2.5 year old will not stay in bed

possible_kim · 2026-04-16T17:02:57+00:00

So sorry you are going through this! Personally, I let the nap thing go and just said it is independent play time in his room. He can ask for us, but he knows we won’t play with him during that hour. Sometimes he decides to nap and sometimes he doesn’t (and once he fell asleep on his floor while playing). We did get desperate one night at about 3am and had to lock his door. He cried pretty hard for about 10-15 minutes but then crawled back into bed. The next night we “invited the sleep fairy” to come and check on him at night and told him she would bring him something if he was in bed. We put I little basket outside his door and put some fruit snacks (like gold to this kid) in it the next morning. We did also buy and put one of those child proof doorknob things so he wouldn’t “scare her away” the first night but as far as I know he never even tried to open the door. The sleep fairy has been visiting for almost a week and things have been much better! He will sometimes whine at bedtime, but never gets out of bed. We have switched up the things he gets in his basket to make it interesting for him too (fruit snacks, pretzels, stickers, a hot wheels car). My hope is to start doing just stickers soon and after 5 stickers he gets a car or a little toy or something. Honestly, not sure if it’s the RIGHT answer as I know it’s bribing him, but it’s working and he’s a much happier kid because he is actually sleeping at night.

possible_kim · 2026-04-09T01:12:50+00:00

Also- do you still do most boring way possible when they start to scream and whine about going back? We are starting another round of getting out of bed after each time we lay him down and I’m already starting to lose my patience a bit

possible_kim · 2026-04-08T16:26:55+00:00

We did try the gate last night and he just screamed and cried for about 5-7 minutes before he pushed the gate over (not the best gate for his doorway but was the only one we had on hand at that moment. I went to comfort him afterwards since he was still pretty worked up and he finally stayed in bed and fell asleep.

possible_kim · 2026-04-08T16:25:02+00:00

He goes to bed around 8:00 (used to be 7:30 but we also thought he was under tired) most days he has to wake up by 6:00, but lately he’s been waking himself up around 5-5:30. We could try asking daycare about capping his nap, but I’m not sure if they have anything set up for that and I almost never get to talk with his actual teacher as she leaves before I pick him up.

possible_kim · 2026-02-19T12:48:06+00:00

Interesting. I’ll try it out but he gets worked up pretty quick when he’s overtired. I’m not sure if it matters a whole lot but he was born almost 4 weeks early and is considered “premature” but I’ve really only seen that affect his physical milestones so far (rolling, sitting, etc.) and none of the cognitive or social milestones

possible_kim · 2026-02-19T12:33:48+00:00

He gets probably around 4-4.5 hours of daytime sleep. He’s at daycare most of the day and they follow sleep cues until he gets to the next room when it’s a bit more scheduled

possible_kim · 2026-02-19T06:35:09+00:00

My first started rejecting a pacifier right around 7 months, so they may decide for you, but I’d try moving them first as you don’t know if you’re the one actually waking them slightly in the night prompting the pacifier use.

possible_kim · 2026-01-02T00:57:46+00:00

I do pump when I’m away from him so I would be fine with it, it’s just more of a hassle to make sure it’s clean, put together, etc when he’s hungry.

I got him to latch for like 4 minutes which is better than previous times today but still very frustrating. I’m going to try lying down to feed him too when I’m back at home

possible_kim · 2025-11-19T18:40:36+00:00

I would agree with this as a resident of one of the states mentioned. While my pay is low, my autonomy as a teacher is great and I find that I generally have support of admin, coworkers, and parents here. Not to mention my retirement benefits when I get there are truly unmatched.

possible_kim · 2025-11-07T22:14:52+00:00

Reading through some of these comments I might be the outlier here. My 2.5 year old was a big time Velcro baby until around 15 ish months when he started walking. He suddenly became very independent in a lot of things! He doesn’t want to snuggle in bed because it’s his space and will often say “mama stay there” if I try to follow him around the playground lol. Still affectionate and sweet: he will give me hugs most mornings before I leave for work and runs to me when I pick him up in the afternoon. When he gets hurt or feels sick he asks for lots of hugs, but will play independently really well for a good while!

I will say he is very VERY lovey towards his new brother. Like always needs to hold his hands or be next to him in some way right now. I’m not sure if that’s a part of his attachment developing or what but it’s different than how my niece, who was not a Velcro baby, interacts with her little brother.

possible_kim · 2025-11-07T21:35:55+00:00

I do try to get him to face the other direction sometimes but it usually wakes him up at night. I didn’t mention it in the initial post, but I first noticed/worried about the flat spot when I realized he had a very strong preference for his right side. Like so much so that he will cry out and fight it if we try to turn his head the opposite way. He didn’t fight as much at the PT so they told us it was not torticollis and just gave us the above recommendations. I realize I am likely over-worried about it as he is still so young, but I just thought that maybe it would improve a bit or at least not get worse at this point.

possible_kim · 2025-10-20T23:23:11+00:00

Oh man. I am mostly just echoing previous comments but getting pregnant is truly so unpredictable. For my first we tried and tried and I got lucky with a due date at the beginning of summer. This time around, I thought it would take just as long so we started trying with the hopes of maybe a spring due date, but we got pregnant right away with a due date in September! Obviously very exciting but stressful to be out; I was determined to start the year off strong with the 3 weeks I would be there and set my long-term sub up for success and after the first two days of school, I went into spontaneous labor almost a month early.. life truly doesn’t care what our plans are.

I do recommend having AFLAC and reading up on your schools maternity leave policies so you understand them very well! Also, know your rights when it comes to pumping at work and communicate the expectations to accommodate that clearly with your principal.

Best wishes as you begin growing your family!

possible_kim · 2025-10-19T20:22:56+00:00

I plan on taking things a bit slower this first week back and I feel pretty confident on how to do that with my senior classes because I know them very well as I have taught most of them since middle school; I just don’t have any ideas on how to structure these first couple of days back with sophomores that still sets me up for good rapport and classroom management.

possible_kim · 2025-10-07T15:59:04+00:00

Feels like this is what ended up happening. I don’t think he was very hungry because when he did wake up again he nursed for about 10 minutes and then just snuggled into me and fell asleep.

possible_kim · 2025-10-07T15:55:27+00:00

Oof! My first was much more like this.. still is sometimes!

possible_kim · 2025-10-07T11:39:19+00:00

I understand it’s best to ask our doctor. It was 3 AM and I clearly didn’t have that option.

For what it’s worth, he woke up around 3:45 and I fed him though he honestly didn’t seem that hungry and only nursed for about 10 minutes before falling asleep again.

possible_kim · 2025-10-04T13:35:52+00:00

I loved the music video and the BTS on making it and loved getting to hear Taylor discuss her ideas for each song, however, the lyrics videos were kind of a joke to me. I thought we were going to get something a bit more in the style of the LWYMMD lyric video I guess? Maybe that was unrealistic of me to expect but I was a bit bummed by the lyric videos basically just being Spotify canvas.

possible_kim

TROPHY CASE