I’ve never seen this done before or written about, but thought I would ask. Does anyone put their toddler to bed at night with books and let him/her fall asleep reading?
Caroline has a very good nap routine now. She is consistently in her bed reading every afternoon for about 20-30 minutes and then falls asleep. She then usually sleeps about two hours. (Heavenly afternoons for David and me!)
Bedtime is a different story.
In the past, she has fallen asleep during her bottle and then we just put her to bed asleep. (I know all the books say not to do this, but that’s what we did.) If she didn’t fall asleep during her bottle, she would usually just sit quietly in our lap, enjoying her binky, and would fall asleep and we would put her in bed.
Then she started walking.
Since she’s been walking, she wants nothing to do with falling asleep in our arms. We decided that if she is capable of doing a naptime routine, she should be able to do a bedtime routine and put herself to sleep.
So last week we started the cry it out thing at night. She has only cried hard for a few minutes each night except for one night I thought she was going to burst a blood vessel she was so mad. She generally is asleep in 20-40 minutes. I have mixed feelings about crying it out, but I’m also not willing to wrestle her every night and try to get her to calm down and go to sleep.
So all this got me to thinking. Would it be bad to put her to bed at night with books and let her fall asleep that way? Then we would go in and turn out the light after she is asleep. David and I both read before we go to sleep and we have since we were children. It really does help me unwind and fall asleep. Will it work to start her out so young doing this?
Okay, all you experienced moms out there. Pitfalls to this thinking? Holes in my theory? Unforeseen ramifications?
