Hi, Welcome back to Toddler Craft. Please subscribe to my Toddler Craft newsletter. Sign up to the left. It's full of more fun activities, parenting information and crafts! Thanks for visiting!

photo credit: treehouse1977

How to get a quiet room!

I don’t know about you but, when my kids would nap I wanted their room to be quiet!!   The worst was when I would have them almost asleep and someone would knock on the door or call for me.  I just wanted to scream SHHHH!!   They would always wake up from the phone ringing, a lawn mower or someone ringing the doorbell!! There is nothing worse then waking a sleeping child or having them almost asleep and wake up!!  I have come up with some things I do to help eliminate outside noise and recently discovered an even better idea!! Keeping out the  outside noise rather then trying to cover it!

My noise covering techniques have been to create a constant white noise.  I have used soothing music, a humidifier and a fan.  All have been pretty helpful in stopping my kids from waking up.

I just read an article on Sound Proofing a room and wish I had discovered it when my kids were little!!  It’s about sound proofing a room, not just covering the noise.  According to the article there are special window treatments and door coverings that keep noise out!!   These sound proofing techniques discussed in the article are 95% effective-so they cut out 95% of the noise!  How great that would have been!!  I would have been in heaven if I could have shut the door and not worried that a phone ringing was going to wake my son or daughter.  Another benefit of these Window Treatments or seals is that it helps keep out allergens!   Not a bad thing for all of us with  allergies!!

It used to take me quite a while to get them to sleep!!  Both my kids would wake as soon as I put them down if they weren’t in a deep sleep.  I tried multiple methods to get them to go to sleep on their own too.   Eventually as they got older they got better at transferring into their crib, but if there was the slightest noise their eyes would pop open and I would have to start all over again!!

How do you get your child to sleep?  Do you have any sound proofing or noise covering solutions you use or used?

Although this blog is mostly dedicated to crafts for children I want to  share once a week some parenting tips and tricks I have found helpful.  This week I want to talk about Sleep or maybe lack of it!!  I don’t know about you but my children did NOT sleep for the longest time!!  I tried all sorts of things to get them to sleep by themselves.  I tried letting them cry, laying with them until they fell asleep, giving them a lovey etc! My children just did not want to sleep with out me next to them.  As much as I loved (and still do) cuddling up with them at night and knowing they were right next to me I got to a point that I really wanted it to be just my husband and I in our bed!!

It took some work, but eventually after trying many ways and reading many books I came upon a book that really helped me.  It was called The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley & William Sears.  It really helped me realize what I was doing wrong and what I could try to help them sleep happily on their own.  This is not to say that they still don’t prefer me there, but they are ok with it now.  The book didn’t give a one size fits all answer, but gave many different ideas.  I compiled a few of them and came up with the solution that finally worked for me.

I explained to my kids that it was time for them to go to sleep on their own.  They were big enough.  With each of them, I waited until they really wanted something (I know bribery! but sometimes it helps them get motivated to start!).  I told them they were big enough to sleep on their own and what they wanted was for a big kid.  If they wanted that then they would need to learn to go to sleep on their own and if they did it for a week or two, they could get their toy they wanted (actually my daugher wanted a special Booster seat! ).

I told them that I would sit in a chair by their bed, but that they needed to shut their eyes and go to sleep.  Everynight I moved the chair a little farther from their bed until eventually I was in the hall.  Admitably-I am STILL in the hall (daughter is not there yet), but they lay down and go to sleep on their own, so I am happy with that!!

Let me know how you solved your sleep problems with your kids, or what you did to prevent those problems.  If you are having difficulty still let me know maybe we can brainstorm ideas!!

Here’s to 8 hours sleep one day!!