Bedtime

[houseelf]

Re: Bedtime

My children are an illustration of opposites. Cade is a champion sleeper. He took naps until after four years old, can sleep anywhere, doesn't fight sleeping, and pretty much reads for twenty minutes before falling asleep into a near coma every night. In fact, he sleeps so hard, we had to work haaarrrrd to get him to stop wetting the bed.

Kendall would stay up all night if I let her. I have to be CLEAR about exactly how many books I'm willing to read. She doesn't take naps away from home. Eventually I shut the door and say good night. I darn well know that she is sometimes up as late as 11 dinking around up there. I wouldn't care about this if she wasn't such a bearcat to deal with when she is tired. Also, more nights than not, she is sneaking into our bed in the wee hours of the night.

(The entirety of this ramble can be summarized as I have no solutions, only commiseration.) :huh: Maybe Natalie and Kendall can go to sleep boot camp together.

Kelly

[PrincessFiona]

Re: Bedtime

Kate...let me groan over bedtime woes with you. I have two brilliant sleepers. Andrew and Alex are wonderful and they always have been. If it's 8:30 and I'm busy, Alex (9) will simply put himself to bed. I'll go upstairs and find him fast asleep with PJ's on, etc.

Amanda...well...that's a whole other story. She never did want to sleep and...she never has been good at it. She's nearly 12 now, but my bedtime battle with her won't end until she moves out, I think.

Aidan is usually ok about it...a little whining...but doable.

Zoe? Forget it. She screams like you're beating her/torturing her...it's terrible. She can keep at it for over an hour despite me checking her regularly, soothing her....It breaks my heart and I have...started letting her sleep with me again because of it.

I feel your pain.

kris

Re: Bedtime

Ditto to Tara's first paragraph! Sleep has BY FAR been the hardest parenting issue for us and what works for one kid doesn't necessarily work for the other.

Sleep = :thud: for me. I hope some of these suggestions help. FWIW, I think around 3 is the age when that sort of stuff comes up.

[Phoebe]

Re: Bedtime

How do you handle putting more than one kid to bed solo? When DH is home we each take an older child. When I am alone, it gets harry! It takes longer, but it almost goes more smoothly because I am more militant. DH would go upstairs 20 times. I have my limits. My kids don't want to read together, but then they can't wait their turn for books and go into each other's rooms and distract each other. It drives me bonkers.

ETA: Can you tell I am looking forward to tonight?

Re: Bedtime

Mine both sleep in the same room. Honestly - I turn into mean, bad mommy at bedtime. If they screw around they know they're going to be in big trouble. It sounds like I'm the opposite of Tara's approach: if they were to come out asking for a drink or saying they're not tired, I wouldn't walk them back, I'd yell. It's a zero-tolerance zone for me. I'm certianly not reccomending it ... I've had some of my most disappointing parenting moments over it ... but my kids now go to sleep 90% of the time w/o monkeying around.

And just so it's clear that I'm not claiming to be Queen of Getting Children to Bed Successfully, I'll add that until about 1 month ago, Quinn was showing up in my bed nightly.

[samssugarmomma]

Re: Bedtime

And tonight......tonight she was passed out at 7:50.

:huh:


There is no rhyme or reason!

[Vanquisher]

Re: Bedtime

Ryan practically begs us to go to sleep. Our problem with him is that he wakes up too early. It's in the genes.

Lexi would stay up all night if I let her, but I don't. DH is softer with it, and he can deal with those consequences when he's home. Lexi knows that when I put her to bed, it's bedtime, and I mean business. No water. No more stories. No anything. It's bed. It's lights out, and that's life. I read her ONE book, and at the end of the book, kisses, sweet dreams, goodnight. That's it.

I really think the supernanny approach to bedtime works like a charm. You have to be firm.