Would you drive to get your child to sleep?

[mummy marja]

Would this be an unbreakable bad habit to get into or could it possibly help transition through a difficult getting-to-sleep age? I think that driving DS to sleep would be much easier, happier, and faster than our current bedtime deal. On the occassions I've done this, he's asleep within a minute or two. Any thoughts?

[claras_mom]

In our experience, it's a good last-ditch thing, but has lost its effectiveness over time. In other words, there are nights when she will stay happily awake for a 30-45 minute car ride long after her normal bedtime.

So our strategy is to still try that when the going gets tough, but we also have looked at the entire bedtime routine and tried to fine-tune it.

[annethcz]

Nope, I wouldn't. I've had times when my 3yo didn't want to go to sleep, but I never considered driving her around to get her to sleep. I'd prefer to suck it up and lay with her, for hours if need be, to establish a consistent routine.

[Sage_SS]

No, I'd never even consider it. I'd rather lay and cuddle with them.

[brackin]

I have done it/sometimes do it for naps, but try not to resort to it at night. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't seem like something I want to start at night.

[octobermom]

Depends are we talking say a sick child whos having a real hard time sleeping been stuck in the house for days and a "one time" thing that will bring comfort to a child and sanity to me I'd consider it.. As a whole no same with a baby though I'd be a little more open to the idea.
1) gas is way too expensive Snow bird traffic here frankly scares me and she almost always wakes up from being moved from a carseat so it would be pointless anyways.

[Ell-Bell]

I often schedule errands and playgroups to coordinate with an almost-nap-time drive home. He conks out just as we hit our neighborhood and I carry him up to bed.

I still nurse/cuddle to sleep at night and mid-nap. But honestly it is a nice break for me to not have to nurse to sleep 3 times a day.

[IndyNanny]

My general rule of thumb is to never start anything that I won't want to continue doing indefinitely. No car rides here. Besides, if I were that desperate, I'd be in no condition to drive!

[mummy marja]

My problem is that he is so active--he can't lay still long enough to fall asleep. In the car he is restrained and falls asleep within minutes. He won't let me lay beside him to get to sleep--he is jumping on me, kicking, getting out of bed. Part of the problem is that my kids share a room and they keep eachother up. For hours.

Last night went a little better. I allowed them a half-hour to play in their beds, and then it was lights-out going to sleep time. I stood by the door and wtched over them.

[loraxc]

No. I'd feel too guilty about the gas. But it never was a possibility for DD anyway--if she fell asleep in the car, she always woke up when taken out of the car.

[sunnmama]

We did it with dd when she was an infant/young toddler, but not after the age of two. I think it did lose its effectiveness.

By age 3, we were just laying with her....sometimes for hours THings got a bit better when we introduced books on tape (long ones) for bedtime. Until those lost their effectiveness, too!

[Sunmommy]

We did this with our first child from the time she was about 8 mos. until 2 yo or so. I would advise AGAINST it. It became such a habit that we made sure to NEVER do it w/our second. Our first child (dd) has never had an easy time falling asleep (even now and she is 8.5) and the car worked. However, as she got older it took longer and the whole thing just got ridiculous. I even remember one time when she was about 18 months old looking in the rearview mirror and her shaking her head and saying "no"...meaning "I am not asleep yet!"

The car really did calm her though...it was like if she was at home there were just too many fun things to do and when she got in the car she was finally able to relax.

[Needle in the Hay]

Originally Posted by mummy marja

My problem is that he is so active--he can't lay still long enough to fall asleep. In the car he is restrained and falls asleep within minutes. He won't let me lay beside him to get to sleep--he is jumping on me, kicking, getting out of bed.

Haha, as I was reading the responses about moms preferring to lie down and cuddle instead I had to laugh a little remembering my DS at that age.

I definitely used the car when it was getting too frustrating (for naps I often used the stroller--I'd time it with walking back from the playground and he'd fall asleep). It did not become an unbreakable habit. There was a phase he went through where he wouldn't settle down at all and would do what your DS does and just get more and more overtired. He would do OK sometimes, but not every time. It got much better around the time he was 3 and a few months old.

