Bed Time - Marrero, LA

Try to put in place a bed time routine that starts around 7 so that he will calm down, like taking a bath and then maybe reading a book or something else in his room/bed that will keep him calm. I have also heard that you should cut off TV- if he is watching any- about 2 hrs before bedtime b/c that will allow their minds to also calm down. The more activity they do before bedtime the more "excited" they are when it's time for bed and that may be why he cant fall asleep. Gradually he will want to go to bed at the earlier time. You just need to re-adjust his "time clock"
Good luck!

Hey I have 3 and 5 yr old boys and i can't get them to bed either. i put them in bed at about 8 or 9 and they dont want to go to sleep until 10 or 11 and they are also hard to wake up. i know that if i'm up they stay in there and talk because either they hear me on the phone or they see a light on. But if I go to bed at the same time they do then i just have to holler in there and tell them to be quiet and go to sleep and that works then. but if you get any good suggestions then let me know.

D.

Does he have an alarm in his room? We put in a digital alarm clock in my sons room. It worked wonders. Not only does it help with his numbers, and telling time, but it helps with time managment.

At first I put it in there and would tell him when the clock says "8 zero zero it's time to get ready for bed" and then I would set his alarm to go off at 8 so that when it beeped he knew it was time to get ready for bed.

Now we use the alarm for other stuff, example when he has 10 more mins to play in his room before we go somewhere I set his alarm to go off in 10mins

On saturdays and sundays we set his alarm from 8am, and he is not allowed to get out of his bed until the alarm goes off at 8am. Sometimes he's awake before then and he'll play in his bed with his bear or "read" a book til the alarm goes off.

during the week his alarm goes off around 6am so we can get our day started and out the door to school and it's so helpful not to have to sit there and have try and wake up my sleeping darling by talking loud and moving him all around.

We started implementing the alarm around 2 and a half since he knew alot of his numbers by then.

I've had these problems in the past. My daughter (6 now) has to get up at 7 am, but before we would get up around 6 am. I always put her in bed 30 mins before I wanted her to be asleep. I started using CDs, some instrumentals and some bed time stories. We had started with the TV, but she would just turn it back on once the timer would shut it off. There are lots of audio stories out there that you can play for him. Since you will not be in the room, he will not be able to give you excuses like "i'm hungry", "i don't want to sleep", etc. He will get with the routine and start falling asleep before the CD is over. It really seemed to help us.
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Hi J.!
I had this problem with my daughter when she was two. She would stay up past me, and then it was so difficult to wake her up!! I dreaded morning. What I did was start putting her to bed at least a 1/2 hour before I actually wanted her to fall asleep. For me, a good bedtime was 8:30, so I would put her in at 8:00. I did this because when she'd go to bed, she'd fight sleep, tell me she was hungry, thirsty, had to potty, you name it! This gives them time to fall asleep. It will be an adjustment for him since he's not used to going to bed that early. Once my daughter got it down, I was able to put her to bed at 8:30. Now it takes her maybe 5 minutes to fall asleep. Of course, like everything else in parenting, you have to be consistent-even on weekends or days you don't have to go to work!! Good luck!!

wow, I love the alarm clock idea!! I might try that myself!

Hi J.,

I have a daughter who will be 2 on the 22nd. We just recently moved her bedtime up to 7-7:30 because we have early mornings also and I think sometimes she does not take a nap at her school during the day. Anyway, what works for us (most of the time) is giving her a bath (lavender helps to calm and soothe) and going through the normal bedtime routine to prepare her for going to bed earlier. This consists of going potty (or trying to), washing hands and face, getting jammies on, drinking some milk, brushing teeth and picking out a book for reading. This is, of course, an ideal situation. On any given day, all of these things may not happen, but I believe the bath and just any "normal" bedtime routine are crucial--and make sure they are involved as much as possible in this routine (i.e. picking out the jammies, brushing their teeth all by themselves, and/or picking out a book) with lots of encouragement.

Good luck,
H.

15 minutes at a time. No kidding. My kids go to bed at 7:30 now.

Hi J.,
If your son is going to sleep at 9pm, try making it 15-30min earlier each night so that it's close enough to 9pm but he won't really notice the difference. Inch up to an earlier and earlier time until you reach your desired time. If he's able to tell time from a clock, take that away so he won't know or set it to a wrong time so he'll think it's time for bed. I hope that helps!!

Hey Jamie,

I also have a 2yr old and what we do to get her to bed on time is about 1 hour that you are wanting him to get to bed, don't let him play with the loudest, most colorful toys!! That will just keep him stimulated!!! Instead, start reading some books to him, give him a warm bath and just start the windind down process!!! It might be hard at first to get him to go down at 8 or 8:30pm, BUT each night start putting him down about 15min. earlier!!! Then if that starts to go well, the next night try to wind him down about 30min. earlier, that way now his going to be about 8-8:30!!! They need that much needed rest along with you!!!

