This past Saturday, Hubby transformed Princess' 3-in-1 crib into a toddler day bed. After doing this, I realized the bedrail that we have is longer than the crib/bed. So that meant no bedrail. "Oh well, we will see how she does."
Night 1: Princess goes to bed as usual. She falls out around 1:30 a.m.
Night 2: Princess goes to bed as usual. I check on her before going to bed. Her head and arms are hanging off of the bed. I put her back in bed. She falls out around 1:30 a.m.
Night 3: I put a foam cushion by her bed. Princess goes to bed as usual. I don't hear from her at all.
Night 4: Princess refuses to go to bed. After numerous ideas (rock her, lay beside her, let her fall asleep in our bed, rock her, rock her...) and being 11:00 p.m., I give in and let her sleep on the foam cushion on the floor in my room.
Night 5: We received a gently used bedrail that fits her bed! Princess was very excited. She kept saying, "pink on it." (Because it is pink and white). She refuses to go to bed. After 8 minutes of crying, I didn't hear from her until 8:30 this morning! (Why didn't I do the crying thing last night?!!!! I always forget about letting them cry. Lack of brain cells, I guess.)
I would say things are going well. She has gotten out of bed a couple of times. All I have to tell her is "if you get out of bed, you will get a spanking." Then she stays in.
Although the last two nights she got out and told me she had "poopies". I checked her diaper and there was nothing there. So I thought maybe she needs to poop, but then she doesn't until the next day. So last night when she did it, I talked to her about lying. I told her if she lies again that I would put soap in her mouth (which she seemed excited about!). Anyhow, I am thinking she is too young for that punishment. What do you think? Any suggestions on how to teach about lying at such a young age?
3 comments:
Oh my word! This post brought back memories!
I, again, failed miserably at the whole sleeping thing (like the veggie thing) so I am the last person to give you advice!
There are still pitter pats of little feet switching beds some nights around here and a few mornings I wake up squished with no covers because someone "had a bad dream".
As for lying, I think you've got to do whatever works and nip it early. I think all 3 of my children have some traumatizing story of what I did to them when I caught them in their first lie and while the occasional lie still occurs, it is usually followed by a quick confession when I say "oh, really?" (and, then there is some grace for that since they made a wise choice after considering the consequences!).
I've never been brave enough to use the soap. I'm more of a "wooden spoon" kind of gal.
I'm with oH mY wOrd, I don't do a lot of advice. I kind of fumbled my way through child rearing still do. I occasionally use the soap treatment with Drama King (5yr) but I use the liquid kind. Lather it a little and then stick it on his toungue.
But in your case princess is not 5. You are a great mama and you will know when it is really defiant behavior and when it is just being little and not knowing. I guess this is why I don't have a Dear Livin' article in the paper.:)
I am by no means an expert but one concept I have learned is to give attention to the behavior you want and not the behavior you don't want. Relating that to getting out of bed in the middle of the night, it might be good to take her back to bed without saying a word or even really making eye contact. For one, you don't want to wake her up any more than she already is, and another is that you don't want getting up at night to be a fun thing to do (but for me personally I would keep it neutral not a time for punishment).
Rereading your post, it seems that she is trying something new every couple of days. If you decide on your response and keep it consistent regardless of what she does, the behavior of not staying in bed will probably extinguish faster (although you may see an extinction burst - behavior often gets worse before it gets better).
Sorry to ramble on! I'll stop now:)
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