Our child is a great sleeper. She was sleeping through the night at one-month old! She has never really given us any problems when putting her in the crib for bed; however, over the last week, that has changed. We go to put her in the crib and she starts screaming bloody murder. Yes, we tried the ignore her- she’ll eventually stop tactics, but that little girl perseveres like no other. She’ll go on for an hour, no kidding. She seems to want to sleep in the bed with mommy and daddy. Apparently most kids go through a phase where they want to sleep with there parents, whether it’s separation anxiety, bad dreams, or perhaps a simple phase. I think it may be a monster phase she is going through, especially with all the Halloween activities going on. She likes to make monster noises and seems to think it’s fun but then I notice she seems to get scared at some monsters. Could her imagination be taking over causing her to not want to sleep alone? She has certain books with creature like figures and she is always pointing them out.
I have read many different approaches to this situation, ranging from the “cry-it-out-” philosophy to the “bore them to death but sit near them” tactic. Again, I’m not sure the exact cause of this quite yet. Maybe she needs to take shorter naps during the day?
The plan now is to cease reading or watching anything with monsters, and we are not even mentioning the “m” word. We’ll see how long this lasts and monitor whether or not it was monsters or perhaps a phase.
Do you have any advice to share for those experiencing similar issues?
A certain child
went through this, luckily it was a phase and cutting out the reading about strange looking creatures in picture books helped a bit.
I had to actually make “monster spray” it consisted of water in a spray bottle labeled MONSTER SPRAY and we sprayed the closet, under the bed, behind the door wherever she thought IT may be living…lol
I did give in and let her sleep in the bed only cause I was ready to tear my hair out as this went on for hours sometimes. They get used to that very quickly and it’s a hard habit to break so trying other tactics first is something I suggest. We weaned her back to her own bed, although I used to have to lay down with her and then slither myself out of the bed and room by crawling on the floor….
the joys of toddlerhood!!!
Good luck bro
From birth our son always slept with us (tiny apartment), so somewhere around three or so, he got his own bed. We put him to bed and told him, “You can move in the middle of the night, after you fall asleep.” Knowing he could move gave him the comfort to fall asleep, but after he fell asleep he rarely moves.