We have success! Well, mostly. We tried before to no avail, so I put it on the back burner. But lately I've been trying to get Zoe excited about sleeping in a big girl bed. She has seen the bedding in the top of her closet and I've told her that she can have that when she sleeps in her big girl bed. Finally I had enough of the talking and decided to act. After she woke up from her nap on Monday I took down the bedding, hauled in the spare mattress and had her help me set up the bed. For the rest of the afternoon we played "night time." We practiced laying down on her pillow and closing our eyes, then we talked about when it is dark we go to sleep and when it is daytime we wake up and get out of bed. Zoe ate it up, and seemed to understand what was going on. That night we read books, tucked her in, and closed the door. And that was it! Normally she stays awake talking in her crib for quite a while (anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes) but not this night. We never heard a single peep from her after we closed the door! She woke up at 7:30 the next morning but didn't even attempt to come out.
Now, we are still having problems with the nap and she usually ends up in her crib after repeatedly coming out of her room, but we're working on it. I am thinking of getting some darker curtains for her room and maybe "childproofing" her door (read: locking her in). Is that too cruel, or just practical? I know it would definitely help in the morning as she decided to wake up and wander the house at 6:15 this morning. I'm sure the nap issue will work itself out by the time Owen needs the crib, or we will just cut the nap out all together - the only reason she still takes one is because we spend so much time playing outside in the heat and we keep her up later on these long summer nights.
We still have a few kinks to work out, but things are looking pretty good. We are so proud of Zoe for how "mature" she's become just in the last few months. Any suggestions for the napping situation would be much appreciated!
9 years ago
