Making Bedtime Easier

I had the same problem with my daughters, ages 3.5 and 2. They share a bed, and I finally started putting the younger to bed about 7:30, and she will got to bed fine by herself. I put the older down later, around 8-8:30 (after warning that if she gets to stay up later, no fights about going to bed and she can't wake her sister up!). This has helped so much. I was having the same fight, every night. Now they are both asleep before 9 with no fights. Much better!

Hello, I have a 3 year old son and a 9 month old baby girl. My only advice is to change their bedtime. I know 8:00 sounds like a wonderful time to put them to bed but if you are putting them to bed at 8:00 only to fight with them for 1-2 hours then it is not worth it. Maybe make their bedtime 9:00 or 9:15. At 8:00 you could make it settle down/movie time before bed. My husband and I have never stuck with a STRICT bedtime for our son. Somedays he goes to bed earlier then others (depending on the day's activities and his behavior) We have NEVER had any problem at all getting him to go to bed and go right to sleep. Sometimes you have to adjust your "ideal" schedule to fit your life and what works best for the kids. I realize that you have to have them in bed at a descent time so you can get them up in the morning but if you know they are already not falling asleep until after 9:00 then save yourself the stress of fighting with them at 8:00. Give them the extra hour to settle down. They will feel like they are winning the battle but you will still be getting your way when they finally go to bed without a fight!!

Good Luck!

Children change and grow, even though we don't want them to! One thing that may change is bedtime. I noticed a change in behavior with both my children concerning bedtime over the years. The oldest (8) is happy to go to bed at 9:00, while the youngest(3) goes at 11:00 (when I go!). They are little people just like you and me and when you feel tired is different for everyone. Imagine someone told us when we could or couldn't sleep! It would be hard for us to settle down, too! I'm not saying you should let them stay up all night, just that you should listen to the clues they are giving you. Do they nap during the day? I had to cut out naps for my 3 yr old because she wanted to sleep for 3hrs and it was interfereing with bedtime. Set up a routine, too. A few hrs before bedtime can be exercise time. Let them romp and really get into physical play (you too mom it's good for you!) to tire them out. It's alot of work! Then make sure to wait about a half hour or so and get baths, jammies,teeth brushed, stories, and finally..... the long awaited bedtime! Good luck!

I'm in the exact same situation. My daugher is just about 5 and my son is 21 months. They share a room. Their bedtime is 8pm and for the most part for me it works well. Some nights it's a struggle, and I think it's because they share rooms, they feed off of each other. If I feel like it's going to be a difficult night for them settling down I'll put my son down first and then 1/2 hour later I'll put my daughter down making sure she knows that she needs to be quiet. It also gives me some more "quality" time with my daughter which I think she needs. Other than that though I have no easy fix for you, I wish I did. I'll definitely be reading what other people wrote to you to see other ideas. Good luck!

start bedtime at 7pm instead with a nice bath read each a story that they pick out and take along time with them so that they are physically in bed at 7:45 and then spend fifteen min. tucking them in and make all of this very quiet and slow then kiss them and leave the room and if they do get up go in and don't give any attention be very boring and just go thru the motions and put them back to bed after a week they should be asleep by 830.

Hi B.,
I have a 5 and a 3 yr old that share a room too. A couple things we have done are..1) put the younger one to bed 1/2 hr earlier. They both go to bed at the same time now and no matter how calmly we do it or when we start they still play. SOmetimes we just let them, but when it gets too much, we have been threating to turn off night lights. They have two in the room ( one was a Christmas decoration that they ended up really liking, so we left it!). They get one warning and then the next time, we turn the dimmest light off. It works like a charm. We have only had to actually do it once. You can use the threat of going to bed earlier or night lights or story time or whatever works with your kids. We just do it calmly and matter of factly. It is bed time, it is time to rest and lie still. Anyway, just some thoughts.
A.

