Thanks for the GREAT comments! We have continued our attempt to get Xavier onto a 7:30-7:30 sleep schedule with no nap, and for the most part it has been successful, fingers crossed that it will continue. The biggest issue we have now is that he inevitably wakes up once every night, sometimes twice, scared of something, and wants one of us to sit with him until he gets back to sleep. Fortunately, he hasn’t yet figured out that being in a toddler bed allows him an easy escape, and stays in bed and yells for us. Because Hayden is in our bed, I am most often the one who goes to Xavier, so spend much of my night in the recliner next to his bed…not ideal, but I’m still sleeping.

I still believe that once we get into a place with some walls and carpeted bedrooms for the kids, things will get better, but we’re still trying for now.

Thanks again!

D

With Brooke I was bound and determined to not go another four years without an uninterrupted nights sleep so I started very early on trying to get her on a schedule. I would start her sleep routine before she was overtired. I do believe that that was part of Avery’s problem, she was overtired and we didn’t know it. Both of them have never been kids that slow down when they are tired. They seem to do the opposite. I read a sleep book, that I can’t remember the title of now, that said that once a baby gets overtired it is more difficult for them to fall asleep and the more they continue to go to sleep overtired the more difficult it becomes for them to learn to soothe themselves to sleep. Basically, sleep begets sleep. It sounded a little crazy to me but it seemed to work for Brooke. I would more watch the clock to know when to put her down for naps than wait for signs from her that she was sleepy and it worked. I started this when she was like two months old. By 3 or 4 months old she fell asleep for naps and night with me just rocking her for a few minutes at 7:00 pm. She was sleeping through the night by the time she was 4 months old (no waking for feedings or anything)and would sleep until around 6:00am. By the time she was about 8 months old I was able to take her upstairs, read her a book, feed her and rock her a few minutes and then lay her in her crib awake and she would go to sleep on her own without a sound. She went through periods here and there where she would wake in the night but that was it. Just recently she has been waking up and coming in our bed in the middle of the night saying she is scared but once she falls asleep I return her to her bed. Hopefully this is just a phase.

Brooke gave up napping just after she turned two. She started fighting it. It would take forever to get her to sleep so by the time she fell asleep it was 2:00 or 2:30 and then I would either have to get my neighbor to come and sit in our house while I picked Avery up from school or I would have to wake her to go get Avery. On the days she was able to stay asleep she would nap until 4:00 or 4:30 and then would fight going to bed at night and be up until between 10:00 and 11:00. This I definitely couldn’t handle so although she was young, I eliminated the nap again and just as it had worked for Avery it worked for Brooke, she started going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and sleeping until 7:00 or 7:30. Again, we had to endure some crabby afternoons (and still do sometimes) but bedtime is much smoother. They are both sound asleep in about five or ten minutes most nights. Every now and then when she is having a really crabby day I will put her down for a nap and then at bedtime I’m sorry I did because she just will not go to sleep and then she’s crabby again the next day from staying up late and the vicious cycle begins. Just after Brooke turned 2 she also transitioned to the trundle bed in Avery’s room because she did not want to sleep in her crib anymore. She started refusing to get in it and would dangerously climb out not doing well on the dismount like Xavier. She instead wanted to sleep on the floor which clearly wasn’t acceptable, so we had no other alternative but to put her in a bed. I was worried about her not transitioning well and worried about the two of them keeping each other up but being together seemed to work to our advantage. They were comfort to each other. Having a sister in the room seems to calm any night time fears either of them has and still does to this day. In fact, the couple of times recently Avery has not been home to go to bed with Brooke, Brooke has a really hard time and I have to lay in there with her. So, after all those years of sleeplessness, struggle and experimenting we have two kids that sleep pretty well and Matt and I were getting many, many uninterrupted nights sleep. Then, November 11th rolled around and we were blessed with our third beautiful little girl and so we (mostly me) began sleeplessness all over again. And the trials of what works and what doesn’t has just begun because poor Sienna has to contend with her two older sisters school schedules and after school schedules so she is dragged out and about a lot and spends a lot more time sleeping in her car seat than the other two ever did. This I’m sure will pose new obstacles for me when it comes to getting her in a good sleep routine. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Just a quick disclaimer – because I am sleep deprived right now my writing may not be up to par and I don’t have time to proofread since I have already sacrificed some quality sleep time to write this response and I have no more to give. Hopefully there is something helpful or interesting in here. Good night!