By Jackie Cooper from Life on Sequoia Lane blog

Guest Contributor

Posted February 1

Meet The Bedtime Bunny: The Genius Book that Keeps my 4-Year Old in Bed

When my 4-year old wild-child son, Charlie, transitioned out of his crib last winter, he did great at first.  I couldn’t believe our luck… all my fears were for nothing. And then…he slowly started to figure out that he could just hop out of bed ANY. TIME. HE. WANTED. The bedtime battles began, and we were losing our patience (and our sleep, and our sanity…). Our quiet time at night turned into hours of dragging Charlie back to his bed, just for him to pop out again at 2AM.

When one of the moms at his school suggested The Bedtime Bunny book, I was a little skeptical at first. But honestly, we were desperate, and for the cost of a simple hardcover book, it was worth a shot. We ordered the gift set, which comes with a super-soft plush bunny and some other goodies, but you can also just buy the book for $15.95 at thebedtimebunny.com.

The Bedtime Bunny is a magical bunny who hops to your house at night, and leaves a little surprise or treat for the kids in the morning if they stay in bed at night. So basically, the classic positive reinforcement concept, brought to us in a very child-friendly way. The best part was the sparkly magic carrot that pops out of the front cover. Charlie looooved this, and I think it made it more real for him. We helped him write his name and bedtime (7:30pm) on the back of the carrot, and hung it on our door knob to request our own Bedtime Bunny (it was raining, so we hung it on the inside).

The first night, we read the book together and Charlie was so excited that he actually told us to leave his room so he could go to bed (what?!). It was the best night ever… Geoff and I watched an entire Netflix show uninterrupted, then made sure there was a little something from the Bedtime Bunny before we went to sleep (a few chocolate chips in a bag, plus a little note from our new “bunny”).

When Charlie came downstairs in the morning, it was like Christmas morning. He was ecstatic that he got a real Bedtime Bunny (he creatively decided to name him “Hopper”, haha). So that was it – from the first night he was hooked. After the first week or so with little treats (Target dollar store finds and little candies), Hopper left a note that basically said “Great job… I’m going to start saving up my magic so I can’t leave something every night, but I’m still going to come visit to see you”.

It’s been about a month since we’ve started The Bedtime Bunny, and it’s been absolutely amazing for us. On top of the improvement in bedtime, we also have a new magical creature in our lives which brings so much joy. Now, we just leave things on special occasions like a birthday, or the first day of school, and it adds another special element to these days.

If you want to try out The Bedtime Bunny for your kiddos, you can use my discount code HOPPER10 for 10% off at thebedtimebunny.com!

I hope you and your family loves it. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Sweet dreams,

Jackie from Life on Sequoia Lane blog