She can sleep if she wants to…
July 13, 2009 | Category: I'm a Momma
Michael and I always joke that PK really doesn’t ever sleep. We rarely ever actually see her sleep, with our own eyes. It’s really weird when you’re the parent and you never see your child sleeping.
PK does not nap. I understand this – she’s almost 5 and lots of kids her age don’t nap anymore. (insert exhausted mom sob)
PK gets up earlier than we do. We guess that she wakes up when Michael turns on the shower around 6:30 every morning since her room is right above ours. By the time Michael goes downstairs, she’s already fixed herself breakfast and is watching cartoons.
And lately, PK goes to bed when we do. Technically, we attempt to put her to bed around 8pm. We have a ritual of brush teeth, story, drink, 2 songs, prayer and lights out.
As of the past few weeks, she has been a novel of excuses as to why she should come back downstairs after she’s already been tucked in for the night. Excuses range from:
“my finger hurts”
“I need ice in my drink”
“I can’t find my stuffed lion”
“my butt hurts”
“there are no spongbob movies on my camera” (ha)
“I need to tell you a joke”
“I hear a scary sound that’s freaking me out”
“I need binoculars to star gaze”
“I see dead people” (ok, maybe I made this one up)
And as of recently – when we punish her and angrily tell her to get her bootie back in the sack, we find that she skips her bed all together and finally falls asleep in a nest on the stair landing.
To make matters worse, and as scary as it sounds; we’re on the eve of moving Birdie up to PK’s room with her. Birdies lease is up in the nursey and we have a new tenant moving in in just a few months.
I need to nip this sleeping issues in the bud before it becomes double trouble.
Suggestions? Sympathies? I think it’s time to instill the fear.
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19 Responses to “She can sleep if she wants to…”
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Hi, I’m Emily.
July 13th, 2009 @ 7:13 pm
No suggestions over here. I need the advice myself with my 3.5 year old. he does not like to sleep. I should have known since he only took 1/2 hour naps as an infant.
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July 13th, 2009 @ 10:17 pm
I give her props for creativity. Miss A is 4 and could easily stay up until 10 (and naps four days a week at daycare!) I've just started telling her that she has to stay in her bed. She can stay awake but MUST stay in the bed!
Stay strong!
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July 14th, 2009 @ 12:25 am
Is that her at the bottom of your stairs? HA!
We are about to move the 2 yr old in with the 5 yr. old for the same reason and I have an opposite fear. They both sleep pretty well now but what will happen when they are together?? Trouble, I'm guessing…
Here's hoping it goes well for the both of us!
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July 14th, 2009 @ 1:12 am
sorry, I have no advice. so here is my sympathies… I am sorry. And definitely want you to post your solution once found, so I can bookmark and revisit it when I am in the same situation
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July 14th, 2009 @ 2:04 am
This is exactly why Punkin is still in a crib. He's already a huge delayer at bedtime… his latest tonight was, "My foot fell out." – meaning his foot had come out from under his blanket. This was after he'd already called down because he needed his socks off (and can't just take them off himself without telling us first and seeing if we'll come help him). So glad he believes us when we say it's dangerous for him to try to get out of his crib by himself, or I don't think he'd ever sleep either!
Sorry I don't have any solutions, but I'm hoping someone else does so I can steal the idea too!
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July 14th, 2009 @ 2:26 am
She is creative and one day she will sleep. I have learned that consistency pays off and you need to stay firm.
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July 14th, 2009 @ 3:15 am
My two year old hates sleep with a passion. Whether it's naptime or bedtime, he fights it. He wakes up in the middle of the night, early in the morning, etc. So, I have absolutely no solution, other than maybe we should just get our kids together and let them entertain each other all night long?
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July 14th, 2009 @ 3:21 am
At almost 4, my daughter is finally "getting" the whole bed time thing, but summer is always harder…probably because there is still so much light!! I know a few people who go the melatonin route w/ their kids in the summer–it's a supplement that helps when they aren't exposed to enough darkness to make them sleepy.
Good Luck!
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July 14th, 2009 @ 3:57 am
I have sympathy and love and quite a bit of laughter.
She's one creative gal… she's primed to be a blogger already
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July 14th, 2009 @ 4:01 am
Maybe she just wants pajamas on:)
We use spanks for getting out of bed…but I know thats not PC these days and some might find it harsh. Usually does the trick though!
