Thursday, July 31, 2008

Pavlov’s Conditioning in Practice

One of the best parenting decisions that I’ve made so far was to have Grace fall asleep to the sound of rain.

It was a simple choice really. Her Sleep Sheep plays heartbeat, rain, ocean waves and whale noises. Who in their right mind wants to listen to whale noises? It sounds like the creatures are dying. Heartbeat? Don't worry folks, she's stable. I don't think so. Rain all the way.

Personally, I’ve always loved the sound of rain. On any long car trip, Matt knows that if it starts raining I am out cold. Plus, I’ve seen way to many children freaked out by loud noises and thunderstorms. I figured that if she went to sleep to rain every night, thunderstorms would be soothing instead of scary.

It has worked. She’s slept through the many fire and brimstone storms we’ve had this year.

Last night, on the way home she was tired but fighting her nap. Grace’s new technique for putting herself to sleep is to moan.

It is really odd. It is a constant AaaaaRaaaaaMmmmAaaaaaa noise, kind of like a weed-wacker, for about 10-15 minutes then bang. Sound Asleep.

Typically.

Yesterday the moans went longer than normal, but then it started to rain. A freak little cloudburst that washed us with big fat drops. Thanks to her conditioning to fall asleep to rain, she almost instantly fell asleep. I was so proud. Chalk one up to Mama.

The rain only lasted about 10 minutes though. Light bulb came back on and the eyes fluttered open shortly after the last drop fell. Still, that short little nap gave us a happy little girl until bedtime.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That sounds relaxing to sleep to rain. And don't be mean to whales!
); I love whales! I think that there magnificent creatures that are unfortunally endangered.