Go the #£$& to Sleep!

I got that book as a gift from my SIL right after Oliver was born. BEST BOOK EVER!!! I'm saving it to give to my kiddo when he has a baby of his own (He's 2 so this will be a LONG time from now).

I would just start saying no. Don't ignore him but tell him that he's not getting it. One cup of water. If he's still hungry, too bad. He should have eaten more at dinner. He only gets to pick one book and if he wants to change it later.. No. Not happening. Keep the routine and keep saying no.

Put him in the guest room. After your normal routine, take him to the room, say good night and close the door. The preschool is probably a contributing factor but he just needs to time to get through the change.

He's old enough to understand that it's his choice to sleep or stay awake. But, it's not his choice to disturb everyone else in the house. If he doesn't want to sleep, he can do so by himself. I think he'll figure it out in few days...you'll be going through the pre-school version of "Crying it out".

First I love love LOVE that book! It's sooooo funny! There's a recording of Samuel L Jackson reading it and I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard! I would move him

Lots of sleep questions posted tonight...must be the moon! lol. Few suggestions for you:

-How about trying a schedule that you can print/write out and post where he can see it. On the sheet, schedule in time for bathroom, drinks, chapstick, anything in your bedtime routine, and anything you think he can possibly ask for. Start it early enough so he can be in bed at a decent hour. I would shoot for 8:30 at the latest, 10 seems really late for a school night. Everynight, if he goes to bed by himself after the routine, maybe he can get a sticker, and after so many stickers a small toy.

-Maybe let him pick out new sheets or a new blanket so he can get excited to use them

-Give him the option to stay in his and goto sleep, or goto new room and sleep by himself. Either the fear of sleeping alone might make him act better...or he'll love the thought of having his own room, and possibly sleep better there.

Either way, sounds like he's changing and the nighttime routine you were doing before is no longer working. Time to change things up. Good luck!

At 5 he should be able to keep the chapstick and books next to the bed, on his nightstand or whatever, he shouldn't be calling for you. Does he have a little reading light so he can lay and "read" until his eyes get tired? That's what mine did.
He may also need a later bedtime.

I just answered another question about this, Ha!

I have a 'trick'...I get them all settled w/everything I think they will want/ask for, get them all comfy cozy, then I give kisses and hugs and tell them "No more stalling, I have to go do XYZ now, I will come back and check on you in a lil' bit" and then by the time I come back, they are out like a light!

Yes, it is absolutely a 'trick' but like I said to the other poster...it works like a charm!!!

And then if you have a kid like my middle son, who keeps track and asks you the next morning 'you said you were gonna come back and check on me'...you can honestly say, 'I did but you were already asleep' :)

Our daughter was doing this for the past 6 months. She has stopped, thank god, in just the last week.

We bought her a light for her bunk bed. So, after her little brother is asleep, she gets to climb in bed with a few books. We give her an allotted amount of time, and then the light is taken away. Since we've been doing this, she has been falling asleep about 90 minutes earlier! Also, since moving her to the top bunk bed, she has to fix her own sheets. It's been brilliant. Before she would mess up her sheets repeatedly and then call for us, and call for us, and call for us.

So, my suggestion is to make a list of all of his "things," and make sure they are all taken care of before you say good-night. Then, keep it emotionless and simple,"good-night, love you."

I also suggest putting the little guy to bed 15 minutes before his brother to give him a chance to fall asleep. We read them both two books, then the little one goes to bed, and our oldest then gets one more book. She then goes pee, has a drink of water, etc. She has long list of "things." By then her brother is usually asleep and then we let her climb in bed to read.

edited to add: I just read inmy30s response. Her trick worked with my daughter when she did this last year. This time it didn't work.

I'm probably going to hear from someone about this, but here goes...

Have you tried melatonin? :)

Our little guy (5)has had a lot of hard nights lately (oh, the monsters under the bed, etc.) and we'd 'had it up to here' when I remembered that my sister used it with two of her three. We bought the lowest dosage .3mg and then halved it; we've given it to our son about 20 minutes before bedtime, and then chose soothing, cozy books to read. Worked wonders. He was relaxed and ready to sleep about an hour after giving it to him. (we read stories for twenty minutes and then he gets some snuggle time and a song, so bedtime routine is about 30 minutes or so.)

I will be honest-- some kids don't do well with it. I have one nephew that has a problem with sleepwalking and the melatonin makes it worse, so it isn't a silver bullet, but worth checking out. Do your own research on it.

Mine just turned 6 and we had bedtime issues when he was 3 and that last about 6 months thought I was going to pull my hair out. Once we got passed that I thought we were golden until about a month ago. Not sure exactly what is going on with my little man but something is up, I do know he is going through a growth spurt because I just bought him 4 new pair of pants in November and now ALL of his pants are high waters..(NOT a happy mama). But he is hungry ALL the time from sun up until I am fighting him to go to sleep. We did push our sons bedtime back to 10pm. I have got a lot of grief from family members over letting him stay up so late but even as a baby he never needed a lot of sleep. Plus he gets about 9 hours of sleep as it is. I do not have an answer for you except it might just be a phase you have to ride out...

As far as the glass of water and chapstick, Eliot only gets one drink of water before bed and he does get to have his own chapstick. The book is another story, once he has chosen his book there is NO changing once I sit down. If he starts whining and crying I shut his door and tell him if he stops crying I will open his door but I'm not listening to it usually after about 5 mins it stops and he's passed out.