We've been working with E on how to deal with herself, by herself, when she's having a hard time dropping off to sleep. She has a Fisher-Price MP3 player so we ask her to listen to the stories and songs on that if she doesn't feel like sleeping.
She went to bed at 7pm, and now it's 11pm. All this time, she's been listening to Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby (hold-overs from Christmas). She's still hyped up and wired.
Once she asked if she could wake up now. Once she went potty. Now she's in talking with D and arguing with him about music. She is not quite four.
I know you three will work out the best things for you in your environments based on your knowledge and experience. If getting to sleep is a problem for your daughter, I wondered if you had thought about the following practices which help promote learning how to go to sleep by yourself. David Hoffman has some good suggestion of herbal teas to add to children's bathtime on his website(mainly catnip and lemon balm). Also, it might be helpful to substitute soothing classical music rather than songs and stories which have words which could stimulate thinking rather than act to shut the mind down. Classic FM produce a nice sleeptime CD for babies/young children. All kids go through blips when they can't sleep, but most, when they have a routine which they adher to, manage to fall asleep quickly. I always think it's harder for single children because their parents are their only resource. I remember when my daughter was 3/4, she was very distressed because her father was away from home a great deal working. By this time, her brother had moved into his own bedroom with a double bed so most nights she would climb in with him and I'd find them fast asleep together when I went up to bed. Sometimes we would even find the three of them asleep at both ends of a single bed. - sorry to burden you with my reminiscences, but hopefully things will improve for you soon!
Posted by: Sarah Head | January 12, 2009 at 03:44 AM