Have any of you heard of the sleep regression that occurs when a child hits the age of 2? If your kids are past that age then most likely you have lived through those long nights, but if they still haven’t reached it yet, brace yourself.
My son turned 2 last February and a bit after that time I started potty training him. Once that was complete I decided why not move him to a big boy bed, not because I disliked the crib, but because of safety issues. He would crawl up and go down. Every. Night. And let me tell you, there is nothing more nerve wracking than hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet running up to your bedside in the middle of the night. We even hammered longer vertical wooden bars to the crib but that didn’t stop him, it made his climbing adventure even more dangerous if he were to fall from the top (yikes!).
So eventually he started sleeping in the regular bed. But what child of that young age can control himself to stay in bed? At first we thought it was cute. Then it became a habit. His sister would go to bed earlier and he’d stay up until way after 11 PM up to midnight. It wasn’t healthy for him (or for us for that matter). We figured it was sleep regression. We thought that maybe he isn’t getting enough activity during the day so we let him play at night. Then we enrolled him in daycare thinking he would come home happy with all the play time and sleep at a reasonable time. That didn’t work either, and what started as one month turned into two, and so on so forth until we reached October!
It isn’t optimal for a child to sleep so little, and for us parents it isn’t so great. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a pleasure to be around, but when you’ve had a long work day (in my case I work in the evenings as well) it gets very tough to concentrate, much less to relax.
I played my final card, and let me tell you mamas, it’s a winner!
I decided it was time to convince him that what night meant. I decided other techniques I had been doing weren’t working so I had to speak to him like an adult. I turned off all the lights at home, every last one of them. I took him outside to the balcony to see the moon, told him the sun was asleep and we should say goodnight to the moon. He said bye moon, hopped up to bed, and I am proud to say that this has worked for the past 5 days straight!
I don’t think it is too early to judge, because after being at a loss for methods, this one worked out. This doesn’t mean he sleeps through the night, but at least he can get the rest his body needs, and I get my sanity back!
Maria Najem
Photo: wellworthliving.com
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