The Bedtime Battle Strikes Again
We're bad parents. Let's just get that out of the way now.
Remember when Aiden learned to climb out of his crib? Well, we never fully resolved that. After nights of absolutely no sleep, we resorted to putting a baby proof door knob on the inside of his room so he couldn't get out.
That worked great for a long time. It kind of had the "Cricket Effect." (To those unfamiliar with this cliche story, if you put a bunch of crickets in a jar, they'll jump out. If you put a lid on it, though, the crickets will try to jump out for a while, but then give up when they learn that there's no way out. After a while, if you remove the lid, the crickets will stay put and won't jump out. I'm not sure if this actually works... I've never tried it.) As long as Aiden could just SEE the door knob baby-proofed, he didn't try to escape.
Well, he got smarter... and stronger. Somehow or another, he has learned how to take them off. Rex and I even had a hard time opening the door with them on - let alone removing them.
And thus the battle began.
At first we tried to "scare" him into his room. Bad idea. Anger only fuels creativity in this toddler. Then we got desperate and tied his door closed using some speaker wire laying around. Rex's conscience kicked in and decided to get advice from our favorite "get-your-kid-to-sleep" book. It said to calmly carry your toddler back to bed after every time they escape and eventually they'll get the idea.
The first night he escaped 120+ times. (We downloaded a tally counter app on our iPhone)
The second night... maybe around 100.
And so on. This kid is PERSISTENT. Even with us showing no emotion whatsoever, he turned anything and everything he could manage into a game. He'd play peek-a-boo with us using the door while we were parked outside his room on a chair, play tag when we'd try to put him into bed, and try to race us outside the door after "tucking" him in. We finally decided that this was ridiculous.
So we got it down to a system.
10 escapes --> take away his choo-choo (toy train he LOVES)
20 escapes --> take away whatever toy he replaced the choo-choo with
30 escapes --> take away the night-lite
40 escapes --> take away his blankie (basically his lifeline)
50 escapes --> rope him in
We still resort to tying his door shut. But seriously, it's been two weeks of this and we're going crazy. We give him extra snuggles and books before bedtime so he's getting plenty of luvins and attention.
Does anyone else have a better idea? What did you do?
Remember when Aiden learned to climb out of his crib? Well, we never fully resolved that. After nights of absolutely no sleep, we resorted to putting a baby proof door knob on the inside of his room so he couldn't get out.
That worked great for a long time. It kind of had the "Cricket Effect." (To those unfamiliar with this cliche story, if you put a bunch of crickets in a jar, they'll jump out. If you put a lid on it, though, the crickets will try to jump out for a while, but then give up when they learn that there's no way out. After a while, if you remove the lid, the crickets will stay put and won't jump out. I'm not sure if this actually works... I've never tried it.) As long as Aiden could just SEE the door knob baby-proofed, he didn't try to escape.Well, he got smarter... and stronger. Somehow or another, he has learned how to take them off. Rex and I even had a hard time opening the door with them on - let alone removing them.
And thus the battle began.
At first we tried to "scare" him into his room. Bad idea. Anger only fuels creativity in this toddler. Then we got desperate and tied his door closed using some speaker wire laying around. Rex's conscience kicked in and decided to get advice from our favorite "get-your-kid-to-sleep" book. It said to calmly carry your toddler back to bed after every time they escape and eventually they'll get the idea.
The first night he escaped 120+ times. (We downloaded a tally counter app on our iPhone)
The second night... maybe around 100.
And so on. This kid is PERSISTENT. Even with us showing no emotion whatsoever, he turned anything and everything he could manage into a game. He'd play peek-a-boo with us using the door while we were parked outside his room on a chair, play tag when we'd try to put him into bed, and try to race us outside the door after "tucking" him in. We finally decided that this was ridiculous.
So we got it down to a system.
10 escapes --> take away his choo-choo (toy train he LOVES)
20 escapes --> take away whatever toy he replaced the choo-choo with
30 escapes --> take away the night-lite
40 escapes --> take away his blankie (basically his lifeline)
50 escapes --> rope him in
We still resort to tying his door shut. But seriously, it's been two weeks of this and we're going crazy. We give him extra snuggles and books before bedtime so he's getting plenty of luvins and attention.
Does anyone else have a better idea? What did you do?
Comments
We also piled the books into bed with her and let her read until she fell asleep. I don't know if Aiden would like that, but that was another thing we did.
Good luck with the bedtime battle. I think those are some of the hardest ones because at the end of the day you are exhausted.
Maybe try duct taping the baby proof knob things together...not the classiest or best looking idea, but it might work! Noa can get those things off in about 2 seconds too. He just shoves a toy in and pries it apart :(