1. Observe your child to learn when she is really tired. It is important that you help your child get to bed when she is tired, rather than too early or too late.
2. Make a plan. Talk through the bedtime routine before you are in the middle of it. Since everyone is tired by the time bedtime rolls around, it is easier to decide on a plan earlier in the day. Talk together with your spouse to come up with a time, a routine and a way to set limits, if necessary.
3. Create a routine which fits everyone's needs. Bedtime routines can include: bathing, teeth brushing, stories (books and story-telling), songs, cuddling, massage, listening to music, recalling events from the day. This shouldn’t be to long as then it gets dragged out.
4. Decide on a plan for follow-through or limit-setting if necessary. Once you have completed your sweet little routine, you child will, no doubt, call for you, cry or get up out of bed. At that point, you need to be clear about how you are going to respond.It is more effective if you stay calm, clear, gentle and quiet. If you keep talking to her, lecturing her, bribing her or getting angry, she may feel compelled to continue the interaction longer as she is getting your attention.
5. Tell your Child the plan. “Once we leave the room, it will be your job to stay in bed and help yourself fall asleep. You can cry or call if you need to. If you get out of bed, we will put you back in bed, because it is your bedtime.”
6. Make time to connect with your child during the day and/or early evening hours. If you feel like you have had enough time with your daughter, it will be easier to be clear about her bedtime and to give her consistent messages that it is time for her to rest.
Hope this helps you get the zzzzzzzzzzz’s you need!!
