No More Bedtime Battles

It still amazes me that as easy as a child Stella was about going to bed as a baby, she turned into such a monster over the last year about bedtime.  I do take A LOT of the blame for creating the beast, pregnacy does terrible things to your reasoning.  I mean desperate times call for desperate measures.  I am slightly embarrased to say, but at our worst, we had a child that would run out of her room, screaming as if she had been possesed by the devil.  I was to the point that I hated bedtime, I could feel myself getting anzious around 5:00 each day, knowing that bedtime would be coming in three hours.  It was bad!  We then gave in and just let her fall asleep in our bed, oh then it got to the point where we would all go to bed together... at 8 o'clock.  Not my proudest parenting moment.

We spent the month of June back in Illinois and I knew when we got home it was time to make a change.  Stella was starting school in August and she needed to go to bed, by herself, in her own room, like a big girl.  Everyone I talked to suggested using a sticker chart with her and create a bedtime routine, so that is what we did.  Auntie Alison also suggested that not only can Stella gain stickers, but she can also loose them.  Her reasoning was that we don't want to be able to pick and choose what days she goes to bed like she wants to... she needs to do it consistently.  I completely agreed.

On June 30th, we started Stella's new bedtime routine and her sticker chart.  And on August 23rd Miss Stella finally earned her 14th sticker and her baby doll tent.

Bedtime is now a peaceful experience in our house :-)  Stella goes to bed happy and that makes us happy too.  Our next step is to get her to stay in her bed all night, instead of ending up in ours.  Once Stella's room gets put back together, we will begin her new sticker chart for staying in bed all night.  Her next goal... A fish?