Sleeplessly Strong-Willed

We have had a rough time in the Smith house recently. Last week, Tobin had a hard time falling asleep at nap time. He would lay in his bed for an hour and a half singing, talking, pretending, etc. He only napped two days last week. No matter what I did, he would stay awake. No amount of book reading, singing, or soothing would work.

Then he realized that he could get out of bed. He would either tell me he had to go to the bathroom or just come to me so that I'd put him back to bed and sing to him again. It didn't take long for him to figure out that this worked at night, too. A couple of nights ago, he got up well over twenty times throughout the night! Nothing worked to keep him in bed...rewards, praise, taking things away, spanking...nothing.

After a few nights of this, I pulled out my "Healthy Sleep Habits" book by Dr. Weissbluth. This was very valuable book to me when Tobin wasn't taking good naps when he was one. Anyway, I decided to try the "silent return to bed" method. When Tobin came out of his room, I would pick him up, put him back in bed, give him his stuffed dog, and cover him back up all without eye contact or words.

I started yesterday at nap time and it took 58 return trips to bed before he stayed put and fell asleep!!! He tried tricks such as trying to run away from me, crawling away, crying, and even hiding his dog thinking that I would find it for him and give him more attention. Last night before bed, it only took three return trips for it to stick! Better yet...he slept through the night and woke up at 6something instead of the five o'clock wake ups we have had this week!

Whew! Once again I'm realizing the challenges that come with my very bright, strong-willed little guy.