Oh, that's right. Mornings started getting stressful when this guy:
aaaaaand this guy:
stopped getting enough sleep at night, causing unnecessary meltdowns and freak outs and crankiness galore. What's that? You want to know why they stopped getting enough sleep at night? Well, I'll tell you.
As I mentioned in my last post, the boys are sharing a room here. Fortunately, my boys LOVE each other and have a blast together. Unfortunately, this means that instead of going to bed at 7:30 and falling asleep (usually) within an hour or so, they now go to bed at 7:30 and play and laugh and screech and sing and have a jolly good time until 10:30 or so. Oh, you read that right, 10:30 or so. That is 3, count them, 3 hours of playing before finally going to sleep. That means they are now getting 2 hours less sleep than they are used to getting and need to get.
I'm at a loss here. I have no idea how to get them to go to sleep at a decent hour. I have no problems with them playing for a little while, but I would really like for them to settle down after an hour, say, and be fast asleep no later than 9:00. When my mom was here she would go in (around 10/10:30) and sit in the room with them, keeping them quiet until they fell asleep (around 11). I don't want to have to do that. Obviously if there's no way around it, I will, but I'd really rather not.
Before it comes to that though, I'm wondering if any of you have any ideas as to what I can try, or what works for your kids (if you have more than one and they're sharing a room, that is). We've tried going in every 15 minutes, every half hour, etc. We've tried just letting them go and wear themselves out. We've tried yelling, spanking, asking nicely, etc. What makes it hard though, is when you walk in and see this:
Because, you know, once you start laughing too, you've lost the night's battle.
7 comments:
such a dilemma, Beth! Sadly, I can remember sharing a room with my younger brother and how much fun it was to giggle together and even how much fun it was to get in trouble together for giggling! Not much helpful for you in that memory... Hope you get things figured out and are able to have happy, well-rested boys soon!
Ya all 3 of our boys share a room and I must say I don't think they get as much sleep as the would if they were in their own rooms but they are asleep by 9 (during the summer) and can't get out of bed till 7.
You've tried all my ideas. I just say you hammer it home for a good month wether it means sitting in there or what ever to make it work. I think eventually it will come around.
Okay, because I am SUCH a parenting expert with YEARS of experience under my belt (please, sense the sarcasm)... I have an idea.
Is it a possibility that you could put one of the boys to bed earlier than the other?
I used to have to share a room with my brother when we were pretty young and I still remember my mom putting me to bed first even though I was older! It worked, though. I was usually asleep (and stayed asleep) when she brought my brother in... Just a thought...
Love, love, love Deacon's squished pack n play face! His hair is getting long! Hmmm, could they take earlier or longer naps during the day until they stop keeping each other up so late? I don't know, but soon our girls will be sharing a room, so we'll see how that goes!
So, we're certainly not room-sharing experts, but we've found (and this probably MUCH worse in Alaska) that the girls have a harder time falling asleep in the summer when it's light. I made some black out curtains for their room, and that helps a bit... Good luck! Tired kids make for very stressful mornings for sure, so we'll be praying for you...
The boys have shared a room for 6 months. Sometimes I put them down at the same time, but since it's just me here holding down the parenting-fort, I usually put Joshua down first. Then I read books/Bible story to Caleb and he ends up going in there 20 minutes later. Joshua is usually asleep, so it's not a problem. But sometimes he's not and it was a problem at first, but they got used to it and are fine now.
The next big step is having them sleep in the same room but each in big boys beds. I think it will be much harder when Joshua doesn't have the crib keeping him from climbing in Caleb's big boy bed (which J loves).
Stick with it!
Joshua sleeps in our closet. Got room in your closet? Just an idea. :-)
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