Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Help!!!

How do I get them out of my bed?! They all go to sleep in their own rooms. (Well, Ben in one room, Will and Ellie in the other.) They all have the same bedtime routine:

Bath(or shower)
Teeth brushed
Potty
Drink
Story
Song
Prayer
Then Mommy or Daddy leave the room and they fall asleep on their owns. Everything is great until about 2 in the morning. They are like ninja's. Some nights we have no idea when they come in our room until the inevitable happens - they get too hot and want to sleep in between us on TOP of the blankets, meaning we dont get any blankets. or they start squirming and kicking and wanting to sleep on top of mommy.

We have a queen sized bed which is WAY to small for two overweight (but working on it!! :) ) adults, a 6 year old who hates covers, a 4 year old who loves sleeping at the middle of the bed - usually in between my knees with his head on my thigh, and a 4 year old who has to sleep on the edge of the bed but you have to hold her so she doesn't feel like she's falling off.

I'm tired People!!! I don't get enough sleep because of the circus in my bed and neither does Jim which makes him grumpy. That in turn puts me in a bad mood.

They have always slept in their own rooms. (Well Ben shared our room when the twins were born but he had his own area). Come to think of it that's around the time he started coming into our bed. He was about 2. The twins didn't start coming to our bed until they were about 3. Its not because of nightmares or bad dreams or anything like that, they just wake up and waltz on into our room.

Help!!! Any ideas, suggestions, therapy, etc, would be greatly appreciated!!! I want my bed back!!

(Disclaimer - I have no issue with people who choose to cosleep. It can be a wonderful thing and if it is what works for your family - more power to you. This is not working for our family.)

3 comments:

Allison said...

Once the habit has started, it is probably hard to break. We have never once let a kid sleep in our bed. I don't even like to touch my husband DURING sleep, so I need my personal space.

I would start by having a family talk about it. Tell the kids clearly they are going to sleep in their own beds now and if they come into your bed at night and you catch them, you'll be putting them back into their own.

I know this sounds super mean, but I would probably also lock a door or somehow make it hard to get in. Theirs, yours, some door. Whatever would be safest so you could still hear them if they needed you, but hopefully this would encourage them to just get back in their own bed.

Either that or I would get up and put them back in bed as soon as I discovered an extra!

Allison said...

One more idea - you could have an incentive for sleeping in their own beds. A chart, with a reward for one week straight of sleeping in their own beds.

Cocoroo said...

UHHHH, I always got up and put you back in your own bed. If you came to Dad's side you got let in, but when I discovered it (because you happened to get in the middle or were kicking the covers off), it was back to your own bed. hahaha