his pack-n-play, or his bed.  He would always choose the pack-n-play. But I didn't care. It was his choice. The thing about the pack-n-play is that even though he chose it, he didn't really like being in it. About 5-10 minutes of being in the pack-n-play, and realizing he can't move as freely, or get out, he would always cry to get out. So then I'd go get him and ask him again if he wants to sleep in the pack-n-play or his bed. He would then choose his bed, and he would stay in his bed. Because I told him if he gets out of his bed, then that meant he wanted to sleep in the pack-n-play. It was awesome. That cured the problem.

Now every once and a while, he'll still get out of bed - mainly during his naps, but never at nighttime - and I'll give him the choices again. Ever since the "baby powder" incident, he likes to get out of bed and play in his room when he's supposed to be napping. Well, today was a day where he did that again. I went in, asked if he wanted his bed or the pack-n-play and he chose the pack-n-play. So I put him in. I could hear him talking in the pack-n-play, but atleast he can't get out of it. Then eventually the noise died down, and I went to check on him and saw this:

This was the first time he had fallen asleep in the pack-n-play for naptime. He has fallen asleep in it when we first started this at nighttime, but never during naptime. He'd rather be in his bed, even though he chooses the pack-n-play. I thought it was so cute. I love this kid. Now this method might not work for everyone, but it works for Jonas, and it's been a huge lifesaver for me, especially being pregnant and tired all the time so I can get a nap in. I love it!