Teaching Degen to Sleep

Bethany — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:17:46 +0000

We've been working on teaching Degen to sleep in his bed all night, as I mentioned in an earlier post. For the last few months we've been putting him to bed after his bedtime routine, closing the door, and letting him pound on the door and cry himself to sleep. Now that he's not really crying himself to sleep anymore, and now that he's going to learn to open the door soon, and now that Maggie is too big for her bassinet and needs to be moved to the crib in Degen's room, we're trying to teach him to sleep in his bed instead of on the floor behind the door. To accomplish this, we're putting him to bed as usual, but leaving the door to his room open instead of shutting it. Then, we stand nearby watching so that every time he gets out of his bed we can lead him back to his bed, tuck him in, and say "bedtime." According to Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, this should be done with no inflection and a neutral facial expression so as not to give any positive or negative attention to the little one getting out of his bed, and that's what we've been doing.

Last night was the third night we tried it. The first night it was so late at night and he was so exhausted that he went to sleep after only three trips to bed (including the initial bedtime routine). The second night I believe we put him back to bed five times. Nap time yesterday was only two trips to bed. Last night it was around five times, but there was a rogue factor in that I wasn't home the whole time and Colin was asleep in bed, having taken some Benadryl for a runny nose/sore throat. I think we're doing great, especially since the examples in the book talk about being required to take 144 trips back to bed the first night. So, I'm excited that he's doing so well and that it's so much easier than I expected. If I have to take him back to bed three times every night for the next year, I think that's totally doable.

Bethanyology » bedtime

Teaching Degen to Sleep