I'm not getting much sleep due to my screaming kid...

Meh.

My boy sleeps with us every night. He's 2 year old now. Our next child is due in March. That one will prolly sleep in our room too.

The way I see it is this, you have to choose your battles. If having the child in your bed means every one sleeps and is functional the next day to do whatever, then so be it.

With these younguns, there is precious little time for much of anything other than nuturing the child and keeping it alive and safe. I for one choose sleep over all else. And will continue to choose sleep when the next one arrives, at least as much of it that I can get.

 

when was the last time u had sex? I bet that kid will sleep with u for another 3 years. u gotta put ur foot down

 

Please don't take this as insulting, but I'm guessing you and EvilTOJ don't have children. If I'm mistaken, please tell me.

Believe me, when you're dog tired and unhappy the first reaction is yelling. It's also highly unproductive with a 4-year-old. They don't get scared. Upset yes, scared no. Older kids will get scared.

When my mother yelled at me and my brother, it was comical. But when my dad gave us the death stare, that was truly frightening.

We had a decent night last night. She woke up crying for about a minute. We ignored it, she came in our room and at some point fell asleep on our floor. At 3:15, I put her back in her bed. Didn't hear from her until 7. Maybe we've turned a corner.

 

Have you tried keeping her up later?

I'm with the OP - sleeping in our bed is a big no-no in our house. I had some former neighbors who did that with their son, and he was still sleeping in their bed when he was 7.

 

The bedroom is not the only place to have sex. And as for when......that's not your business . Plus we have a furnished guest room.

My wife and I do maintain a reasonable sex life. As reasonable as can be when your wife is 11 weeks pregnant. Sore boobs and nausea don't exactly make for a "mood", so I am told.

I am sure things will change when the new baby is here, I imagine the boy is going to tire quickly of waking to screaming every 4 hours. I have to say tho', I actually sleep 'better' when he is in our bed.

Back OT: I do feel for ya' bro. Hope you get something figured out soon. It sucks not having enough sleep.

 

Bingo.

10 chars

 

Anyone who thinks scaring the heck out of a young kid is a good way to get them to sleep must have failed psychology. Being scared out of your mind is not exactly like a lullaby. Discepline has nothing to do with fear or terror. People underestimate the reasoning ability of kids of various ages to the point where they think raw emotion is the only way to communicate. Incrementally taking away freedoms (and STICKING TO IT) is the way I get it done. Once you stick to the program consistently for a few incidences in a row, they finally learn that when you make a threat, you absolutely mean it. If you're trying this out and make an empty threat just once, you blew it. Start over.

 

Bobby M makes good points, as do many others. There is a place for a raised voice with a child, but only in the "knock that crap off" sort of way.

We have stuck to our guns here. Slowly but surely she'll figure it out.

 

We did. One of the freedoms of summer we tried was to let them stay up 1/2 hour later. We then went back to the original bedtime process thinking that might have been part of the problem.

At about 9:30 last night, the sleepless wonder was quietly laying in her bed playing with her stuffed animals. Fine with me as long as she's quiet. That's our approach for tonight. Lay awake all you want so long as you are quiet.

 

I'm not sure what the dose is for a 4-year old (best to check with a pediatrician before doing this) but what about giving her a benadryl before bedtime?

 

Benadryl was suggested earlier in the thread. Tried it and Tylenol. The kid is immune.

 

I gave my oldest Benadryl once...ONCE. May have just as well given him cocaine. Complete opposite effect on some kids. :cross:

 

Sounds like time to sneak some Jack Daniels in the bottle.

(RELAX-I kid,I kid)

 

Did that too when he was teething real bad...a little JD on the gums, and the rest of the shot for Daddy.

 

This im sure will cause some comments, but while i would stay up for alone man time at night, our daughter would fall asleep with the wife. Well, when it came time to move her into her own bed she would through a fit. We (wife and I) battled over this for some time and finally i was like if you want to sleep with her then you go into her bed, well that fixed the wife but not the kid. So we decided to put a tv in there for her with a timer on it. She now will fall asleep a few min after her tv shuts itself off and stay in there all night.

I know i know, tv is not good to have in the bed room, but both her mom (wife) and grandma fall asleep to the tv so i figure its in her genes.

 

My daughters fall asleep with a TV on a timer as well. The biggest key in this whole situation is persistence. I did like some of the others and let my daughters sleep with us for the longest time, choosing sleep over the alternatives. Eventually they get too big and start kicking in the back or rolling on you in the middle of the night. When we finally decided that we were not going to let our youngest daughter sleep with us anymore, it only took about a week of rough nights before she was sleeping on her own.

OP, it might be rough for awhile, but unless major is wrong, you should be able to resolve your issues. Good Luck.

 

Not that it will solve your problems, but I think I'd just have a few more beers

 

My son had "growing pains" at about that age and woke up every night screaming for about a 3 months complaining his legs hurt. Tylenol did nothing to help us, However motrin worked wonderfully.

Have you considered letting the girls sleep together? I occasionally have sleeping problems with my three kids and 90% of the time throwing them in bed with another one of them works. I hope you start getting some sleep soon.

John

 

This has nothing to do with any of this, but I love the Displaced Masshole tag. I, too, am a displaced Masshole, though my displacement is not across the country. Just one state south after several years in North Kakalaka.

We seem to be getting past things. And yes, I have had more beer. Drinking one right now (while working, shhh, don't tell anyone.)

 

Have you tried Rufi's. I find that 18 year old women fall right to sleep. I would think that a child would pass right out. I hope you heard the sarcasm