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Friday, November 30, 2007

Return to Bed

Jackson is in a twin bed. We were all excited about it, and he was doing well for awhile. He slept through the night and everyone was getting a good night's sleep. Then, all of the sudden, he was getting up early in the morning and coming into our room. Then he was getting up in the middle of th night. Then he was getting up 10 minutes after we put him to bed! Oh, this was not going to work. I think we knew in the back of our heads that we were eventually going to have to discipline (read: spank) him for this. Obviously, we would prefer not to.

Beau asked me to consult the wiser women in my life for their suggestions. I did, and they were so faithful to respond quickly. What a blessing to our family!

I wanted to share some of their responses because I think there is a lot of wisdom here. Thank you, ladies!

PS- These are just selected excerpts from their responses.
1)  As hard as it is, if cute little Jackson were mine,
I would stand tough, put up with the crying (it won't
hurt him - you love on him all day long)
and lose the sleep now to teach him to sleep in, and
stay in, his own bed. You will have so much more patience
and energy to give both your kids (and
Beau!) if you do.
Plus think of all the people with
sleep issues.
What a gift we give our kids if we can teach them to
sleep on their own consistently. And if we are
consistent in this area, I think they are more likely
to obey in all other areas as well. And vice versa,
if we're consistent during the day, they'll
be more apt to trust us at night. And that's really
what it is, trust. Do they trust that we mean what
we say, both when we tell them to go to bed,
and when we tell them we love them?

Think of the people you trust.
You trust them to tell you the truth,
good and bad, and to follow through on what
they say they are going to do.


2) My last question is: does this show you a blind spot?
I ask this because recently, I feel like I discovered one
of ours. I won't get into the details, but I was having
some problems with (child), and I really just thought
she was being annoying, and then all of a sudden it
was like a lightbulb went on in my head! I realized that
my sweet little (child) was not at all under our control.
She was not at all submissive. And she used certain techniques
to manipulate her silly parents. I was shocked and dimayed,
but also relieved that God revealed this to us while she
is still quite young and there is much time to repair the
situation before she develops deep character flaws. In other
words, I don't ask this because I see a blind spot in you,
I just thought it was a good question in general, since we
recently learned a lesson ourselves. One weak area revealed
her general rebelliousness to us.


3) we had the same problem with (child) right when (baby)
was born! We told her to stay in her bed and wait for mommy
or daddy and if she came out or got out of bed we discipline
(spank) her. it took about 4 days and then she stopped doing
it. Occassionally she will still do this at naptime and
morning time and we still spank her for it. because she is
disobeying. Hope this helps.

4) we got a crib tent (u can get them at baby's r us for
about $70-80--expensive, i know, we got our's from (friend)
at church, her
brother almost broke his neck as a baby and she
is an avid tent user).
anyways, it just zips and they can't get out.
it is white mesh so they can
see out and u can see in, it almost
looks like a mosquito net. it is
great! (child) is still in the crib
and there was no thinking he could get

out so he just went to sleep.

Ladies, I highly value your input and am
so grateful for your encouragement. I hope
others can benefit from your advice as well.



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