Parent Thread

Kovaks_sl said:

We went from sleeping all night to not quite waking up but fussing between midnight and two but not out of hunger i think he knows if he fusses he gets to come to bed, My wifes biggest complain right now is that i sleep through the baby whining or even light crying during the night and so she either has to take care of it or wake up to wake me up so i can address it. Anyone know how to become a lighter sleeper?

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How we did it was I was on baby duty from when I got off work until late at night usually about 2AM, this let the wife either sleep or unwind/whatever. Post 2AM she was on duty, this went on while she was stay at home mom. I already didn't sleep much so wasn't a big change for me. That or sleep closer to the baby(away from the wife) with the baby monitor turned way up.

meStevo_sl said:

Envy. We converted our crib to a day bed in part to try and change the bedtime tantrum routine. It just means he has less of a barrier unfortunately to throwing himself out of bed and then against the door. Leaving us the options of holding the door knob until he falls asleep on the floor at the door or giving in and taking him to our bed. Next up is then getting him into bed once he passes out - or - even more fun, basically restraining him until he snaps out of his tantrum and gives in to the idea of bedtime.

End result is we have a toddler in bed with us all night more often than not.

Mom is telling us to put the side of the crib back up and just tell him it's bedtime "it's what we do with naps and he only gets out once at most" but it's different with them because he doesn't really tantrum for naps.

Currently just running him out of steam which is anywhere between 9:30 and 11:30pm and then putting him in bed... I'm up anyways, but this is just something we're trying because we're both exhausted from the other methods and my 7 month pregnant wife being tired all the time is not a fun life to live

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Routine is everything, as well as setting expectations. Explain all this before hand. We would have hangout time (usually let her pick the activity, setting the expectation that 7:00PM was bath time) then bathroom time(bath, brush teeth etc) and before we mentioned bath time we would ask "What happens after bath time? Bedtime! Very good! If you are good during bath time we will read a story, if you are REALLY good you even get to pick the book." Make this all happen around the same time every night and he should start going down easy. Did this for years with great effect, daughter just turned 7 with a third grade reading level and she mostly puts herself to bed. The wife and I would take turns reading a story, with the agreement of whoever didn't read would handle any fussing after the story was over. We also did the you don't have to go to sleep but you do have to stay in your bed thing which worked really well(but only if she was good, if she was being a brat we did not give that option)

We had some issues but I am stubborn as fuck and she paid dearly for getting out of bed after agreement. Punishment involved standing in corner until she was so tired she was begging me to go to bed, taking her into the bathroom and reading the ingredients of all the shampoo and other stuff I could find, or one night I warned her if you get out of bed again I'm not going to let you go to sleep until tomorrow night. She tested me, I put on some coffee Friday night and I made her stay up all night and all the next day(minus he afternoon nap routine), we hung out and did fun things but any time she was drifting I woke her up and reminded her this is what happens when you don't go to bed when we ask/listen, she was so defeated come bath time she actually apologized, it was fantastic. She tried to test me a few times after that weeks or months later but I just had to remind her about last time and back to bed she went.

I'm sure you can make it REALLY boring for your kid and keep yourself entertained, no toddler like stats so if you are into sports take the time to explain your teams/players stats in great detail. Things like that, just try and think like your kid and remember you are smarter.

double post.