Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Sleep Training

Max learned how to climb out of his crib last week.  

We went back and forth on whether or not to move him to a toddler bed and finally decided not to when we read this response to the worry that a child might hurt himself climbing out of his crib: "This is a common worry and often used as an excuse to go to your child or buy a "big kid's" bed.  But the truth is that serious injuries rarely occur when the child bumps on the floor as he lets himself down."  

I beg to differ Dr. Weissbluth.  Not when your kid's MO is his head.  Most kids don't climb out of the crib until they can figure out how to get their legs over the side.  Not Max.  He throws the top half of his body over, counting on his massive head to pull the rest of his body out along with it.  After hurling himself out of the crib more than a few times and looking  up at me with big sad eyes, pointing to his head and saying, "Mama, hurt" we decided to go with the toddler bed.  

So last night began sleep training.  I put him to bed and every time he came out I didn't look at him, I didn't talk to him, I just picked him up and put him back in his bed.  I actually didn't have to do very much heavy lifting since every time he heard me coming he'd jump up yelling a terrified "uh oh!" through his tears, run back to his room and barrel roll onto his bed.  Anyway, who knows how many times we had to do it before he fell asleep, but he finally did.   At about 2:30 am he woke up and every half hour after that Abram had to get up and put him back in bed.  Should be an interesting couple of days, I'll keep you posted. 

16 comments:

Melanie said...

Good, good, good, good luck. We used your method (no obvious attention, just over and over putting them back in bed) - it seemed to work with both our older boys...with much effort. Can't wait to hear how it goes. Max obviously knows where he is supposed to be if the "uh-oh" has anything to do with it...

Owens D.C. said...

Maybe the only freebie pass he'll get is on Christmas morning?


;)

Sandy said...

I could totally picture Max head diving out of his crib and landing on his head...poor little man! Good luck with trying to get him to stay in bed!!

DTR said...

We're Weissbluth devotees, and for us it only took a couple of days for the kid to capitulate and start staying in bed. Best of luck.

Lisa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisa said...

Not to rub it in, but I will. We had a babysitter one night and came home to find that she had put Keely on the twin bed to go to sleep and Keely had stayed! After that, we just simply started putting her in a bed. I have to admit that nap times took a serious hit though! : )

Shauri said...

Sounds like you've got your solution. Get a babysitter for the next two nights until he's trained. :)

Rebecca said...

Good luck! I was so good with sleep training Syd but it's not going so well with Talmage. I think it's so worth it to get them trained to have good sleep habits!

Brady & Sherry Jones said...

I suppose you could get one of those crib tent canopy thingys. I've always thought putting netting over your child's crib was strange but now it's starting to make sense why such a product exists.

Kris said...

...Or you could save yourself the money and go with the really unorthodox method of just tying him into his bed. That method seems to work in some nursing homes - at least until they're shut down because of it, but I won't tell if you won't. (Poor humor? Maybe...)

Cara said...

Hi Abram! I noticed your link on Sherry's website and thought I'd check it out. You've got a cute family! Good luck with the sleep training. Just wanted to say hello. Fun to see updates after all these years :)
Cara

Aly said...

We're doing this too. AAAAHHH! I was lucky I guess to make it a little longer than you did before Emma started climbing out of the crib. And oh how I miss nap time.

Summer said...

I laugh out loud every time I read your blog. I like seeing what i have to look forward to with Davis. I thought being one was tough . Thanks for your comment about my OCD post-I am going to be proud of my OCD thanks to you! Love ya! Summer

Delsa said...

I think this is only justice. What a time I had with you. And Chris, I think my neighbor invented the net idea. She heard Kristin screaming every day at nap time because she could get out of her crib and so she brought over an old garden net to throw over the Crib. And as far as tying them it, I tried it with a blanket and then a rope, I was so desperate- but finally a good old lock on the door was the only way. She would fall asleep finally, on the floor in front of the bed. Desperation can cause you to do all sorts of things

KA said...

And so how's this going?

EFN Newsletter said...

I was just waiting for that comment from my mother. I knew it was coming, just a matter of time.