Believe it or not, we are having major sleeping problems at our house! Joshua has decided he would rather play than sleep and he plays in his bed (keeping himself and Hannah awake) for an hour or two after he goes to bed at night. Then he wakes up much too early (we're talking before six, sometimes even 5:15) (although with the time change, it hasn't been before 6:30 this week, thank heavens), and THEN will only sleep for an hour for nap -- assuming I can get him to quit singing/playing/counting in his bed and actually go to sleep at naptime (this can be accomplished only by lying down in the room with him -- apparently he is afraid to move if a parental unit is present -- which means Hannah has free reign of the house for the 15 minutes I am in there). Then the whole thing is repeated day after day.
Then add in Hannah, who, being almost four, won't take a nap every day, but absolutely needs one by virtue of sharing a room with Joshua at nighttime -- our sweet, obedient, compliant, and polite daughter becomes an absolute nightmare! We tried moving Hannah into our room for a few days to let Joshua work out his issues by himself, allowing her to get some sleep, but one night Hannah was woken up by me coming into the room at 10:30 (Seth was sleeping downstairs) and neither one of us went to sleep until 2 a.m.! So needless to say that wasn't working. The only way I can get Hannah to fall asleep at naptime is to lie down with her until she falls asleep, which can take up to an hour, and even that will only work a couple of times a week. So I spend ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT trying to get them to go to sleep!
This is the main reason I wish they would not have to share a room. In my opinion, children under three are too young for roommates. But, seeing as it could not be helped...SOMEONE SAVE ME! Any ideas?
Here's the cute picture I promised. (The shiny water is covering him enough to be appropriate, isn't it??)
4 comments:
Hahaha, wow. I thought I was the author of that post for a second there... good to know I'm not alone :). Spending all day and all night getting them to sleep and they feed off each other and play for HOURS! I pretty much have to say ditto on the whole post, except that I have found NO way to get them to sleep.
So I'm no help, but if you get any brilliant advice pass it along ;).
I forgot how hard it is being a Mom to little ones. Would Hannah be willing to lay down and quietly look at books while Josh is having his nap time? She might also fall asleep in the process. Each child is so different. Good luck, and I hope something works for you.
At this point I have given up on naptime for Luke. Instead he gets to chose a movie and knows that it's "rest time" and he has to lay down and be calm for a good hour and a half. As for Joshie, you need to wear that boy out! The park, wrestling, running, jumping, singing, dancing...All in the late afternoon and he should sleep like a baby ;) Tyler knows his job when he gets home from work is to wear the child out!! Hope this helps...
Great picture, by the way!
Okay, I only have one child that doesn't sleep so I don't know if I can be any help. I gave up on doing anything, if I'm being honest. Some days are great, others are nightmares. I found the more I pushed for him to sleep the more he pushed back. So, I let him go to sleep at night when he gets there. We did make is a rule that he could only get up in the morning until one of us comes to get him so he reads in bed and calls for us if he needs the bathroom. Most of the time we find him awake and waiting. As for naps...I call it quiet time now. Most days there is no nap and lots of tears and time outs later, but at least he's mellow and quiet for an hour. I am hoping it is a phase. Could you separate them at nap time? Maybe Hannah in your bed while Josh sleeps in his room? At least then maybe you'd get a nap out of them. Also, I'm a little sad to admit this, but I watch my sister's one year old everyday and when this started happening I set up a pack-n-play in one of our large bathrooms, turned on the fan to drown out noises of Nate not sleeping and put her down in there. It seems to work and I still do it on hard days. Sorry I wrote you a novel. Good luck.
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