This is a guest blog by Emma from Mellow Mummy
as part of her January Blog Swap on the theme, New Beginnings. You
can find Emma on Facebook
and Twitter.
Last weekend we moved our youngest daughter out of a cot and into a toddler bed. This was nowhere near as stressful as I had anticipated it would be.
Last week I blogged about Hollyand her monkey-like behaviour. She can be... excitable. So the idea that she would be able to get up and wander around the house at night was mildly concerning. But, it had to be done. Just before Christmas we had experienced “the pooh incident” which I am sure is some kind of rite of passage for toddlers – or is it just my children who feel the need to wave a dirty nappy around their cot?
It was “the pooh incident” that had caused me to move my youngest daughter from a cot to a bed when she was just 16 months old. Holly is now 20 months and last weekend she learned to scale the cot bars. After two nights of escape from the cot, I decided it was safe without the cot bars than with them.
So. Bedtimes. They're interesting now.
Holly has always slept so beautifully. She has always settled effortlessly and I feel a bit cheated to have had all that peace and reliability torn away with such short notice. Surprisingly, bedtimes without a cot haven't been as horrific as I had prepared myself for. We have a routine with stories, music and a sparkly light show which still seems to work well but the most effective bedtime soothing skill I've learned is babymassage.
We hadn't done any baby massage for a long time but, on that first exciting night in a big girl's bed, Holly needed something to calm her down a little so I offered to rub her feet and her toes. It brought a massive smile to her face and she instantly stopped fidgeting. She kept asking me to swap feet! Then I moved on to her face and head, gently stroking across her forehead and her eyes began to close. Finally, I circled my hands firmly round and round on her back until she was totally asleep.
The baby massage techniques have helped to settle Holly on most evenings apart from one horrific night when it took me over two and a quarter hours to get her to sleep. Joy.
Last weekend we moved our youngest daughter out of a cot and into a toddler bed. This was nowhere near as stressful as I had anticipated it would be.
Last week I blogged about Hollyand her monkey-like behaviour. She can be... excitable. So the idea that she would be able to get up and wander around the house at night was mildly concerning. But, it had to be done. Just before Christmas we had experienced “the pooh incident” which I am sure is some kind of rite of passage for toddlers – or is it just my children who feel the need to wave a dirty nappy around their cot?
It was “the pooh incident” that had caused me to move my youngest daughter from a cot to a bed when she was just 16 months old. Holly is now 20 months and last weekend she learned to scale the cot bars. After two nights of escape from the cot, I decided it was safe without the cot bars than with them.
So. Bedtimes. They're interesting now.
Holly has always slept so beautifully. She has always settled effortlessly and I feel a bit cheated to have had all that peace and reliability torn away with such short notice. Surprisingly, bedtimes without a cot haven't been as horrific as I had prepared myself for. We have a routine with stories, music and a sparkly light show which still seems to work well but the most effective bedtime soothing skill I've learned is babymassage.
We hadn't done any baby massage for a long time but, on that first exciting night in a big girl's bed, Holly needed something to calm her down a little so I offered to rub her feet and her toes. It brought a massive smile to her face and she instantly stopped fidgeting. She kept asking me to swap feet! Then I moved on to her face and head, gently stroking across her forehead and her eyes began to close. Finally, I circled my hands firmly round and round on her back until she was totally asleep.
The baby massage techniques have helped to settle Holly on most evenings apart from one horrific night when it took me over two and a quarter hours to get her to sleep. Joy.
Oh, I'm glad she is settling into the new sleep routine. It's so hard for some to make that adjustment.
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting me on your blog. Unfortunately it looks like moving out of the cot means no more nap time during the day :-(
ReplyDeleteEach child is different and will take to changes differently.I am so glad you have found a method that works well for you.Massage always relaxes so you have got a good thing here.
ReplyDeleteNice to see her settling in. Who doesn't love a good massage.
ReplyDeletemy son has moved from cot to my bed lol, its not quite worked out for me x
ReplyDelete