Quiet Time Rocks My World

I am happy to report that both kids are asleep at this very moment.


It is most miraculous that Ari ended up in the above state. I tried something new today. My best friend Mint (an early childhood educator) suggested I implement a "Quiet Time." They do this in pre-schools and kindergarten. You tell the kids that they don't have to sleep but they do have to relax for a period of time on a mat.

After lunch, I told Ari that we were going to try something new today. He was going to have "Quiet Time."
"Quiet time?" He asked eyebrows raised.
"You're going to lay in your bed, and look at your books. You don't have to sleep, but you have to stay in your room with the lights out. Okay?"
"Okay." He said with a sigh.

We got to his room. I handed him his books.
"You gotta sleep with me." He said with a little pout on his face.
I could hear Samara crying in the other room with Wil. I knew she was hungry and I couldn't stay long.
"I have to feed Samara soon." I told him.
"You gotta read these books." He said.
"Okay," I said. "I'll read these books. But after I'm done you have to look at them yourself. Okay?"
"Okay." He said satisfied with the compromise.
So I read him three short books, one about penguins (a gift from Ms. Katie Grinch), one about dinosaurs and the other was of the irritating Max and Ruby variety. After we finished the last book, I said:
"I have to feed Samara now. Look at your books by yourself, okay?"
"You gotta sleep with me." He said dejectedly.
"After I feed Samara, I'll be back to check on you," I said with a wink.
He smiled and began to look at his books.
I closed the door, nursed Samara, and in ten minutes I checked on him. He was fast asleep.
Quiet Time rules!

Little One Books $25 Gift Certificate Giveaway!

I've mentioned time and time again how Ari (my energetic 2 1/2 year old) is a terrible sleeper. Well, I finally decided to take matters into my own hands, with the help of Little One Books. Little One Books is a company based in Seattle founded by two grandparents who sought to provide parents, family members and caregivers access to quality children's books, music and videos.


If you go to amazon.com, for example, and search for a lullaby CD the results you find are overwhelming. Barney Cohen and Joan McCoy have done the research and have provided us parents with a easily search-able website containing products that they personally recommend for children.

Little One Books was generous enough to allow me the opportunity to review a couple of their products. The first thing that came to mind was a lullaby CD for Ari to combat his bad sleeping habits. I chose this particular CD, which has a combination of traditional and original lullabies.

Now, I have to admit, I was skeptical for several reasons.
1. Ari has never much been into music before bed.
2. Often children's music can be irritating
3. Would this put the perpetual non-sleeper to bed?

My mom and I introduced the CD to Ari as a "special surprise." He immediately got excited.

I played the CD on my computer, so as it was playing he got to watch the Windows Media Player color animation, which he also thoroughly enjoyed. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, it looks like this:

The colors move as the music plays. How fun is that? Anyway, after each song ended Ari would ask:

"What happened?"

And I would explain to him that a new song would be coming on in a few seconds. Eventually, he began to get sleepy.

And so did I, as a matter of fact. The lullabies on this CD are really soothing and surprisingly not annoying! One of my favorite tracks is an original lullaby written by Mary Lee Sunseri and Nancy Stewart called "Auntie's Lullaby." The singer addresses her nephew and lulls him to sleep by explaining her role in his life. They also do a really nice version of the traditional song Kum Ba Ya.

Ari and I continued to listen and we both fell fast asleep. In fact, Wil had to come in and turn the lights out for us early in the morning.

Because of my sleep success, I am feeling generous. Little One Books and I are offering
a $25 gift certificate giveaway!


To enter do the following:

1. Leave a comment here about a product you are interested in trying from Little One Books. Here's a link to their site.
2. Like Little One Books on Facebook here.
3. Like Old School/New School Mom on Facebook here
4. Follow them on Twitter here.
5. Finally, sign up for their newsletter! The sign up is on the upper right hand corner of their site.

