Friday, March 14, 2008

Sleep Routine

We've started a new sleeping routine around here. We've got to get rid of these 9:00 bedtimes around here! Nora and I made a visual chart last night that she puts stickers on after she completes each part of the night time routine. The biggest goal is for her to put herself to sleep. She was in bed at 7:00 and asleep, on her own accord, by 7:20! I guess the promise of going to get an ice cream cone today worked! Now we'll move to two nights before a big reward, then three, and so on.

I think we've always been pretty consistent about the getting-ready-for-bed routine, but the time we start it has been too late. I think that maybe we've just been missing her 'window' and then she's so tired that she wants to stay up and protest going to sleep for two hours. Because she will only go to sleep with me, I needed to make a change for my sanity.

For those of you that have children that want to go to sleep at night, you are SO lucky. I'm sure there is more than luck that goes into it, so we're trying something new. I go back to work on Monday and we need to have her sleep time be long before 9:00 at night. My sanity is not going to handle a three year old protesting sleep and 5th graders at the same time ;-)

2 comments:

Mel said...

Best of luck to you. I do take it for granted that my boys go down (and always have) so easily for naps/bedtime.

Hope this new routine works- for sanity's sake!

Andi said...

I hope your first day back goes well. I'll be thinking about you!