You know my doctor once told me that whatever time the children get up~~that is what time they need to go to BED!! I know, it does sound CRAZY to put him to bed at 6:45, but maybe you can put him down at 7:45-8pm!!! He will be so much more rested and happy!!

Hope that helps a little!!!

C.
www.workathomeunited.com/C.
YourLife,YourDreams, YourBusiness!

I've been pretty lucky in that area. Although I am very consectutive on putting them to bed same time every night. IF something comes up and were' up later then I will stress it is passed your bedtime and immediately put them down as soon as we get home.
They know to not get out of bed unless to potty then right back. IF I catch them playing instead of trying to go to sleep they lose a privilege.
Now when I say THEY I mean my daughter she is 7 1/2 but my son is only 9 mo he has not choice in the matter right now and I hope he does as well as she does when he gets older. Who knows I may be writing the same letter in a year or so. lol
Good luck just be steady in doing this even on weekends. Until he gets older you can extend weekends later in life right now let him know you mean business.
maybe warm milk or something prior to bedtime.
jan

I had a similar problem. The way I fixed it was at about 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM I start turning down the lights. I will leave a lamp on, but only 1 lamp. Turn down the TV, Take most of the noise out of anywhere in the house. Make the hussle and bussle calm down. Have everything quiet, and then if all of that doesn't work, give him a little bit of benedryl to get him used to going to sleep. That's what my pediatrician suggested.
K.

My children were both hard to get to bed at night. If he naps at all during the day try and shorten it. Also, we used to start reading books and listening to soft music around 7:30 or 8:00 and cutting out distracting noise. I'm not sure what your hours at work are but another idea is to play some nerf ball/catch or another heart pumping exercise right before supper (evening meal). Happy Parenting!

Hi J. this is what worked for me when my son whas that age,
everybody needs to go to bed at the same time and all the lights need to be off.but the only problem with that is that my son is now 8 and dose no go to bed if i dont go to bed with him.but its still works for me....lol..

My daughter is 17 months old and we just started having the same problem. We could always tell that it was almost 7:30 pm because she would start yawning, we could ask her if she wanted to take a bath and she would head back to the bathroom and after that ask her if she wanted to go to bed and she would start saying good night to everything in the living room and go right to sleep in her crib. Then one night she decided she didn't want to go to bed until almost 10:00 and it has been like that for almost a month. So this week I started rocking her to sleep at 8:00 pm and then last night I just put her in her bed at 8:00 pm and she griped for about 10 min but went to sleep. We'll see how tonight goes but maybe that might help you. Good luck.
S.

Well my 6 and 8 year old have a bed time of 7:30 PM. We get up at 6:30 for school. Your son needs to be put down for bed and after a week or so should get use to going early and it will be a blessing for all. Just make it a routine.Hope this helps.

J.,
I agree that a routine is essential. But I'm a bit of an odd duck when it comes to bedtime, b/c both my children function best with lots of sleep. In fact, in America, most kids absolutely do not get enough sleep. 2-yr-olds need 13 hrs of sleep. If your son takes an hour nap during the day, that means you would need to put him to bed at around 6:30pm. I know this seems very early to most people, but my 5 & 7 yr olds still go to bed some nights at 7pm, b/c they still need 10-11 hrs of sleep at night, and they get up before 6am. They are much happier, learn easier, and have much fewer melt-downs when they're getting enough rest. It's quite obvious in their behavior, when we've had to short-change them that needed sleep.

The best thing I learned when my kids were young, is that you have to make sure you put your child to bed during the magic hour BEFORE they show signs of sleepiness. If you wait until they're really sleepy, you've pushed it too far, and their adrenaline will kick in (just like ours does when we have to stay up late), and will keep them from settling down. So starting early is essential. If your son starts getting sleepy at 7pm, then start getting him ready for bed at 6:15pm. I know it's tough, especially if you work late, but it's so good for our children's health to prioritize sleep.

Good luck and God bless,
M. B

Hi Jamie,

Do you have a bedtime routine? Bathtime, books, etc... Start doing the bedtime routine 20-30 minutes earlier every night until you have him in bed by the time you would like. I also have an almost 2 year old, (in 3 weeks) and when we get off track with bedtime we have to do the same thing.

Good Luck!
A.

hi iam L.
i had the same problem with my 5 yr old
mt doctor had told me to give her benegril so that by 9.00 she is falling asleep. until they get use to going to bed at the time you want