We are going through a really rough time with Noah right now. The kid refuses to sleep though the night and it is killing me very slowly and painfully. We have finally found a routine to get him down at bedtime without a fight. I will rub his back and then leave the door open and sit on the couch so he can see me. That way he will fall asleep on his own without the direct presence of Hunter or me. The problem is the little fiend will sleep for about 4 hours and then the fight begins.
If I stay in his room until he is asleep he will wake up every hour and come and get me (one habit we are trying to break). This means I am in his room waiting for him to fall asleep EVERY HOUR. Now, if I don't wait in his room for the heathen to fall back asleep, well, that is where the real problems begin.
Let's take last night, for example. Noah woke up at 3:00am and I went and sat with him for 5 minutes until I thought he was pretty close to sleep. Well, he wasn't. I spent the next 2 1/2 hours trying everything I could the get him back to sleep without me sleeping in his room (the other habit we are trying to break). Don't get me wrong. I know we were in a really bad routine and it will take a while to break it and start a new one, I just didn't think he would break ME on the first night. He refused to go back to his bed unless I took him and then refused to stay in bed unless I stayed there with him. So, to break down what I tried, I tried rocking him, rubbing his back, talking sweet, talking stern, ignoring him (he just walked around my bed and cried for an hour except when he wedged himself between my bed and night stand and fell asleep for 10 minutes. Boy was he mad when he woke up). I tried telling him either go to his bed or sleep on my floor, sleep on the couch or living room. I even tried shutting my door, but then had to spank him when he went into the backyard (TWICE!) when my door was shut. Finally at 5:30 am, I begged him to sleep on my floor on a pillow and promised him a blanket if he would just go to sleep. He did and then I cried myself to sleep.
OK, so what have I NOT thought of? Any suggestions or advice? We used to lock him in his room and he did well with that. When he became more verbal and “aware” of the other options we weaned him off locking him in and he still did really great for a long while. We can always go back to locking him in his room, but it just feels cruel now that he knows the difference and that he is older. I don’t really want to scar or scare him. I just want us all to finally get some sleep. Have you been thorough the same thing and something has worked for you?
