Need to make a change soon....

[amyandelle]

Our oldest dd is going to start 1st grade in August. We have always let our kids stay up with us at night (or they fall asleep on the couch). Since dh and I do not plan on going to be at 8pm we need to start transitioning them into a regular bedtime that does not include us going to be with them. We all share a bedroom. Elle (6) is in a toddlerbed, Meadow (3) is in our bed, along with Azaliah (13 months). I am not too concerned with Azaliah going to be with the big girls but I definatly want to get Elle and Meadow in bed by 8pm so that they have enough sleep. We have tried to have them lay down and watch a DVD but they don't fall asleep. We have also tried laying down with them but then we either fall asleep ourselves or spend way to much time (over an hour) getting them to sleep. Ideally I would like to have them lay down and go to sleep. I know this is a far off dream but I have just a little over 2 months to achieve this

I would appreciate any suggestions you could give!!

Thanks,
Amy

[Jayray]

Did you gradually make the bedtime earlier? Do you wake them up in the morning? If you want them to go to sleep at 8, you will probably need to wake them up in the morning? Have you read Sleepless in America? It has a lot of good info.

[Disclaimer: I only have one kid and he's only 1 year old! But I read a lot. ]

[bobandjess99]

i have no advice...i tried and tried, but my kid will NOT go to sleep without me, and I don't like putting myself to bed at 8 pm....so they stayed up and then were exhausted the next day... and we endured a horrible year and a half of school before giving in and admitting that running on someone else's schedule just wasn't working for us as a family, and now we homesachool and go to sleep and wake up whenever we want. That's the only solution we could make work.