jess

[jrs15]

I was wondering if this was a bad habit to get into:    My son is 1/2 at my house and 1/2 at his father's house.  We both have very similar routines in that he goes to bed at 7pm.  At his father's house he has a stp brother who is 4 (my son wil be 3 in March).  They share a room and at night they talk keep each other company etc until they fall asleep.  My x husband puts a movie on for them.  At my house there is no movie watching at bedtime because I think it is too busy for a 3 year old who is trying to wind down from the day.  Anyway to make things less stressful for both im and I I sit or lay with him until he falls asleep.  This is after his normal routine of bathing light play, book reading and tucking in.  His energy level is so high that it usually takes an hour for him to fall asleep.  I usually start at 6:15 ish with the reading etc to wind him down.  He is very intelligent and tries everything in his power to stay up.  Most of the time he does not nap during the day he pretty much grew out of that.  He is just so high strung and energenic that it takes forever for him to wind down.  He asks me to tell him story after story, and he keeps talking.  I keep telling him you have to close your eyes and no talking it is time to go to sleep.  Sometimes he gets mad and will yell at me so I get up and leave the room and he cries and says I will be good so i stay with him.  I dont know if I am developiing a bad habit, or if I should do his night time routine tuck him in and leave the room.  I leave the door open and the gate up with his nitelight on so it is not dark.  He obviously gets out of his bed and comes to the door calling me.  He usually goes to the bathroom 2 or 3 times before he falls asleep.  He also wants to sleep on the floor on a comforter rather than his bed??? Any imput would be great.

[Salyna]

What time does your son get up in the morning?  It could be that 7 is a little too early, now that he is getting older.  My daughter just turned three when she weaned herself off of her naps.  Around this time, we noticed the bedtime routine getting more difficult for us.  We concluded that she simply wasn't tired.  Although they still require an adequate amount of sleep (around 10 - 11 hours), they don't require as much as they did when they were babies.  Our daughter just turned four and she is in bed for books around 7:45 and asleep by 8:15.  She wakes up in the morning anywhere from 6:15 to 7:30, depending on it's a work day for me or not.

[jrs15]

He gets up anywhere from 6- 7 am