Bedtime Troubles

[JandMsMOM]

We are expecting our 3rd child in June and to prepare we recently bought our 2 girls, 6 and 4 years old, bunk beds and moved them into the same room. I knew it would take some adjustment but it has been three weeks with no improvement. They talk, play, and argue for hours after bed time. I am in and out of their room non-stop! Last night I put them to bed right after dinner to hopefully teach them a lesson and hoping they would fall asleep at a reasonable time. NOPE!!! They just talked, played and argued for longer!!! They are super tired and cranky in the mornings and I feel awful sending the 6 year old to school. Any suggestions for getting them to bed at a decent time?? I am running out of ideas and am tired myself!

[honeypie]

Try putting the younger one to bed first, reading her a story and having an extra cuddle. After she is asleep, slip in the older one who should be getting sleepy. Or play the quiet game, with a surprise (in the morning) for the one who was quiet and fell asleep.

[meandthejs]

Ditto on the separate bedtimes. Also, if you put them to bed too early, they are going to chat, vs fall asleep, and are more apt to stay up longer in the end.

We did a 1/2 hour apart bedtime, 8 for the younger, 830 for the older. The younger may complain about an unfair bedtime, but with growning up comes more responsibility, so maybe there is a chore the older child can do at 8, so it seems more fair.

And if 830 rolls around and the little one is still up, camp out in the room until they fall asleep. A few nights of this should pay off.

[Neba]

Our two youngest ones have been sharing a room for at least 3 years, and we still have problems with this sometimes. Separate bedtimes was impossible; the youngest would just lie in wait until the other one showed up, and then the slumber party would begin. We have tried a few different things, and all of these have worked off and on; I think you just have to find what works best for you, but here is what we did.

1) At first, my husband or myself would just sit in their room at bedtime with them while they fell asleep, and we would be doing work or paying bills on our laptops. It usually would only take 20-30 minutes until they were asleep.

2) Then we tried this which has worked the best: We bought Bible story and Adventures in Odyssey CDs (you could probably check out stuff from the library) for them to listen to when they went to bed, and sometimes they choose a music CD instead. If they are caught playing/giggling/ messing around, the story was gone and one of them has to fall asleep on the floor of whatever room we were in (we rarely watch television so no bother to us, and once said child was asleep we would move them back to their bed).

3) We have continued to have "those crazy nights" very rarely where we've just had them both fall asleep in the living room on separate couches while one of us read or worked silently -- we would then move them later.

Good luck!

[pmonkeefan]

Separate bedtimes worked for my brother and I when we shared a room. I have a friend with 2 10 year old girls. They have started a no talking rule. They have to be in the bed, with a book. If there is any talking, the books are taken, and the lights go out. Usually that works for them.

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