Hard headed!

[harmony5]

My 19 month old has got to be the most hardheaded stubborn child on the face of this earth!! Okay, maybe not the most, but pretty close!!

We moved him to his toddler bed about a month ago because he had learned how to hoist himself out of the crib and do dangerous stunts! Before this, I would lay him in his crib around 8pm for bedtime. He would not cry or even whine. He would just go to sleep. He did the same thing for naps.

Well, those days are gone!! It is 11:50pm and I just have gotten his rotten butt to sleep and he probably would have stayed up even longer had I let him.

I cannot get him to stay in his bed for naps or bedtime. If he has a nap during the day, he wants to stay up all night. One night, he didn't even go to sleep until 1am. :shock: I just let him stay up to see how long he would stay up!! So, I thought, maybe he's ready to have no naptime. So, if I try to lay him down for a nap and he has a cow, I let him get up. But, by 5 pm, he is worn out and cranky!! But, I can get him to go to bed at 8 with hardly any problem.

If he has his nap from 11-2, then when I try to put him to bed at 8, he just thinks we are playing a big game. Up, down, up, down, up, down. I have tried reading, music, rubbing his back. Everything!! He gets up, or tries to, no matter what!!

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get him to stay in his bed once I put him there? Once he goes to sleep, he doesn't wake up during the night. It's just getting him to stay there in the first place!! Help!

Lori :D

PS>>>What kills me is how children that come from the same 2 people can be soooooo different!! I did not have this problem with my other 2 at all!!

[Reneemomto5]

Lori, hoping some other moms can offer their advice here, I can just tell you what I do.

We are already into getting a schedule ready for next homeschooling year, I'm starting mid August. I use to have 2 separate bedtimes for the children. When the older 2 were asleep that is when I would settle my younger children down in the past.

I have a 16 month old so I can understand how they seem so nosey and resist going to sleep. What we do is have complete lights out at a certain time,between 9 and 9:30. I place all my 4 boys in their bed tuck them in and tell them I am putting their little sister, the 16month old to bed. So they play in the dark whatever or talk for a bit (they are all in the same room). I either put the baby in a porta crib and she cries for a bit than I take her out hug her and she goes right to sleep. Or I may lay with her in my bed until she is fast asleep (a couple weeks ago is when I stopped nursing her to sleep). Usually takes 15 minutes for her to sleep,than I give the boys a final kiss and they go to sleep. But the house is completely dark.

I have had success with this for a few weeks now. Sure once in a while it doesn't go perfectly, but I needed a schedule bad. And this one works great for us.

Hang in there, hopefully you'll find something that works for you.

[7thHeaven]

My 18-month old daughter was pulling risky stunts trying to get out of her cirb, so we got her a toddler bed, we had no problems at night, but she woke up at like 6:30 in the morning when my dh would leave for work and fought going back to sleep and boycotted her naps, so now she sleeps and takes her naps in her playpen. We put her in her playpen b/c she has nothing to hold on to or boost herself out of her playpen. Her bed is still up, we'll try her bed again in about a month or so.