HELP! nobody's sleeping!

[khrisday]

My younger one is having a lot of trouble sleeping lately (she's three and has been sleeping in her own bed for some time although she still joins us in bed occasionally, but is getting up several times a night and having a hard time falling asleep and being very clingy all day but especially at bedtime) I am trying to give her extra time and attention throughout the day and some snuggly time before bed, but it's not working. It's after 9:30 right now and she is up, and now her brother is up because she's keeping him up, too. Hubby gets up at 4 am for work and is working long (18 hours including commute time) days so he is not available to help. I am really at the end of my rope- these kids get up early no matter what time they go to bed and I am already running on empty. I have tried laying down with her, staying in he room, reading her to sleep, etc. We had been using melatonin for a while but then it just stopped being affective at all. Please, someone give me some advice! I am dead tired and these kids are NOT going to bed. If I coudl just get them to stay in their room I would be happy.

[breathingmom]

For a while both my twin dd's (who are five) were waking up a lot at night so I moved in to their bed with them and stayed with them all night. After a couple of weeks they were use to me being there so they would go right back to sleep. Now if one of them wakes up they will come and crawl in bed with us but they are usually staying asleep through the night. I still lay down with them until they are asleep. The biggest challenge is to not fall asleep myself!

Another thing that I did was moved all the kids in to one bedroom. Are your ds and dd in separate rooms? We have one room that is a "play room" and another that is a "sleep room". It has worked well for us but it took a while to figure it out!

I understand the frustration of them waking up at night and of trying to do it alone (my dh used to travel a lot). Hang in there! I bet by the time that they are teenagers you won't be able to get them out of bed in the morning! : I hope you get lots of creative suggestions here!

~Jill

[KathyS]

I was wondering if your daughter naps during the day? Maybe she is getting to much sleep during the day if she does?? Just a thought.

Another thought is..what does she eat during the day or drink? Anything with caffine or a lot of sugar? Anything that might keep her awake???

My third thought ..and I may get some slack for suggesting this..but sometimes you just gotta put your foot down and be lovingly firm. ( Its so hard sometimes..especially when they cry and wanna cling)
but..have you tried just putting them to bed and lovingly but sternly telling them that it is bed time and under no circumstances are they to get up???etc..etc..and then make sure they stay in bed..even if they don't go to sleep right away.

We had to resort to that with one of our children when they were younger..but let me tell you..all 4 of our children go to bed nice and on time and DH and I have peace and quiet and sometime to ourselves which is also important.

Just some thoughts I wish you the best of luck!

[khrisday]

Thank you both for your replies.

Sleeping in the kids beds or even room is not an option for my fat butt, bad back, insomniac self LOL They do sleep in different rooms, and prefer it that way. They used to share a room, but they actually kept each other up at night.

dd doesn't nap unles she happens to cok out on the car or on the couch (which only happend occasionally) so she's not getting too much sleep. She also doesn't get any caffein or very much sugar, nothing that should be keeping her up. We have tried the "It's bedtime and you MUST stay in your room now" thing, but it turna into a physical fight, screaming tantrums, and hours of wakefulness on all of our parts.

Things have gotten a little better, although I can't really say we changed anything.