The bunk beds continue to wreak havoc on bedtime, but things are getting better. My children will not go straight to sleep, despite their level of exhaustion. They have to laugh and yell and play for at least 30 minutes. I have come to accept this as part of the bunk bed arrangement.
For the past several weeks, I would let them play for about 30 minutes and then I would go in and try to convince them to go to sleep. Of course, this rarely worked. Most nights, I would have to go back in (usually around 10pm by this time) and yell at them. Then, finally, they would settle down and go to sleep.
This week has been different though. I changed my tactics. I have been ignoring them completely, regardless of whether they have been playing for 45 minutes or 2 hours. And surprisingly, they seem to be falling asleep sooner (sometimes). The first few nights they fell asleep around 10pm. Then Porgie started falling asleep around 9:30 and Izzy reluctantly went to sleep around 10pm. But then on Wednesday night, they were both sound asleep by 9pm! I thought we had passed some sort of bunk bed milestone, and I went to bed happy on Wednesday night. Of course, they were completely out-of-control on Thursday night and didn't go to sleep until well after 10pm. Ugh.
Fingers crossed that we can get this problem fixed before the new baby arrives. I don't expect them to be perfect, but if they could just tone it down and go to sleep before I do, that would be great.
4 comments:
Will did that last night but he was just up in his room playing! It was around 10 that he went to bed and I was ready to go to sleep!
What about a dvd that they both like and let them watch that? I know some parents refuse to do that but it actually helps Will fall asleep. I put his tv on a sleep timer for 30 minutes and he usually falls asleep before then. Good luck!!
Personally, I would put Izzy to bed first with Porgie a half hour later.
When we go down to the trailer on the weekends, that's how I do it.
There is only a queen-size bed for them to sleep in, and I know that if I put them in there together; there would be playing, fighting, giggling, bickering, blanket-stealing, etc..... I finally figured out that Will falls asleep faster than Mag; PLUS Maggie *is* older, so she gets to stay up a little longer.
Of course, that half hour is spent helping me pick up toys, brushing her hair & pony-tailling it for the night, some quiet snuggley-Mommy-Maggie time. I find that even though they go to bed around 8:30 - 9:00, it's still a little bit light out, they do go to sleep a little faster that way.
Are they napping during the day, too?
Our rule is you don't have to be asleep, you just have to be quiet. Kind of hard to enforce though. My kid likes to pretend suddenly to be scared of random objects in her room.
Good luck getting it sorted out before the baby! My only goal is for her to stop waking us up in the middle of the night because of XY or Z pretend reason.
my fingers are crossed.
tight!
Post a Comment