The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to Little One Books

In case you're wondering, this giveaway is open to readers in the United States and Canada! Yay Canadians! To quote Audra, Online Community Manager at Little One Books, "We love Canadians!"

The winner will be selected randomly on Wednesday 11/10/10! Good luck!

I'm The Mama

Last night Ari was up until midnight. I tried to put him to sleep in my bed with me at around 9pm, but all he did was "read" Goodnight Moon 1-2-3 and play with my hair. After an hour of this, we got up and he watched 9000 episodes of Blue's Clues. I managed to sneak in my show "The Secret Life of The American Teenager" which he graciously let me watch.

Finally, he went to sleep (with a fight) in my bed. Today he is cranky and I am miserable. After consulting with my great friend and mama, Gry, I've decided that tonight Ari must be re-sleep trained. He is getting back into his bed if it's the last thing I do.

The results of non-sleeping are this:
--a sink full of disgusting dishes that I am too exhausted to wash
--a cranky toddler
--a miserable mama
--I think Simon the cat may have a broken paw, but I'm too tired to check

I keep telling myself that I'm the mama! - I can do this!

Wish me luck tonight as I re-introduce sleep into our lives.

My Cat is a Better Parent Than I Am

This evening, Ari was doing his regular routine of thwarting bedtime. Wilhelm and I tried to sing to him, rub his back, but he just screamed and kvetched and he was not willing to go to sleep.

Wil left the room to let Ari and I have some mommy and son time. Unfortunately, my child continued to scream.

All of a sudden, Uncle Egreck (my cat) jumped up onto the bed to see what was going on.

In desperation, I pointed to Egreck and said:
"Look Ari! Look who it is! Kitty!"
Ari stopped crying, crawled over to Uncle Egreck, curled up next to him and fell asleep.


As soon as Ari was asleep, Uncle Egreck relocated to another section of the bed as if to say:
"My work is done here."
Clearly, my cat is a better parent than I am.

Going Berserk Instead of Going to Sleep

In my almost two years as a parent, I have NEVER seen anything like what I just witnessed. I tried to put my son to bed, and he went completely insane. He kicked me in the mouth (my lip is now swollen), hit me in the face and his limbs were flailing everywhere so much so that I had to move out of the way to prevent further injury to myself.

Wil is at work on the night shift and I am here with my son alone. I am really confused by the fact that someone so cute could go that berserk.

He was freaking out because he didn't want to go to bed. And (unfortunately I am so ashamed to admit) he has become completely addicted to the TV show Yo Gabba Gabba, and insists on watching thousands of episodes of it before he passes out from exhaustion on the couch on some part of my body.

What happened to my child who was virtually unaware of the television?

Anyway, I tried to put him in his bed about six times and he busted out of his room. So I tried to lay down with him in my bed and he just screamed and injured me some more. Motherhood is glamorous isn't it?

So folks, what do I do?
--How do I wean him off the crack that is television (which, by the way, I blame Wil for hooking him on)?
--How do I get this child to sleep at night, which he has stopped doing?
Please help!

The Communal Bed is Out of Control!

My son and the cats have been sleeping in my bed for at least a month. For a while it was cute, but now I'm getting cranky and resentful about it. Here are a list of my complaints about the communal bed:

1. My son is a bed hog. He splays his entire body throughout the bed so that I am wedged into a small corner, as if I did something wrong and need to wear a dunce cap.
2. My child insists on leaving the reading lamp on, and when I attempt to turn it off, even if he appears to be fast asleep, he freaks out and screams as loud as possible until I turn it back on.
3. I will awaken to one of the following sights or sounds at any given time at night:
a. One (or both) cat(s) purring very loudly in my ear
b. My son's butt in my face since he has shifted sleeping positions
c. A cat's butt in my face
d. The ambient light from the reading lamp, laughing at me because it is still on.

Needless to say, the communal bed is out of control. Please help me, readers. I need to transition my son back to his bed as soon as possible. What do I do?

