J3 asleep on the couch.
Several people have asked me how I get my kids to sleep everywhere and
I thought I'd put a little blip on here.
We practice, we learn to lay still and mostly we learn obedience from a early age.
He was only about 14 months old when he decided he'd had enough with naps.
I disagreed. He was a cranky little person and still would fall asleep at 4pm if he missed his 2pm nap.
Did I mention kids that need naps who don't want to nap make ME cranky?
They do.
VERY!!
When J was this age we battled.
Actually he was about 9 months old and refusing to sleep during church when it started.
I won.
He slept.
He started to sleep with me in the room.
Then with me out of the room.
He still naps sometimes and still will sleep at nap time!
It's simple.
You WIN the battles you choose.
I choose to win, I planned my battles, my steps, my days
and then I won them.
Step by step.
Step 1. Decide when nap time is for your training week. It helps the 1st week if nap time is always at the same time. After the 1st week they should be able to nap any time and everywhere.
Step 2. Clear your life for a week at nap time. (This is not hard for me normally but with Baby G it made things a bit harder which is why J3 still naps on the couch.. where I can see him.)
Step 3. Find a good book.
Step 4. Talk to the child... tell them "It is nap time. Nap time is when you sleep, you are going to sleep. You will lay still and you will not move and you will go to sleep." My kids have to lay on their sides and face the wall.. something my mother did with us as kids.. walls are generally boring.
Step 5. Mean what you said in step 4. Enforce it.
Step 6. Sit beside your child's bed, or in my case the couch, and read your book. If said child moves/talks /gets up or anything besides laying quiet and still, remind them of step 4 and discipline as often as needed. BE CONSISTENT!!
Step 7. Spend the next 3 or 4 days doing this at every nap time. DO not leave the child's side until they are asleep unless the house catches fire..or in my case Baby G wakes up :)
Hints and Tricks.
It really helps to have a fan or music going while you are 'in' training. I still keep music going in the living room while J3 sleeps. He almost always falls asleep to All Hail The Power of Jesus Name, the second song on the list. I keep the music on because the rest of us don't always remember to be quiet while he's sleeping and it muffles the sounds we make while he sleeps.
Don't get such a good book that you forget what your doing : S
BE CONSISTENT!!! The more consistent you are the faster it will work.
If the phone rings on day 3 and you answer it and chat for 39 minutes in the other room while forgetting your child was ALMOST asleep.. you'll likely have to start on day one the next day. Not always.. but quite likely.
Kids have a knack for kicking a habit before it hits 3 days.
Some kids need 4 days in a row.. some only need two.. shoot for 4 and save yourself the trouble of doing it again in a week.
J3 will now sleep anywhere.. the first day you take the child out somewhere at nap time make sure where ever you take them is kid friendly enough to handle it if you have to use some discipline. I often just put him on the couch beside me for the first few times while we are out and about and often people don't even know he's there. I can nap my child without missing out on visiting or having to run home for naps. I can nap them, and have, at the beach, church, grandma's house, long car rides, the mall (in the cart!), on the lawn, pretty much anywhere! This frees us up amazingly. We can spend a day at the beach with a happy napped kid, or spend a day shopping or whatever, wherever we want and the child who needs to nap gets one :)
