A Bedtime Update

It is no secret that bedtime is no fun for anyone around here.

We have been working on going to bed better for the last few weeks so I thought I would give an update on how it is going.

We aren't doing anything special. Just brushing teeth, reading books, and going to bed. Both of the kids have to brush their teeth (with help of course). Liam is very anti-toothpaste right now, so I just make sure his get scrubbed really good. I have got to try to find a toothpaste that isn't minty for him. He says it burns his mouth. I guess he would prefer to brush his teeth with candy.

After they brush their teeth, they each get to pick out 2 books. Usually Will goes to Taylor's room and reads her a book and I go to Liam's room adn read him a book. And then we switch. Then I have to make sure to tuck everyone in bed. Then I have to sit in between their doors in the floor and wait on them to fall asleep. While this is annoying, I will work on stopping that later. One thing at a time!

For the first few days Taylor would lay in her bed and cry and say, "I don't like doing this. I don't like going to bed this way." For the past couple of nights though, she has done really good. She likes to have her lamp on, but she lays in her bed, covers up, and rolls over and goes to sleep in about 15 minutes or so. After she is asleep I go in her room, turn off her lamp, and shut her door.

Liam on the other hand, he is not loving bedtime. He gets up out of his bed and plays with his toys, and he tries to come out in the living room. He says he is thirsty and then cries and says he is so hungry. He just doesn't want to go to sleep! But eventually he settles down and falls asleep. He does not have a lamp in his room, so he wants his big light left on. I think it will help when I can get him a lamp and we don't have to leave the big light on. When he falls asleep I go cover him up, turn off his light, and close his door.

They still end up in our bed sometimes in the middle of the night. Taylor probably about 50% of the time and Liam probably more like 75% of the time. We are going to work on that too. I can handle having one of them in there, but when both of them get in there and all 4 of us are in the same bed, it just gets crowded.

We have made so many mistakes when it comes to bedtime, but I have to remind myself that they are only little once, and eventually I will be able to say go to bed and they will go. We are just taking it day by day right now.

Right now it is usually 10:30 - 10:45 by the time they fall asleep. That is with us starting "bedtime" around 9-9:15. So I think we need to start bedtime at 8. It is just hard to convince to smart little kids that it is time to go to sleep when it is still daylight outside. I am hoping as it starts to get darker earlier that this will be easier.

Ok, I am sure that was extremely boring, but I just wanted to make sure I remember what bedtime looks like right now so that when they are older and I am complaining about something I can always look back and remember that it was once like this!