Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Original poster

Anyone had success with Christopher Green's patented rope trick?

33 replies

broguemum · 30/06/2009 21:02

I am at my wits end. Bedtime lasts 2 hours. He yawns, I put him down, we read books, he gets up about 40 times!!!! I can't take anymore. He is 19 months old. I might try the rope trick. Does it work???

OP posts:
marmoset · 30/06/2009 21:05

I certainly had success with it when my boys were 3 and 2 and shared a room. i know that it seems a bit drastic but desparate times call for desparate measures!!

Original poster
broguemum · 30/06/2009 21:09

Does this mean there is light at the end of the tunnel??? It was three hours tonight!!!! Three damn hours!!!!! DD was never like this. At this age she went to bed sweet as pie and never got up once we told her it was sleeping time (except at 3 am to show me her toys but that's different).

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

Now where can I get some rope from?

OP posts:
marmoset · 01/07/2009 19:34

I had the same problem and there is light ,yes, although i see that my spelling hasn't recovered! I used skipping ropes and it didn't take very many nights for the message to sink in. Funnily enough, it was at the same time of year - light nights are catnip to small boys who want to play!
good luck - do post how you get on!

Original poster
broguemum · 01/07/2009 20:36

OK, we have rope now (thanks for the skipping rope tip) although tonight DH stood there holding the door whilst I looked after DD who managed to work herself into hysterics after she fell off her scooter!!!! Still, bedtime was down to an hour tonight so maybe things are getting better. DS will drive me to drink, I swear... I will see how tomorrow goes.

OP posts:
ches · 03/07/2009 03:52

Is he teething his molars?

Original poster
broguemum · 03/07/2009 08:09

He is definitely getting his canines so perhaps he is getting molars at the same time. However, he doesn't seem to be in any discomfort, he just doesn't want to sleep.

He IS sleepy, I know he is. He yawns, he almost dozes off and then he fights off sleep and starts thrashing around, then he gets up and comes out of his room.

I think the heat isn't helping either. I will probably give the rope trick a miss until the weather breaks and will try tricking him into sleeping in the pushchair and then transfer him over when he is sound asleep - once or twice won't hurt will it?

OP posts:
flamingobingo · 03/07/2009 08:10

WTF is the rope trick?

Original poster
broguemum · 03/07/2009 08:11

Nothing sinister!! You just tie the door handle to something so that they can open the door a bit but can't squeeze through to get out of the room.

OP posts:
MerlinsBeard · 03/07/2009 09:04

please please don't do this What a horrible thing to do - it is essentially locking your child in his room. Can you not get a stairgate to put across the door instead?

Original poster
broguemum · 03/07/2009 09:30

I tried a stairgate but he climbs over them - he's big you see and I can't have him running around upstairs for precisely that reason...

I know it's not nice but we are desperate and he can open the door to see out; he just cannot come out. I think the main problem at the moment is the heat so I'm going to walk him to sleep in the pushchair tonight if we have a problem again but if it persists when it gets cooler, well, we will have to see. I can't spend over 2 hours putting him to bed every night...

OP posts:
PfftTheMagicDragon · 03/07/2009 09:45

Can't you just keep putting him back?

Original poster
broguemum · 03/07/2009 09:52

We do. The process lasts 2 hours. Last night it was 3... He is SOOOO tired and just won't sleep. Started about 2 weeks ago - before then he was a dream to go to sleep. Just put him down and off to dreamland with just the occasional problem.

OP posts:
milou2 · 03/07/2009 09:56

One thing I did with my older son was to sit on the floor of his room with a really good book and cup of coffee. He could see me and I got a bit of light from the landing coming into the room to read by.

He was about 4 though (!!) and must have been ready. It was a nice way to while away the evenings. I had already spent years gnashing my teeth lying next to breastfeeding babies while I wanted to watch some tv programme. Eventually I found a way to relax and enjoy the going to sleep process.

I did simply shut the door on him once when he was younger, found him asleep on the floor near the door in the morning and felt awful. Didn't do it again.

Sorry it's so hard. I wish I could wave a magic wand for you.

