Tonight L enlightened me on how to get her to sleep.

[gretchenindisguise]

L: Sometimes I go to sleep really easy mommy.
Me: Oh yeah, and what makes the difference on the days you go to sleep easy?
L: I go to sleep easy on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Me: Oh really, just Wednesdays and Fridays, huh?
L: Yeah
:::thinking face:::
L: Mommy, what day is today?
Me: It's Wednesday!
L: Ooooh, that means I'll go to bed really easy tonight!

And then she did.

Of course we also had a near perfect bedtime routine and I threw in 25 minutes of yoga before books. But still. She went to bed easy tonight.

Until H decided it was perfect timing to DO THE FUCKING DISHES HE SHOULD HAVE DONE AN HOUR AGO.*

So I told him to leave the dishes, and he quieted her back down.



*important information: we live in a tiny apartment - her bed is about 15 feet from the kitchen sink, with her bedroom door about 2 feet from said sink. yeah.

[Deleted]

I guess tomorrow is Friday, huh?

[cleo29]

So she did the yoga too? I wonder if that helped, seriously.

[zoidberg]

So, I guess you'll just have to lie to her daily?

[TrickyBob]

Poor girl will never know there are more than 2 days to the week from here on out. lol

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 8, 2013 22:45:53 GMT -5 zoidberg said:

So, I guess you'll just have to lie to her daily?

Not daily. Only 5/7 days a week!

[cleo29]

I know you said she is allergic to melatonin, but what about chamomile? Perhaps some at night before bedtime?

Funny story, my Gram would drink Camomile tea all the time and then complain about falling asleep afterwards. God, she made me laugh.

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 8, 2013 22:45:24 GMT -5 cleo29 said:

So she did the yoga too? I wonder if that helped, seriously.

I wonder how much the yoga had to do with it too. It's been in the back of my mind to try, and I had a bug up my butt today - so we did it. 

She was into it for about 13 minutes, and then goofed off a bit. But I got her back for the last 2 minutes. I think I'm going to keep trying with her (with the bribe of no yoga - no books) for a week or so and see what happens. 

[cleo29]

Jul 8, 2013 22:48:37 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

Jul 8, 2013 22:45:24 GMT -5 cleo29 said:

So she did the yoga too? I wonder if that helped, seriously.

I wonder how much the yoga had to do with it too. It's been in the back of my mind to try, and I had a bug up my butt today - so we did it. 

She was into it for about 13 minutes, and then goofed off a bit. But I got her back for the last 2 minutes. I think I'm going to keep trying with her (with the bribe of no yoga - no books) for a week or so and see what happens. 

This will seem random, but bear with me. I remember a character in a book I read who would walk around her house on her hands (I can barely do a regular hand stand, never mind a walking handstand) when she had trouble sleeping and then would go to bed and have the best night sleep.

Anyway, I wonder if having that good calming breathing, getting good blood flow, etc helped L. definitely worth trying. Hey, Nina on the Goodnight Show always teaches the kids a yoga position, so maybe there is something to it! lol

[gretchenindisguise]

Limited time pip



@cleo99 - I'm not sure if I could get her to drink chamomile. Do they have a kid friendly tasting version?

[gretchenindisguise]

And cleo - she did all of the breathing stuff at the beginning - it was just when they were doing some positions she got less interested. I will keep you updated!

[zoidberg]

My mom gave us chamomile tea all the time and I don't remember disliking the taste. Do you think you could get her to taste it?

[zoidberg]

What yoga were you doing? Did you get one of the child sleep yoga videos?

[cleo29]

Jul 8, 2013 22:54:06 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

And cleo - she did all of the breathing stuff at the beginning - it was just when they were doing some positions she got less interested. I will keep you updated!

Do! I know this has been a long road for you.  Who knows, maybe you stumbled upon something that will help her. And, in regards to the tea, i would just make some and have her try it with a little bit of sugar or honey or whatever in it. Maybe she would like it cold, like a regular iced tea.

[keyslover]

We have a short kids yoga. Also a qi gong that has an option of 7 or 14 minutes.
I also tried Calm Forte by Hylands, I think it worked well. But then she said she couldn't fall asleep without them, even though they are not addictive i stopped because I thought mentally she would rely on them too much. My goal is for her to learn to calm her mind and body down by herself.

Sorry if this is choppy- on mobile.

[Yankees21]

That is hilarious.

[keyslover]

Oh and relaxation music helps her too. Just don't use pandora because we did one night and she was relaxing and almost sleeping- stupid loud commercial!

