Thursday, December 13, 2012

2 little monkeys not sleeping in the bed

This sounds like the most perfect date night for me.
A little over a week ago, I changed the baby beds into toddler beds.  At the time, I really felt it was best.  The kids were climbing in and out of them, jumping from them onto pillows and fluffy blankets, and really just using the beds as a cage for their toys.  So, I just made the decision to change them... at the same time.  I really felt this would be easy.
The first few nights, Red would get up about 7-10 times (why?  sometimes just to say, "hi", sometimes to say, "goodnight" again, sometimes to giggle, and then maybe to pee.  Night one, I thought okay, this is going to be a long process (I had no idea).
The Bear on the other hand, got up only a few times and was done.
Well in about 10 days, only 3 times have the children slept through the whole night without getting up!  It has been glorious, we just wish it could be more frequent.
Each night, Aron and I fall asleep, 1-3 Red bounces in and then about 10 minutes after that here comes the Bear.
It has made for some long nights and some crazy tantrums from me (yes, me).  I have suffered from a few breakdowns... freak outs... whatev.
Here we have both monkeys in the bed.  This is after a nights rest.  They look so happy, why wouldn't they want to feel like this every morning??



So, how do you keep your monkeys in their beds?
Do you let them cry it out?
Are you like the Supernanny and just keep returning them to their beds?
Are you like us and just let them stay in the bed with you because,
 A.  you are to sleepy to even deal with the situation
B.  you have a super huge bed and you like to have your bed full of teeny tiny bodies
C.  you have no idea what else to do, and you are thinking this cannot last forever eventually these kids will go to college or just move out of the house (you hope)?
Just curious.
After talking with some girlfriends (whom I love and admire and who I totally think have it all together), I will call them by another name as to keep their identities anonymous... Nelly&Terry Bravery, I found that they too are so sleepy and are up with their tots all night, just like me!
So, this is a shout out to all of you mommas with monkeys that sleep through the night...
what are you doing?
Share your knowledge, sharing is caring.
Don't be stingy with your sleep tricks.
 
Loves...
 
Please know that I am happy (over the moon) with my babies... awake or asleep!
 

7 comments:

Angie said...

We do the cry it out method. Michael has slept all night all the time since he was about 18 months old. We let him cry and once he was in a big kid bed we put a gate in front of his door so he couldn't get out. Sometimes he would cry at the gate but would always eventually get back in bed (or sometimes fall asleep on the floor). Sometimes I felt sad/guilty but I did it anyway. With Ellie we just put her back in bed 10,000 times time each night. 75% of the time gets up and comes to our bed in the wee hours of the morning though. We are considering a gate for her now. Rhett is 16 months and we are just now starting to let him cry out in the crib bc he is our baby and all. I prob could have skipped all that and just left things at we do the cry out method, but thought you might like details. :)

Brandi said...

My 4 year old monkey sleeps with us in the bed... I cherish my sleep way too much to not sleep all night long. One day... one day, she will not be in there... :)

Anonymous said...

use Santa is watching or elf on a shelf. stay in your bed!

Sarah said...

This may not work for various reason, but we put a child safety lock thing on the inside of the door. I make sure their rooms are safe for them, and they may not stay in bed, but they can't leave their rooms. We also have a lot of pep talking going on before bedtime. I remind my daughter that she doesn't have to go to sleep yet, she can lay in bed and read or play, but she needs to stay in her bed and be quiet. It took us a LONG time to get there though. We don't let them cry until they are much older and can understand a little better...like 18 months plus. We just now started with my son, but never let it go on for too long.

You might also try a baby gate at their door.

Good luck! One day we will sleep again.

Kerry said...

Hoping for an amazing full night of sleep for you soon! Until then, take comfort in knowing that I am right there with you. :-)

Words With Friends and Nick At Nite are my late night best friends!!

Jennifer said...

We started out taking our 3 year old back to her bed and now we are just too tired to care! Most of the time I don't even notice when she comes in. I just wake up at some point and see her in the bed! Our 19 month old is NOT a good sleeping buddy so if she wakes up and won't go right back to sleep, I lay her down beside me for a bit and put her back in her crib after a while. I'm not strong enough to let them cry and we know there will come a day when they won't want to sleep with us. But I can feel your pain-sometimes it's sooooo exhausting!

Anonymous said...

I was never one to do the "cry it out" method, but when my 9 month old decided at 6 months that he wasn't going to sleep thru the night anymore we had to take action! We tried everything for about 3 months and finally last week we gave in and did the "cry it out" approach. For a week now it has been amazing!!! He only cried about 20 min the first few nights and then it got less and less. Last night I put him down and never heard a peep out of him. Plus, ever since we started this he has not woken up once in the night like he was before. I totally believe in the "cry it out" method now and will recommend it to everyone! It is tough at first, but WELL WORTH it!!