The Sleep Lady

About two months ago, I was at my wit's end with Calder's naptime and bedtime antics. He was napping less than 50% of the time, and the bedtime battles were exhausting and endless. So I checked out every toddler sleep book that they had at the library (4). There was no way I was going to be able to read four whole books on the topic, but I browsed them all and decided that this one was our best bet: "Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy." by Kim West.

We didn't actually get around to implementing any of her tactics until about a week and a half ago. And, we didn't actually follow her full 'Sleep Lady Shuffle' plan either...we sort of just picked a few parts of the plan and went with it. The main thing that we did was come up with a 'Sleep Manners' chart - which is basically the same thing as a potty chart, but for sleeping. I had my doubts that it would actually work, since he couldn't care less about the potty chart. Essentially, the parents come up with 3-4 'sleep manners' (because 'manners' sounds better than 'rules'). These are the things that you really want to improve about your child's sleep. Our four things were:
1. Take a nap or quiet time
2. Put on your pajamas and brush your teeth without a fuss
3. Stay in your bed
4. Put yourself to sleep (this means we don't lay with him in his bed until he is asleep, which had been happening more often than I would like to admit)

So, the idea is that the child gets little rewards every time they get all their stickers for the day. And, if they get a whole week's worth of stickers, they get a bigger reward. Like I said, I had serious doubts that the chart would make any difference at all, but lo and behold...HE DID IT! A whole week's worth of stickers -- the very first week! We are so proud of him! Now this isn't to say that naptime and bedtime are completely seamless yet, but once we feel like he's doing a good job with these sleep manners, we can change them up to work on other issues. His big reward for getting all of his stickers was a dump truck, which he absolutely LOVES.

On Sunday we started Week #2, and decided not to change any of the sleep manners just yet. Hopefully last week wasn't a fluke, because he's already had 2 slip-ups this week. Oh well -- nobody's perfect, right!? And in the big picture, he's doing sooo much better. The naps alone make this whole process sooo worth it! Thank you, Sleep Lady!! (And thanks to Susannah for clueing me in on how to make a reusable chart! Sooo glad I don't have to make that thing every week!)