Hellobee Boards

I would suggest using a timer. Have a visual timer you bring in with you if need be and agree with her what the time is and then leave. My kid isn’t a snuggler and we always used to just say goodnight and peace out without issue, but we did go through a rough patch a month ago where she was taking 45 minutes to fall asleep and coming out of her room tons and saying she didn’t want to be alone and stuff. Now we say one of us will stay with you for 5 minutes, give her l the requested number of hugs and kisses and then we leave. There hasn’t been any arguing or sadness and it has worked great. When I introduced the idea I made sure we talked about it while getting into pjs every night. She chooses if it’s me or her dad as long as we’re both home. He actually sets a 5 minute timer on his watch. I just tell her when there is 1 minute left and then hug and kiss and leave (I’m out in about 3 minutes). Haha. But the selecting the parent and the number of hugs and kisses seems to work well as it is her controlled stuff. My kid is the same age as yours.

@lady baltimore: So we don't have this exact issue. But when we moved last summer DD was 3.5 and the bedtime routine blew up for awhile. We were caving in to so many random requests, staying in the room longer, and coming back to her room many times. She was having a rough adjustment to the move so I think we rationalized doing it all. But after 2 months of the craziness we decided we had to go cold turkey - with her personality a long drawn out process would have been much worse. We talked about what the new routine would be all day leading up to it and then at bedtime I had her tell me each step. The first few nights were rough but we didn't back down, after a week we were back to normal.

@PurplePeony: This is a large part of why we still have a video monitor in DD's room even though she is 4.5. She would read books and play with stuffed animals for hours. This way we can see what she is doing, tell her it's time for bed, but not have to be in the room. Especially because I think it winds her up more when we are in there.

@catgirl: we still have a video monitor for my 3.5 year old. So handy to watch for fooling around and know when they actually fall asleep. And it was super cheap.

I did a gradual change. We were all living under one room at my parents house while our house was being built so that’s all my daughter knew and expected (she dropped the crib while we were living there).

So at 4ish, I told her I was sleeping on floor. I would slowly creep out. And then couple of months later, I laid down by door with my foot in where she could see until she fell asleep. And talked repeatedly that by 5, I would kiss her goodnight and that would be it. And it worked.

But my seconds 3.5 and I’m still sleeping with him

@lady baltimore: omg your 1st paragraph is EXACTLY my son. We have a 5 month old too who's a bad sleeper so we need to make some changes. Following!