Our biggest behavioural challenge at the moment is Little Bear’s sleeping habits. Ever since we weened him from chewing his favourite toy he has had trouble self-settling, an unforeseen side-effect. Forget a day time nap, unless he’s in the car or sick, and then in the evening I have to sit with him to stop him bouncing out of bed every five seconds until he falls asleep. Then he wakes two or three times a night and comes straight into our room and wants to sleep in our bed, and now he’s starting to protest loudly that he can’t sleep and we end up sitting beside him to keep him in his bed until he falls back to sleep. And THEN he’s up at crack o’dawn demanding that Mummy gets out of bed. I could handle the sit by the bed before sleep, and an early wake up if it wasn’t for the repeated night time wakes. We know he’s having trouble self-settling so as well as returning to Super Nanny go to sleep techniques and being disciplined about putting him back into his own bed (oh dear lord it’s so hard at 4.30 am to get the energy up to drag him back and then WAIT for him to go back to sleep so he doesn’t just immediately return), we’re going to try a new reward chart.
He’s always initially keen for a reward chart which is a plus, and today we talked about a reward. I suggested buying a bunk bed with star canopy that he loved playing in at IKEA but he decided he loved his little bed so I won’t push it – I’m also a bit worried about how he’d go in a bunk bed with his occasional night terrors (the exorcist kind that result in throwing oneself out of bed and trying to climb up walls). We’ll think about it.
