One of the issues we've had with Dylan in the past four years is his stubbornness during bedtime. For the first 6 months, he slept in his bassinet in our room. When he outgrew the bassinet, we moved him into his crib and the bedtime problem escalated. Since he was nursing, he would occasionally sleep in the bed with us just so Mommy can have a little bit of nighttime shut eye (he used to nurse every 2-3 hours until about 9 months old. ugh!).
Putting Dylan down for bed meant allotting about 2 hours of rocking him to sleep, sitting with him until he was in deep sleep and praying to God he doesn't wake up when he's slowly put into the crib. It was frustrating, to say the least. We read books on how to make this "phase" easy on everyone and desperately tried the Ferber method several times. To no avail. As Dylan transitioned into a full size bed, one of us HAD to lay down with him at night until he fell asleep which can sometimes take anywhere between 1-2 hours. Again, we read that a routine helps in this process, so a routine we did. FAIL. One time we even saw Super Nanny coach parents on how to make bedtime easier for parents and toddlers. "Each week, sit on a chair next to the bed, then on the foot of the bed, slowly move the chair away from the bed, sit by the door, sit outside the door and eventually your child will learn to sleep on their own". Easy enough. Well, apparently, our first born is smarter than any of those "experts" because none of these techniques worked.
Four years and two months later, we are happy to announce that our stubborn child is FINALLY sleeping in his room all by himself. He still leaves his room a couple of times to "check on us" but he eventually stays in there until he falls asleep. It's amazing what happens given patience and time.
Mommy and Daddy are enjoying the 1-2 hours of "free" time at bedtime.
Next dilemma to tackle - keeping Dylan from walking into our room at 2 AM and sneaking in between Mommy and Daddy. One thing at a time.
P.S. we are everyday thankful for our little one, Logan, who is the BEST napper/sleeper in the whole wide world!
