At one year’s old, Nathaniel broke himself of the bottle habit. Our only contribution to the process was our lazy inconsistency. Sometimes we’d wash a bottle for him, sometimes we’d give him a sippy cup. The same laissez faire attitude was attached to his pacifier, another habit he broke himself of. I suspect there is no “one right way” for all children, but this “come si, come sa” approach has seemed to work with him. Potty training is moving slowly forward using a similar method…great praise when he uses the potty, but no pressure and no big deal when he doesn’t. “Whatever!”
But, will this lazy parenting style work for eliminating bedtime resistance and “nocturnal visits”? I confess I am a-feared. Consistency is impossible because most nights I love falling asleep with him, or having him snuggle the night through with us. Of course, this leaves me out of luck those times that I need more elbow room or when I want him to go to sleep alone because I have things to do later in the evening.
Sometimes he sleeps all night in his own bed. Can I just wait him out until he “trains himself” to mostly stay in his own bed with just occasional visits to us? Or maybe we should just get a bigger bed…
1 comment:
By "Nocturnal visits" do you mean by the Tooth Fairy? I must confess, I always thought the Tooth Fairy was a hobo, somewhat like the Tramp Clown Hobo, complete with the stick and red hanky tied at end of said stick. What does this say about my childhood? Never, until I was in my late 20s, even with my kids, did I think the Tooth Fairy was an actual fairy like Tinkerbell. But I digress... I think what you really meant was "Will Nathaniel keep coming into my bed because he cannot sleep by himself because I have been so selfish in wanting to cuddle with my sweet darling": Well, he seems to not be so dependent upon such things as bottles and pacifiers so this is good. However, the human touch is a totally different matter. I remember when we were trying to break the girls of sleeping with us. It took constant vigilence in taking them back in their rooms in the middle of the night. Don't know how many nights it took to accomplish them sleeping by themselves, but it finally worked. It was exhausting! I say enjoy it while you can but I wouldn't do it every night, like you say, there are nights when you have things to do after he goes to bed. ie: I have no solution.
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