Resentment of The Night Shift

My boyfriend, Wilhelm, works the night shift at an airline. The means that he sleeps during the daytime. He has Fridays and Saturdays off, but Friday daytime is reserved for catching up on sleep and come Saturday his circadian rhythms are so thrown off that he is sleeping half the day on Saturday as well. We end up hanging out as a family at night time. But during the day I feel like this:

I know he's tired. I get that. But I'm tired too! When he is sleeping through the day (like he is right now) I am up at 7am or earlier and taking care of my son.

'

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love spending time with my kid. But sometimes, I need a break! I resent Wil's night shift and what it does to my exhaustion level and my day! He's sleeping and I am busting my ass all day! Meanwhile, most every other couple with children are out having a "family day."

Has anyone had a boyfriend/husband/wife/partner that worked nights? How did you deal with this situation?

Night Terrors

Something alarming is happening to my child at night; he wakes up (usually around midnight) breaks out of his room, screams and runs up to me (I am passed out on the couch at this time) freaking out as if he has been battling with monsters with three heads.

I try to calm him down, I put him on my chest and hug him tight. Sometimes this works and he falls asleep after some effort on my part, and sometimes he is too shaken up to calm down.

My son's pediatrician told me that this could be considered night terrors.

As far as I understand them, night terrors appear effect babies and toddlers in this way:

--the child is startled by a scary dream

--he/she starts freaking out but is not actually awake

--By freaking out I mean physically shaking, arms (and possibly legs) flailing about and screaming

When I saw my son experience night terrors for the first time, I was alarmed and had no idea what to do. This article says that you should not try to restrain your child if they have night terror. Personally, I find this advice hard to follow. When I see my son in distress I want to help him.

Has anyone ever experienced this with their child? What did you do?

The Professional Door Shaker

My son has grown used to his new bed. He likes it, for the most part. But there are some nights when he just doesn't want to go to sleep at all.

Tonight was one of those nights. I tucked him in around 7pm-ish with his army of stuffed animals after reading the Goodnight Moon Counting book:



A present given to him by his Aunt Mint and Uncle Mike and Mike's mom, Marleen.

We finished reading the book, I sang him a bit of Kumbaya, kissed him goodnight and closed the door.

As soon as the door shut, he began to cry. I walked away from his room and retreated into my bedroom to see if he would fall asleep. Exactly one minute later I heard banging coming from my son's bedroom. I ran to see what the commotion was.

When I got to the source of the din, I watched in amazement as my child shook the two doors to his room with such profound force that they spontaneous shot open revealing a frenetic yet accomplished looking toddler.

It was clear to me that from that moment on that I could not out smart him.

Bed, Glorious Bed!

My son loves his bed. Upon reflection, I realize that he has been wanting to sleep in a "real bed" for sometime. He observed me putting on my pajamas, brushing my teeth (he does both of these things too with help from me) and then getting into bed! He would become sleepy, and point to my bedroom and when I opened the door he would climb into my bed. I don't blame him, I mean it is a really nice bed.


But now that I think about it, that's what he was trying to tell me! He wanted a bed of his own! And now he has one.

Sleep Woes at 20 Months

My son has decided that he does not like to sleep anymore. I don't know whether it's because he thinks he is missing something important that only occurs when his body is in a resting state or what the issue is, but the bottom line is that he refuses to sleep. Even naps have become an issue.



I've ended up taking him into my bed with me when all else fails. I turn out the light and he curls up with me and falls asleep. However, I don' t get restful sleep when he is in the bed with me because he is a total bed hog. I wake up in the middle of the night to find him sprawled out in random directions, or positioned so that I am almost falling off the edge of the bed.

In a desperate attempt to solve the problem, I decided to reason with him. I asked why he doesn't want to go to sleep at night. Here's what he had to say:





And finally, he revealed his real reason for not wanting to sleep in the crib:




Clearly I need some help. If you have sleeping suggestions for toddlers, please post them as a comment or email me at oldschoolnewschoolmom@gmail.com.