JodieO · 03/07/2009 10:00

Personally I'd just wait it out, I couldn't bear locking a child in their room, especially one so young. All 3 of my children have been the same with sleeping so I do understand how hard it is. Ds2 only started sleeping through the night when he was about 22 months old and still now wakes in the night again a couple of times at 2.6. Just part and process of having children imo.

Dd (7.5) and ds1 (5.9) sleep well now the majority of the time. They just needed the time to adjust at their own speed.

Original poster
broguemum · 03/07/2009 11:28

I think what is so hard to deal with is that he has gone from being really "good" with bedtime to being really awkward at bedtime. Well, the weather here appears to be breaking at the moment so tonight might be easier.

I also think he doesn't need as much sleep as his sister did at that age - I keep being suprised when he turns out to be so different from his sister.

Thanks for your replies - it helps to know we are not alone and that this is a common problem. I will hold off on any desperate measures for the moment and will see how it goes.

OP posts:
cfc · 03/07/2009 12:06

I don't know anything about sleep problems as my baby is very young still, however, my earliest memory is of my dad putting me in my room and closing the door. The door was never closed as the handles were so high so I was effectively locked in (it was an old house) and I screamed and screamed and screamed until my mum came in - I can still see her smiling down at me with her arms out collecting me up.

I know it's different as he can open it a little, and I'm never going to judge anyone else's parenting but I just had to tell.

Good luck with it, sounds like you're at the end of your tether.

ipiratethief · 03/07/2009 12:10

well at least he has been a good slepper up till now, he will hopefully resmue this again. it's prob a phase, now made any easier by the uncomfortably hotnights.

The rope will prob make him more upset, more anxious. My dd was a crap sleeper from birth to, well til now really and she is 7.

I really wouldn't do soemthing that makes him anxious, it's making a new problem.

Original poster
broguemum · 03/07/2009 12:28

ipriatethief - your point is well made. thanks.

DH is feeling like a total bstrd now for holding the door closed but that night was hellish - one beloved offspring in hysterics and the other popping out of his room like a jack-in-the-box. And is was not for more than a few minutes.

OP posts:
PfftTheMagicDragon · 03/07/2009 16:08

I think that you shouldn't feel bad for the door holding, you tried it, you didn't like it, it's over.

It is hard, The constant back and forth, in bed, out of bed, in again. I find the hardest is keeping calm yourself. Just persevere. He will get better, the phase will pass and it will get cooler and less humid (it's horrid).

milou2 · 03/07/2009 19:42

Here's a suggestion for taking the edge off that impatience/fury that comes over me when children won't go to bed and do what I want:

Night rescue remedy plus a drop of valerian from Holland and Barrett. I give it to myself in a glass of water and somehow just don't get angry.

If that helps someone it's worth it. I give this to myself early on in the bedtime routine.

seeker · 03/07/2009 19:45
becaroo · 03/07/2009 19:51

ditto what seeker said.....it will pass - the weather cant have been helping...you must expect disturbed nights if he is hot and teething...hope things get better soon.

Original poster
broguemum · 03/07/2009 21:04

oh calloo callay!!! Oh frabjous day!!!!

45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes

Thanks seeker - I must remember, "this too shall pass...."

45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!! 45 minutes!!!!

OP posts:
ches · 04/07/2009 05:56

If he's teething it's really unkind to do anything except medicate. It's easy to be distracted from the pain during the day, but at night and alone in the room lying in bed there's nothing to distract you from it.

Original poster
broguemum · 04/07/2009 07:55

ches - he's not in pain - it's not that sort of a problem. He simply drags himself back from the brink of sleep, gets up and starts running around. He treats it as a game or some sort of joke.

I think that the heat has been a huge part of the problem as it was a lot better last night when it was only 24 degrees rather than the 32 degrees it was the night before.

We're digging out a fan for his room to cool it down tonight as it looks like today is going to be real scorcher. But a 45 minute bedtime instead of the one, two or three hours we've been having was fantastic last night - we had an evening together for the first time in nearly a month!

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread