Before I had kids, I always laughed at the funny stories from my friends about crazy toddler sleep routines. The menagerie of stuffed animals they sleep with, the incessant requests for drinks of water or “one more song,” and the stories of climbing out of cribs and escaping bedrooms. It all seemed so crazy and so silly, and I couldn’t fathom that all toddlers are actually that weird when it comes to sleeping.
Then, I had a toddler of my own.
Jackson, like most toddlers I know, has quite the assortment of “friends” he likes to sleep with. It’s constantly changing and he’s constantly adding to his collection. He makes up the silliest requests to get me to stay in the room just a few minutes longer at bedtime (the other day he said, “mama, I need to see your teeth!”), and if his sleeping environment isn’t exactly the way he likes it, the whole thing is shot.
Currently, when Jackson goes to sleep he has:
- A knit blanket my grandmother made him
- An Aden + Anais swaddle blanket
- An Aden + Anais lovey
- A stuffed Cookie Monster
- A stuffed puppy
- A teddy bear
- A stuffed dinosaur
- An elephant neck pillow (no idea how that found its way in there)
- A stuffed dragon
- A pacifier
He also asks for a book every night, but I’ve stopped allowing him to keep books in his bed because it seemed to be affecting how long it took before he went to sleep.
Our pre-sleeping routine is pretty simple – a few books, a song, and then we lay him down…and that’s when the shenanigans begin. Here’s what a typical night looks like:
– I lay Jackson down, he immediately throws his feet straight up in the air and starts giggling.
– I tell him to put his feet down. He ignores me. I tell him I’m just going to leave if he won’t listen. He finally puts his feet down.
– I put both blankets over him and tuck him in as tightly as I can. Then, I arrange the stuffed animals exactly how he likes them. Teddy bear on one side, dinosaur on the other, Cookie Monster and dragon on either side of his head and the puppy at the top of his head. The blanket gets tucked next to his face and the elephant pillow is usually just floating around the bed. If any of his friends are out of place, he will make sure you know about it.
– I give him a “big kiss” and a “tiny kiss” (he insists on both), and then start to leave. He hollers that he needs something – usually, it’s to be tucked in again because as soon as I turn my back he wiggles out. I’ll usually oblige him for the first request, then give another round of kisses. I try to leave again and he shouts “wait!” again…the requests often get strange from here on out. Sometimes it’s for a hug or another kiss, sometimes he wants me to pick him back up and sing again, and sometimes he starts asking to see my teeth or hold my necklace, or to get a different binky or a different blanket because his is “dirty.” After the second request, I usually tell him I’m done and leave.
– Depending on the night, he either goes straight to sleep or he shouts for us two or three more times before he actually sleeps. He hasn’t started climbing out of his crib yet (thank goodness), so Mr. Garland and I just tag team checking on him for the 20 or 30 minutes after we lay him down to make sure he’s settling and actually going to sleep. At some point (usually pretty quickly), he finally gets quiet and we know he’s going to sleep.
At this point, we just roll our eyes and giggle at his bedtime antics…he never takes too terribly long to fall asleep at night, and we know that some day we won’t hear him calling for us to come into his room at night anymore so we cherish these silly little requests for extra love while they’re still coming.
Toddler bedtime routines and how complicated they can be is still a topic that confounds and amuses me to no end – it seems that the vast majority of toddlers have similar demands and issues when it comes to bedtime, and no one seems to have figured out the perfect solution for an easy bedtime yet. For now, we’ll just keep trucking along with how we’re doing things and hope that he doesn’t go off to college with 25 different stuffed animals to sleep with.
What does your toddler need in order to go to sleep?
pea / 9 posts
My kid does the exact same thing except with twice the “friends” and accessories. I have thought about moving him to a twin bed just so he has more room for himself to sleep since his friends take up so much space.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
Um, a tantrum? We co-sleep so I lay in bed with DD till she falls asleep. She HAS to try to jailbreak once and cries that I won’t let her but after a few minutes of this she settles down, becomes super sweet, we talk, cuddle and sing songs and she’ll drift off. But I’m like WHY must you try to jailbreak knowing it doesn’t work?!
pear / 1586 posts
After milk/books and brushing teeth, our 20-month-old son requests “Elmo song” (Sesame Street theme song) to be sung by both me & DH while he sings along with all of the words he knows. We sing it twice, then he requests “nap” (which means go to bed), but then immediately “daddy song” which means one more song from daddy. Then he goes back down for “nap” for real with his menagerie which currently includes: Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Bert, Ernie, two fox loveys, a large blabla dog, a small blabla panda, a jellycat elephant, a giraffe we just got at the zoo this weekend (new addition), a raccoon neck pillow (seems like we both have weird toddlers!), and an A+A dream blanket. He’s starting to run out of real estate in there!
grapefruit / 4923 posts
it’s changed so many times, both in components, length, and difficulty. right now, after book, he “hides” from dad and dad pretends to look everywhere, then he gets tucked in and dad sings specific songs, then he comes out (so weird) and i pick him up and carry him back to bed and tuck him in again and kiss him good night. this is often punctuated by requests for water, food, and potty.
pomelo / 5220 posts
Our LO needs his “taggie” (little blanket with ribbon tags) and a pillow and a blanket. He doesn’t seem to care which blanket. He mostly just likes to body slam around the crib lately and we have been having to go up and rub his back about 10 minutes after he gets in the crib. I think he’s afraid we’ve left the house or something? Weird toddlers!
guest
These are my favorite kinds of posts! Posts that remind me that I’m not the only mom who deals with things like this.
Currently in the crib: jellycat hippo, stuffed clifford, corgi, kangaroo and a shaky owl rattle. Four Kickee Pants blankets(turtle, stripes, hedgehogs, giraffes), “dots” A&A blanket, her special blankie and two small pillows I made. Several books and songs by Laurie Berkner and in she goes!
cantaloupe / 6131 posts
DS has two fleece loveys, a Little Miracles Sherpa animal pillow and blanket set, a stuffed bear, a stuffed whale, a stuffed elephant, and a stuffed corgi. He gets two songs, a prayer, white noise and humidifier on, and we plop him in bed. We actually added the animals bc he is also going through a body slamming head bashing phase and we thought having the animals at the four corners would give him some padding.
guest
My 2-year-old goes to bed with 18 trillion books (and that’s only a slight exaggeration) and just one stuffed animal (no one can replace his giraffe). Luckily, he doesn’t look at the books, he just wants them in his presence.
blogger / kiwi / 588 posts
DS has two stuffed Eeyores, one Pooh Bear, one TY penguin, a small pillow, a small stuffed bunny and three puppy angel dear blankies in his toddler bed. He sleeps on top of his blankets because he doesn’t like sleeping under them. Next to this bed is a chair with Minion, Mater and Lightning McQueen figures and his water bottle. His bedtime routine usually consists of potty time, brushing teeth, one book, then off to bed!
DD has one stuffed Eeyore, one small stuffed bunny, a giraffe angel dear blankie, a small stuffed bear and a TY dolphin in her crib. Her bedtime routine is similar to DS’ without the potty time because she’s still in diapers.