bedtime hell 27/3/2013

My boys have never been great sleepers ever, JR was a year and a half old before he'd even consider going to sleep before midnight, and although TP has never been one to fight going to sleep its actually keeping him asleep that is the problem.

last Tuesday night I watched bedtime live with Dr Tanya Byron and new dad Jake Humphrey, hoping for some tips. One of the case studies was a 5 year old boy who would not go to sleep without his mum lying next to him in bed. whilst watching this I thought that's me and JR every night without fail he wouldn't go to sleep without me lying in bed with him.

As I was watching it I was at the same time tweeting about what I was watching (and I get accused of not being able to multi-task)one of my friends said you would be able to do that, why don't you try it? I thought about it for the rest of the night and through Wednesday morning and decided I would give it a go as mr m&ttt was on early shifts so would be here to look after TP and LA.

For Wednesday night I thought that it would take a lot of persuading on my part for JR to let me out the room, it didn't he was fine about me leaving the room as long as he could see me. I sat outside his room and only had to return him to bed 3 times and within 20 minutes he was asleep!

Thursday night was even easier I sat in the same place (this time with a blanket and beanbag) and only had to return him to bed once and after 15 minutes he was asleep! Friday and Saturday followed the same pattern each day me moving further away and although there was some shouting from him he didn't get out of bed. At this point I was wondering why I hadn't tried this sooner, so on Sunday night I not only left the room but also went back into the lounge, as this was quite new for JR he was a bit worried and got out of bed and made is way back into the lounge. Mr m&ttt took his hand and returned him to bed where he stayed and went straight to sleep!

So on to tonight mr m&ttt was working late which meant that I had to put the tiny 3 to bed on my own something which i can usually do without any fuss, I do it at least twice a week but I also usually pander to JR's demands of me lying with him whilst making sure the other 2 are safe. I promised myself that I was not going to spoil all the work from the last few days by giving in tonight. After all how hard could it be he's been doing so well-it will be easy! Who was I kidding!

It took over a hour and 30+ returns to bed and excuses before he finally went to sleep here is a list of his excuses and fears tonight

* Mummy I need the toilet (yes I used to use this one!)
* Mummy I don't like my bedroom its got a bed in it
* Mummy I'm not allowed to go to sleep my teddy told me
* I cant go to sleep yet because I haven't had my breakfast
* My tummy/arm/knee(insert any body part)hurts
And when all these failed he brought out the big boys toys
* mummy why don't you love me
* mummy I don't like being on my own
* mummy I love you don't leave me!
Each of these shouted statements dug right into my heart and it would have been easy to give up but i stood my ground and finally when he knew he was beat he launched his biggest attack yet
* Mummy I really really hate you because you're leaving me on my own you don't love me! and with that he rolled over cuddled his teddy and went straight to sleep!!!

I've been assured it gets easy, I really hope it does, and then it will be time to sleep train TP