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July 14th, 2009 @ 6:58 am
Oh, do I have sympathies for you. No suggestions, sadly, but lots of sympathies. At least when you punish your kid-who-won't-go-to-bed she goes to sleep SOMEwhere. Frannie was up until 11 tonight. Ugh. I think our problem is that we don't do what BlondeMom Jamie says: stay strong. We have no strength in this matter.
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July 14th, 2009 @ 11:20 am
Is it possible that she's genuinely afraid of being that far from you? I was a total 'fraidy cat as a kid. We lived in a one-level house, tiny tiny tiny, but because my room wasn't across from my parents', I would get so scared. Especially since she's sneaking to the bottom of the stairs…that would be my guess. You might talk with her about that and see if there is anything you can do to relieve her fears (especially since it sounds like moving her room isn't an option).
Poor momma! You must be exhausted.
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July 14th, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
We used to have that with Chase too. The rule was everytime he got out of bed he had to go to bed 10 minutes earlier the next night. Few nights of going to bed at 7 when his brother didn't have to and he was cured! Good luck!
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July 14th, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
Stroh's Light puts me to sleep. But, I think there a Federal laws re: giving your 5-year-old alcohol to induce sleep. You have to be at least 6 before it's legal in West Virginia. Enjoyed Ange's comment too. -Mr. Blonde
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July 14th, 2009 @ 5:13 pm
No real suggestions, I'm sorry to say – at least nothing you haven't already thought of, probably: more physical exercise during the day? Longer bedtime routine?
As a kid (admittedly a little bit older, upper elementary and middle school), I had a HECK of a time falling asleep. Mom would tell me to just lay there, be stil, and "stop thinking." DUUUUUDE, how do you turn your brain off?! I just WASN'T TIRED YET, but luckily for them, I was uber-obedient and stayed in bed, awake and bored (or i snuck over to the nightlight for an hour with a book, then put myself back to bed). To this day, I'm not sure why I wasn't tired yet, but I just wasn't.
I anticipate having passed this problem along to my own kids so I'll be breathlessly following along to hear what works.
I guess the only "creative" idea I have is that once she is asleep, to sneak in and turn on some mood music, getting her brain to associate sleep with that music… then shifting forwrd to using that as lullaby/go-to-bed background music, and see if it makes her sleepy? *shrug?!*
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July 14th, 2009 @ 9:08 pm
well, my 2 and 4 year share a bunk bed at their dad's house and some nights they are hard to settle down and some they aren't. i do know they go to bed later there than they do here, which i would hate.
are you going to leave birdie in a crib? if not, you might want to make the bed transition first in her own room and then move her upstairs when it is closer to time, that way she at least gets used to having to stay in bed before you throw her in with big sister. you might also have to put her to bed before her big sister otherwise they will both pass out at the bottom of the stairs at midnight!
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July 14th, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
The same bed time routine each and every night at the same time. You may want to start letting her know about 2 hours before bedtime to get ready for it. We had to do that with Giggles. We also did the positive rewards chart with her for staying in her bed, when she filled up a row she got a special outing or fun thing to do while The Chicken was asleep. She just didn't like staying in bed and often we would find her in the hallway. She also didn't need as much sleep as other kids her age. So, since she was about 5 or 6 we backed up her bedtime about 20 minutes but got her a bedside lamp and let her read-to this day she falls asleep with that bedside lamp on. I turn it off each night.
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July 15th, 2009 @ 12:57 am
The trouble began when my son was 2 1/2 and quit naps. The good thing was he slept in to 9 or 10 but we put him to bed at 8:30 and he would stay up in his room or coming out to bug us until 10 or 11. Finally, I just decided to put him to bed an hour earlier. It was like magic. 7:30 is his magic bedtime hour. If he stays up until 8:00 he can't fall asleep fast. If I have in bed by 7:30, he falls fast asleep. I might try to change her bedtime to see if you can find that magic hour. I swear each kid has one and you have to find the right time before they pass it get all wired for another few hours. Good luck!
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August 13th, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
My parents made a huge behavior chart (it was about as big as me and they taped it to the wall right outside my bedroom door) with all of my 'responsibilities' from being nice to my brother and sister to brushing my teeth. They got a smiley face and frowny face stamp and every morning, we'd review the previous day and I would 'get' to stamp my chart. At the end of the week, if I had more smiley then frowny faces, I got to pick if we went to the zoo/park/museum/etc on sat. Staying in bed was just one of them, but by putting the chart right outside of my door, if I was leaving, it was the first thing I saw. So that worked for me. A few years later, it did not work for my brother. He ended up getting a spanking for disobedience and no one toed the line on the bedtime rule again :p
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