[gretchenindisguise]

zoidberg and cleo29 - ok - I'll try the chamomile and will see if she'll drink it. She doesn't drink much outside of milk and water, so I'm not sure. But maybe if I put a bit of milk in it, she'll drink it.

I just found a kids yoga on youtube and went with it. I saw some shorter ones, but I was worried that it was too short. I liked this one - so I think I'll try it with her again and if she won't - I'll switch to a new one

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 8, 2013 23:01:50 GMT -5 keyslover said:

Oh and relaxation music helps her too. Just don't use pandora because we did one night and she was relaxing and almost sleeping- stupid loud commercial!

L is partial to the sleeping song from Mary Poppins. It now has it's own separate play list on the ipod in her room so it will just play on repeat.

[FluteCatT]

Jul 8, 2013 22:52:34 GMT -5 cleo29 said:

Jul 8, 2013 22:48:37 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

I wonder how much the yoga had to do with it too. It's been in the back of my mind to try, and I had a bug up my butt today - so we did it. 

She was into it for about 13 minutes, and then goofed off a bit. But I got her back for the last 2 minutes. I think I'm going to keep trying with her (with the bribe of no yoga - no books) for a week or so and see what happens. 

This will seem random, but bear with me. I remember a character in a book I read who would walk around her house on her hands (I can barely do a regular hand stand, never mind a walking handstand) when she had trouble sleeping and then would go to bed and have the best night sleep.

Anyway, I wonder if having that good calming breathing, getting good blood flow, etc helped L. definitely worth trying. Hey, Nina on the Goodnight Show always teaches the kids a yoga position, so maybe there is something to it! lol

Handstand is an energizing pose--it would be like giving the kid a cup of coffee before bed!  Shoulderstand, however, has a grounding effect.

Breathing exercises can be good for slowing the heartrate and mental energy.  I also find "Self Awakening Yoga" to be pretty relaxing (although it is definitely not your usual yoga.)

[Deleted]

Ooh I love that cute little chair!

[gretchenindisguise]

Jul 8, 2013 23:17:28 GMT -5 @imback said:

Ooh I love that cute little chair!

It was my dad's from when he was a kid! It has been transfered through the family

[cleo29]

Jul 8, 2013 23:15:46 GMT -5 FluteCatT said:

Jul 8, 2013 22:52:34 GMT -5 cleo29 said:

This will seem random, but bear with me. I remember a character in a book I read who would walk around her house on her hands (I can barely do a regular hand stand, never mind a walking handstand) when she had trouble sleeping and then would go to bed and have the best night sleep.

Anyway, I wonder if having that good calming breathing, getting good blood flow, etc helped L. definitely worth trying. Hey, Nina on the Goodnight Show always teaches the kids a yoga position, so maybe there is something to it! lol

Handstand is an energizing pose--it would be like giving the kid a cup of coffee before bed!  Shoulderstand, however, has a grounding effect.

Breathing exercises can be good for slowing the heartrate and mental energy.  I also find "Self Awakening Yoga" to be pretty relaxing (although it is definitely not your usual yoga.)

I wasn't suggesting for her to have L do a handstand, plus I think actually walking around a house on your hands would have a different effect. Anyway, my point was that perhaps the yoga before bed actually helped L.

[snickers]

Glad she went to sleep early, lol at going to bed easy on Wednesday's and Friday's.

[janiejones]

try a little honey in the chamomile.

[fortnightlily]

Jumping in just to say that Celestial Seasoning's makes a Honey Vanilla Chamomile that is sweeter and tasty.

[candreco]

I'm intrigued by the bedtime yoga too- DD often seems to have trouble winding down at night ("I have to keep jumping, I haven't gotten all the crazy out yet!"), so I'm thinking this might help her too. I used to do a couple minutes of yoga before bed before I got lazy, and it did help me fall asleep faster.

[papie]

I love it!
Anna told me it was only on Tuesday's and Thursday's because she gets tired at soccer. No trick there, other than I wish I could find a soccer league for my 2yo, because omg.

[candreco]

Jul 9, 2013 9:25:46 GMT -5 namasteak said:

My mom used to drink sleepytime tea every night. I remember being pretty excited when I got to drink my own cup of it.

There is a great deck of cards called Yoga Pretzels. I like that they have color coded each "type" of exercise (warm up, breathing, relaxation, etc) because that allows kids a little more independence in what they do.

We have these cards, DD loves them.  Seriously, I don't know why I haven't thought about doing yoga with her at bedtime.  She likes doing it, it helps me settle down in the evening, I just never connected the two- derp.