If you have come into any kind of contact with me within the last month, you would know that I have a very frustrating situation on my hands. My dear, sweet little McKenna has decided that she no longer wants to sleep. Ever. She learned how to climb out of her crib and we have been fighting tooth and nail to get her to go to sleep every night since, even when she is completely exhausted. Among the MANY things we tried are:
-Taking the bottom of the crib out and putting the mattress on the floor inside the crib frame (she STILL manages to climb out)
-Put other obstacles around or over her crib in an effort to keep her in. She is a freaking Houdini and has gotten out of ALL of them
-Taking Kaylee out of the room and locking McKenna in (She broke the child proof lock, as well as ripping numerous books and destroying other things in the room and has gotten hurt on occasion)
-Cutting her naps short or getting rid of them altogether (she crashes at bedtime and then is up at 1 or 2 and can't go back to sleep)
-Making her bedtime routine longer and more relaxing to help calm her down
-Letting her do whatever she wants as long as she is quiet and in her room, hoping she'll fall asleep on the floor when she gets tired (so far, she hasn't gotten to the point of falling asleep anywhere. The other night we let her stay up until 11:30 before we finally forced her to go to bed)
-Letting her choose where she wants to sleep (our bed, the guest bed, the rocking chair, couch, etc. They all have the same results)
-Putting her in a tent and locking it shut (which is actually the only reason we've gotten any sleep at all)
-Lay down with her or try to rock her back to sleep (she doesn't sleep and just giggles at us or pokes/scratches/hits us
-Take away her binky or other things and telling her she will get them back if she can stay in her crib (she literally has not lasted 5 mins doing it this way)
-Put books or dolls in her crib for her to look at until she falls asleep (she looks at it for a minute and then climbs out and asks us for another one)
Mostly it's just been a lot of bribing, threatening, pleading, crying, and a LOT of screaming. I am seriously at my wit's end. I keep thinking she will just get over this and learn that no matter how many times she gets out, we put her right back in (even though our methods have changed, this is something we have been VERY consistent with). But this has been happening for over a month now!! And even if she does go right to sleep at bedtime, she is up in the middle of the night for hours. She has always been like this- as a little baby we could not do anything to get her to fall asleep and just had to wait until she decided she was tired enough. I don't know what else to do and even when McKenna IS asleep I have been up for hours just stressing about what to do. I have always been kind of a sleep nazi when it comes to my children and this is giving my anxiety like no other! Please, someone send the sleep fairy our way!!!!!
1 comment:
I don't know if this will help you at this stage but maybe with your next child. With both Brinlee and Lily, we take them out of the crib as soon as they can safely climb off of furniture (like the bed or couch) before they attempt to learn how to climb out of the crib. I feel like it gives them a sense of empowerment. It seems to me, with my children, if I do it early enough so that they still are very dependent on at least one nap a day, they feel like its their choice to stay in bed. Kind of weird to explain. They will fight me when I lay them down in their crib for about a month before I do this. But I had to wait until they could climb off safely. It only took them about 1 or 2 times to realize that they could get out if they wanted to but they were so tired that they fell asleep first. It seems to be less of a battle for me when my kids feel like they have a legitimate choice. Anyway, I just converted Lily's crib to a toddler bed a few nights ago and she goes to sleep like a dream.
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