[Needle in the Hay]

Originally Posted by Sunmommy

. I even remember one time when she was about 18 months old looking in the rearview mirror and her shaking her head and saying "no"...meaning "I am not asleep yet!"

Oh that is too funny!

[sarathan]

Originally Posted by mummy marja

Would this be an unbreakable bad habit to get into or could it possibly help transition through a difficult getting-to-sleep age? I think that driving DS to sleep would be much easier, happier, and faster than our current bedtime deal. On the occassions I've done this, he's asleep within a minute or two. Any thoughts?

No, I wouldn't. Not with gas prices being what they are.

[simplehome]

Originally Posted by Needle in the Hay

Haha, as I was reading the responses about moms preferring to lie down and cuddle instead I had to laugh a little remembering my DS at that age.

Can you go walking/running instead? My son is also in the can't hold still camp quite often, and he knows that when he's feeling too restless to lie still he can ask daddy to take him for a run (daddy right now, because I'm 31 wks pregnant and not running anymore---I'm hoping this will continue after baby so that I can get some more exercise!). Most times he will just lie down and talk-talk-talk-squirm for a while before going to sleep, but I think it is a comfort to him knowing that he has another option.

I've been thinking along these same lines lately, though, with regards to the new baby. I've been thinking about how nice it would be to load them into a double jogger and have all four of us go on an evening run, but worry that starting something like this with a baby so young would be a bad habit to start. It only became something we did with ds once my milk dried up from pregnancy, and he couldn't nurse to sleep anymore. With a little baby, I'd worry that they'd have a much harder time learning to lay down with me to go to sleep....perhaps fodder for another thread!

[hottmama]

No, I wouldn't, because we try to drive as little as possible to reduce our environmental impact. But I wear my toddler on my back in my Yamo to get him to sleep sometimes and have done the same with my oldest (almost 5, 44", 44lbs.), not to get him to sleep, but to calm him down when he is really hyper/overstimulated. If my kid weighed less than 40 lbs. I would still wear/walk him to sleep.

[hubris]

I have only done it once, when we were out of town and staying in a house full of friends and it was 4 AM and my 18 month-old son had STILL not gone to sleep. Traumatic night. The car didn't work, either.

[newmommy]

I have done this many many times with DS. And even now, when DS refuses to sleep and it's almost Midnight, I am tempted to buckle him up and take off.

I lay down with him to sleep, but it's my last resort choice (not with Gas prices at $3.30 a gallon )

Actually, there was a Dad on Supernanny last year who did this with 3 of his kids, every night he and his wife would put the Kids' jammies on and load them in the van, drive around until they all fell asleep.

Joe stepped in of course

[LaLaLaLa]

I totally do this! Not for bedtime; my kids are 3 and 21 months and are pretty good at going to bed. Well, they are good at staying in their room and jumping around and talking and laughing until they both eventually fall asleep. Good enough for me!

We have a difficult age difference, though--nineteen months apart. When my ds was born, my dd gave up her naps, and I could never get ds to sleep for naps at home because dd was always shouting and running and poking at him when he was trying to sleep.

In the car, though.... oh, what bliss! Dd is quiet and calm. She loves to look out the windows and talk about what she sees, and she loves to sing along to the radio. She's strapped into her carseat so she can't poke at her brother. Ds is also calm and quiet and usually asleep within minutes. He's NEVER been able to nap at home, but he'll sleep in the car and on a good day I can make a transfer into the house and he'll stay asleep for awhile on the living-room floor (tried the couch until he rolled off one day and ended up with a bloody lip--eek!).

With a no-napping household, I've found my nerves are pretty frayed around three in the afternoon and I often NEED a cup of coffee. It coordinates perfectly in our life. I get the caffeine that gets me through the rest of the day, dd gets some quiet time with little stimulation, and ds gets his nap. We all arrive home in a much better mood. Do what works for your family. When it starts becoming a real chore or otherwise gets out of control, decide to make a change. It's possible your little one will outgrow this stage and it will become a non-issue on its own.