G still mostly sleeps in our bedroom. We’ve been struggling with this one for quite a long time. Every time we seem to get some traction for her sleeping in her own bed, we take a trip or she gets sick or something happens and she’s back in our room. I think I’m going to have to paint her room full of dinosaurs and dragons and yodas and shit for this to stop
We vowed not to make this mistake with Alana. And largely it has been working. Put her in her crib, complete silence until dawn. That was going great up until about about…3 days ago. Now she is keenly aware of where we are and howls until she falls asleep. The howling is punctuated by new-found usage of shrieking, saturated with “mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmoooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy”, and peppered with a few “daddys!” for good measure. Eventually she falls asleep. Then she wakes up and it starts again.
It is awful. I tune it out. Then I feel sad for how little love we’re giving her compared to her sister. Then I’m kinda touched by how aware she has become of everyone in her family and how she wants to be around us all the time. Then I’m kinda afraid that I will soon be sleeping in G’s room since my bed is full.
Alana’s testing you. If you give in she’ll keep doing it. Just go into her room, reassure her that you are there, give her a kiss and keep her in her crib. She’ll realize that that is how it is.
If you want to get G to sleep in her bed you’ll have to apply the same “tough love.” You’ll go through a period of crying, coming out of her bed and room, etc. but tell her that’s the way it is going to be and eventually it will be. Children will test you; if you give in because you don’t want them to cry, feel badly, you feel guilty, etc. they’ve won and have gotten their way. It’s always easier to take the easy way out and give in, and YOU may cry those few days as they are crying and you’re being tough but the end results are better for all. If they learn you always give in when they are 1 and 4, what are you going to do when they are 14, 15 and 16? If they’ve always gotten their way it’s going to be very hard to say no or these are the rules when they are older. Think back to when you were young.