Deteriorating attitude... more now that we're sleep training.

Kelly - posted on 09/17/2009

My son has been putting himself to sleep since about 6 months....what i did was a bedtime routine of bath, lotion, bottle, story and then in the beginning i would rock him to sleep and put him in his bed...then after about a week of that i went to just rocking him till he was just about asleep and the would put him in his bed and he would go to sleep, then after about a week of that i would just rock him till he was really sleepy and then put him in bed and turn on his music and he would go to sleep, after about a week of that i went to just rocking for a few mins, that way we still had our cuddle time, and then putting him in his bed awake, i would turn his music on and he would go to sleep, he would sometimes fuss, but no more than 5 mins.....he has a rainforest music and lights crib toy that hangs on the side of his crib that he can turn on, but he also has a cd player in his room and i put on the rainforest sleeptime cd and he goes to sleep with that playing....i found it helped him go to sleep faster......and he also has a binky when he sleeps...that way he isn't going to bed with a bottle...good luck

Lori - posted on 09/17/2009

We put our house on the market this summer, and when we get a call that they want to show the house soon, I put my son in his playpen for 15-20 min. while I scramble to clean the house. The first couple of times I had to do this he screamed the whole time. Now, he usually just cries a minute or two when I put him in the playpen, but then he settles down and will play happily. I think it's been good for him to learn that there are times when I just can't drop what I'm doing to play with him, and he has to soothe and entertain himself.
I'm not sure what advice to give with the sleep training. My son didn't protest it too much after the first couple of days. It might help that he has a rainforest crib soother that lights up and plays music if he's not asleep when I put him down, or if he wakes up during the night (he can turn it on himself). He also has two little stuffed animal/blankets in his crib that he can play with.

Kelly - posted on 09/16/2009

I feel for you! I had this problem early on with my son, but he's seems to have outgrown it. (He's 10mths) His earth-shattering screams were at every nap time and would last for as long as he was in the crib. I started rocking him to sleep and that went well for about 2 weeks and then I noticed that his sleeping was dependant on me rocking and I realized he would never get a good quality sleep that way, so back to the crying we went. I am not sure at what exact point it changed but it was between his 6mnth and 9mnth dr. appt. It all of the sudden clicked with him. He now barely cries when I put him down and if he doesn't go right to sleep, he entertains himslelf.

I will say that we have always used a pacifier with him (and that helped for us) and I have a crib music box on his crib and he can push the buttons himself to play the music which entertains him when he does not fall right asleep...

As for implementing the word no, we have been doing that also, and didn't notice that our son was understanding it. Then we went somewhere one day and tried to give him a plastic toy to hold (I guess he didn't like the texture or something) he pulled his hand back and shook his head no. So when I saw that I knew that he understood and have been more diligant about telling him no (when appropriate).

I hope your days get better. It is definitely taxing on the parents because naturally you don't want to see your child in distress, but hopefully he will grow out of it! Good Luck!

Melissa - posted on 09/16/2009

Yes same thing happening here & I would LOVE to know how the other mum's coped as I'm emotionally drained... Biggest thing I think is not to give in but just stick with it! Good luck Holly, I know what you're going through. I'm now on day 3!