Jer has to learn to sleep on his own.. to be able to go to sleep on his own. For an hour now we have been having a battle. What I do is i put a movie on in the bedroom for him, fill his sippy up, give him his soother and his bear, and put up the gate - so i can hear him, but he can't see me. That way I can still reassure him and such.

But! I am realizing over the last few minutes he cries harder when im talking to him, so im trying the next five minutes in silence.. its like he stops to check if im listening

It has to be done sometime, and hes almost fifteen months old, so i feel like i should start now. Hes mad as a wet hen in their at me...but i know there is no danger, he has cuddlies, soother, is not hungry. And even has a movie! he is just being ornery..lol.

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I did what they have now coined attachment parenting. Naps were always done in the crib but the kids slept with us until they were "ready" to sleep on their own. That happened around two, just in time for the next baby lol.

I'm not positive the movie is helping, more of a distraction I would think. I would establish a routine: snack (called bednight by my kids), bath, story, cuddles and bed. Then tough it out for the week or so it will take for him to get used of the new routine. Perhaps some soothing music in the background. They have those cute ones that have little nightlights that display on ceiling. Perhaps that would be a distraction too, but they have such cute things these days!

You know what? Being its pretty much summer here.. i have given up on trying to make him go to bed at a specific time

I actually put him to bed once he falls asleep on me(whats been working for both of us, thanks to my desk being in the living room facing his play area and the telly now, is he crawls up with me and i show him cartoons on youtube or other childrens sites, and then i just stay in the armchair rocker and play Raffi songs while rocking him. He falls asleep on me and then i carry him to bed. He seems like he almost needs the cuddle time to wind down. Hes such a busy little guy! Like he wakes up and he is go go go go until he falls over and is asleep lol.

For the summer, i think this is probably the best. Mind you, i put him to bed tonight and he got up ten min later, and is still up little minx
he is..

i think maybe hes just not ready to go to sleep on his own? Because if he was i dont think it would be such a big deal for him. I thought he was because a couple of times he wandered his way into the bedroom and after not hearing boo for five min or so, i peeked in and he was asleep on the bed lol. But maybe not. Maybe that was just a fluke.

everyone is really pressuring me to get him into the crib, and sometimes i feel like i should just because it will shut everyone up haha. But really theres something inside me that tells me he should remain in bed with me until he is older.

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First you know your child best. I think children can be raised sleeping in their parents bed or in a crib and still be well-adjusted fine human beings. So the people yapping at you the crib can stuff it.

I would like to offer a bit of advice if you don't mind. When my babies were infants they of course made the schedule, they ate when they were hungry and slept when they were tired. When they got older they all had to have a schedule. To this day if my 16 year olds don't get enough sleep they will have a very bad day.

Before they started school this was by no means a conventional schedule, we were shift workers so the kids and I would go to bed at 3 am and sleep until noon. Our windows were covered so you didn't know if it was noon or midnight in our bedroom. But schedules (which will be entirely dictated by you, Jer and your lifestyle) offers stability, comfort, security and it aids in digestion. Plus when you must conform to societies time clock ie he starts school you can make the necessary changes slowly like moving everything up 10 minutes every few days until you're where you need to be.

When my twins turned two, my older kids were out of school for the summer, I was able to quit working so I thought I'd be the awesome mom and just let them go back to that sleep when we're tired, eat when we're hungry thing. It just didn't work for us the kids became whiney and cranky.

Only you know what's best for Jer but especially now before he can verbalize what's going on, he'll find comfort knowing what's expected of him and what comes next. It sounds like you've started an excellent routine. My kids LOVED the Mary Martin's Peter Pan. They watched it every day after lunch before nap time.