Along with our bedtime ritual (bath, story, movie- if needed),
we play music for our 2 girls every night. I set the CD player on repeat so they don't wake up when it turns off. It's just a simple sleep CD with soothing music- no lyrics. I think the lyrics distract the kids- they always end up singing along. I personally, throw in a CD that has monks chanting and it knocks me out!

Hope this helps :)

The idea of a bath and a story is a great routine. I just wanted to add that you should stick to the routine even on the weekends, so that their bodies get accustomed to going to bed and waking up around the same time each day. If they take naps during the day, make sure they are not sleeping too late in the afternoon, which can affect their sleep at night. Also, make sure that they have adequate time to settle down before you start the bedtime routine. They should be doing something calm like coloring or playing a quiet game that doesn't involve running around or a lot of excitement. Best of luck!

Introducing a routine really does help. My son is 3.5, and if we don't follow his bed time routine, it's tough to get him to sleep. I like the suggestion of putting the younger one down first, it may help a little bit, and it's a chance to give the older one more responsibility (putting away toys, making sure the shoes are by the door/where they belong, turn off the tv, whatever).

I got away from the bath a bed time, mainly because my son saw it as an opportunity to play. We make the chaning of clothes, putting on the nighttime pants, brushing teeth, and picking out the stories our routine at night, and it works pretty well.

Good luck!

Try giving them a shower or bath before bed and reading to them first.

you can try to give them a bath and then read them a story. them tell them it is time to go to sleep and i don not what to hear you too talking.I known that i bath and read a couple of storys to my 3yob,and 4yog then i give a kiss and turn off the light off.then are a sleep by 9:00 or 9:30pm. good luck

I have three that share a room. The youngest 2 goes in first and he crashes fast. then about 15-20 minutes my middle son goes down. then my oldest takes about 40 minutes total but it works great and they get the sleep they need.
As a special thing if they have gone to bed at their bedtime all week then the older two get to go down at the same time for the weekend. SO they get to talk and wisper to each other and they enjoy it.

I have 4 kids and am a single dad. One thing that always helped with my girls esepecially (they share a room) was to award them reading time at night. If they were quiet, settled, and in bed, they could keep a small light on for 30 minutes to read, look at a book, or sometimes even color (though I then had to hunt crayons out of their beds). The deal was that "quiet free time" was a privelege, and any disruption to tonight, both ended quiet free time and cut out all or part of tomorrow's time too. We made a big deal out of it, as it was a "big person" thing to do, reading before bed.

As they have gotten some older, I take time to spend at least 5-10 mins individually with them at night, talking about their day, what they think they might dream about (my favorite), and how much daddy loves them. Then we say their prayers and say good night.

Just a couple ideas. All in all the bottom line is there has to be consequence to their not following bed time rules. The consequence has to mean something to them, it has to hurt.

I have 7 kids and I was also having the same problem with 2 of my boys who share the same room and same bedtime. They are 4 and 3. I finally listened to everything( with a baby monitor) that was going on in the room after I shut the door for the night. They would start laughing as soon as I walked away, and would begin to play and get up and run around the room etc. They could hear me coming toward the room when I would go to scold them. I actually started laughing when i heard them warning each other( here comes mom and then jumping back in bed and snapping back off the light) LOLOL I finally decided that I would lay the three year old down first because once he is still he zonks out. The 4 year old goes in 10-15 minutes later and he has no one to play with and he goes right to sleep. This works like a charm and they give me no problems now.
Another things that helps, is that few evenings a week, we have movie night. I put on a movie around 730 and we all sit and cuddle while watching the movie. I make sure EVERYONE gets snuggle time with me, and each and every one of them relaxes while they are on my lap. This makes them slow down and start to get sleepy before bedtime. Some of them are actually asleep by the time 830 rolls around, and I just pick them up and tuck them in. Bedtime around around here is easy and relaxing. No would think that with 7 kids bedtime would be anything enjoyable, but it is.