Until a few weeks ago, Abner was fantastic at going to bed/sleep. We'd do the bedtime routine and have her quietly in bed at about 7:15 and asleep well before 8:00 each night. She wouldn't always sleep through the night, but she would never, EVER get out of her bed. Perfection if you ask me.
She rather suddenly switched things up on us shortly before Christmas by refusing to go to sleep and escaping her bed multiple times a night (I lost count at about 25 escapes one night). We tried everything we could think of (and some tricks I'd be ashamed to publish on the blog, so believe me when I say we tried everything and let's leave it at that) to try to get her to go back to her old habits, but she would have none of it.
Hoping to at least get some quiet time after about a week or so of the tantrums, I gave her a book to read in bed. It started out as just one or two books at a time and we're now up in the neighbourhood of 10-12 at a time. As she gets to the end of one stack, she calls out asking for another. This repeats until about 9 or 10 pm. By morning, the result is the piles of books you see stacked upon our coffee table.
We recently moved all of her books onto a shelf in her bedroom, so we'll have to see how she manages fending for herself so The Dear Sweet Husband and I can have our evenings back. But please, tell me, is this normal? Do other kids suddenly refuse to go to sleep at 2.5? Is there any hope for her to start falling asleep at a reasonable hour again?
Also, if you have any spare kids books kicking around, please send them over.
looks like abbi is very passionate reader - i think that runs in the family@:D
ReplyDeleteYes all normal....stick with it. Our first used to pile books high in his bed and fall asleep on them and we'd peel his face off the covers. Neither like bedtime but we have stuck with it and have a routine that they know....with the running out of bed, we had several nights of just putting them back in bed, not making a fuss, saying night and leaving the room. We have a 7pm for 2yr old and 8pm bedtime for the 6yr old....and then it's mummy and daddy chill time....for the most part!!
ReplyDeleteIf you're doing a library run for books I can recommend anything by Catherine Rayner (I particularly like Augustus and His Smile). I also like the recently published A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead. It looks like Abner has a wonderful book collection!
ReplyDeleteNormal. 2.5 is a real transition age. They learn so much right around that time. Do what you can to survive and encourage her to stay put and be confident that she'll grow out of it.
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