Please stop a vampire from being carted away to the loony bin....

[CountessDracula]

dd is 3.8

From the age of 8 months until recently she has always settled herself very well at bedtime. She went into a bed when she was 3 and everything was fine until about a month ago when she started playing up at bedtime.

It has now got to the stage where she will prevaricate and faff about for ages asking for more milk, then another kiss and a cuddle, she has got into this thing of wanting to count to twenty before I go, but she will get to 19 then start again....

I know it all sounds rather pathetic but I have tried SO hard to be firm with her, last night I just said "right that's it, I'm going downstairs now, you can stay up if you want but I don't want you coming down", she got totally hysterical and was grabbign at me then started coughing until she was sick

Now I feel like evil monster mum and maybe I should be sitting there for bloody hours with her, I don't know. It is taking up to 2 hours for her to settle and IT IS DRIVING ME FING MAAAAAD. I can't relax, I can't cook supper as I know I will be up and down the stairs (or dh will) and I can't just walk out or she will spew everywhere exorcist style

I have tried bribery, star charts (which have worked before) - I am going to have to resort to drugging her or something if she doesn't bloody stop it (not really obv!)

WHAT CAN I DO???

think getting hysterical till puking is a real pain - what we did with ours was went out and bought some lovely new bed covers (their choice) and made getting into new bed covers very exciting (well as exciting as it could be ). Then when it was bed time, we announced how sad it would be if the nice new bed covers got sick on them and had lovely story, big kisses and cuddles and left the 'big, grown up children to sleep in their lovely new beds'.

Twas a bit easier as mine have each other but it did work. I do think you have to stick to exactly what you say. We leave a beaker of water next to their beds so they can't use the drink excuse. Has she got a special cuddly toy etc.?

It's very frustrating when they do this so much sympathy.

OK

she is in bed

I have told her that unless she is a good girl she will get no treats and not be allowed to watch tv/dvds/vids (that really filled her with horror).

We have laid down some groundrules and set up our new routine

ie

she has stories/milk
she goes to bed and reads one story with her light on
then she calls and I go up and turn light off, put on her bed light and then she goes to sleep

we shall see....

and?

I am Evil Mummy when it comes to bedtime. I take no messing about.

3 children (2 bathed) in bed and quiet by 7:30 tonight, singlehandedly

From wathing Little Angels on UKTV Style, it seems tough is the only way to go.

Put them to bed
Go in, say "it's bedtime", put them back to bed. Repeat til they're asleep.

No interaction other than "it's bedtime". If sick, calmly clear up and put them to bed with no fuss/interaction.

We have our own bedtime pissaround going on at the moment (the joys of summer). Ds1 - who has been up since 5.45am (the joys of summer again) has shouted to come out of his room twice. has now been told last time (i'm listening to dh), and the barrier fastened. You have my sympathy- I loathe late bedtimes- the one thing I can't tolerate. In the winter they're all in bed asleep by 7.30. ds1 will be awake until 10pm tonight so has to be in his room otherwise I would go insane.

Hope your new strategy works. I reckon it will.

Can you take up some new and completely exhausting activities so she is virtually begging for bedtime?

Running round the park all afternoon, cycling, climbing, footballing, dancing. Wear her out and feed her a nice dinner full of carbohydrates.

Is her bedtime too early? Some 3 year olds don't need as much sleep as 2 year olds.

Other than making sure she is really genuinely tired, I would possibly think of some special privileges to be had for staying in bed properly, like one of those beautiful lights that turn round and you get pretty shadows on the wall, if you know what I mean. Make bedtime a bit more of a special place, you will know what will appeal to her.

Best of luck. Just as you think you are going to go completely mad and injure her it will probably all change and she will think of something else to hack you off :)

all is quiet

fingers crossed

We have odd noises (but he's in his room so no matter). Glad it worked! :) Enjoy the wine.

omg it worked
omg

still only one night but

If it works one night it will work the next. You've cracked it- well done!

really?

OMG

Thank you all xxxxxx

well done!

aha

we have solved this with dd2 (same age) by donating her dh's old Sony Walkman, a pair of headphones and My Naughty Little Sister on cassette.

She listens every night after her story and falls asleep with it, she loves it.

oh, I see you have cracked it without the aid of technology

well done

Good god she slept til 8.30 this morning!

She was my sunny sweet little girl again, not a grumpy devil child

ahhhhh bliss!

the htreat of cod
not the first time this has happened cd
happended for VVQ too

Nice one CD. Must have been the night for it, my ds slept 8pm-7am and no fuss at bedtime! Bathtime was another story however... Let's see what tonight brings, hopefully more of the same!

Ds also slept from 8 till 6 which is a big achievement for us :)

Glad all was well CD

Well last night was ok, but ds was his usual fidgety self. I was downstairs and could hear him banging about. He has woken dd up three times, and she is very cross anyway because she's too hot. DH has to be up at 2.30am for work so is not best pleased. Galloped up the stairs to find he had toys in his bed and was generally just mucking about, being a pain. Knew it wouldn't last! How did you get on the last couple of nights CD?