Anyone else co-sleeping with a 3 and a 1 year old?

[Mommy&Will]

My boys are almost 3.5 and 1.5. Its like roulette around here as far as who is sleeping where and when and with who...sometimes we all sleep together, and sometimes dh and ds #1 sleep in another room.

Our nighttime rituals have really fallen apart as the boys have grown. We just CANNOT get them down together as they start giggling and going crazy.
But trying to get my 1.5 year old down when he hears his brother hollering downstairs is nearly as impossible too (we have a small house.)

My 3.5 year old will not sit for books anymore like he use to.

The whole nighttime routine is long and exhausting.

I'm just wondering how others get 2 kids down for bed in a way that doesn't make dh and I go crazy.

[ChinaDoll]

sorry you're so frustrated and exhausted right now! Our two would never go to sleep if we left them in there together, so we don't: We put our 3 year old to bed first, in her own bed next to ours, and let the 18 month old stay up a bit later (til he nurses to sleep). Sometimes we put him in bed with her; sometimes we put him in the big bed. About 1-2 times a week, our 3 year old ends up in bed with us, but everybody does get sleep!

[merpk]

It can be tough when they get on a bender, can't it ...





We have a 7.5, 5.5, 3.5 & a 1.5 in the bed now, and we all go to sleep at the same time (the 7.5yo sometimes stays up a few minutes later to finish a chapter or something, but then always bolts into the bedroom within minutes after we turn off the light). We did go through a difficult stage as far as he goes, but he's the only one. So we figure we were doing something off, and have learned to do it differently.

The only thing we do differently is we're not wishy-washy about bedtime. Quiet and calm and "pajamas now, everybody" and then "booktime now, everybody." If there's any complication during the bedtime books, well, we just close the book and go straight to "lights out now, everybody."



Maybe it's just a phase you're going through ... (don't you hate when people say that? :LOL)

[amyamanda]

merpk, your house sounds like my house!

We're cosleeping with a 7, a 5-1/2, a 3, and a 1-1/2. The toddler sleeps between mama and daddy, the 3yo goes back and forth between the edge next to mama and her own spot right next to our bed, the 5-1/2 sleeps on the other half of the 3s futon, and the 7 sleeps across the head of that same futon.

We do the quickest, simplest bathroom routine we can manage (pee, wash hands, brush teeth, drink water), get everyone's pajamas and night diapers on, get into bed immediately with lights out. I usually lie in the big bed with one little on either side of me. Baby gets to nurse first, toddler gets to nurse second, then I move down to the futon and snuggle the 5-1/2 and hold 7s hand. If I stay awake that long.

During the night I nurse the 1-1/2 but not the 3, though she's welcome to go back and forth between my bed and hers.

It's not how most people do it, but it works for us. I can't remember what it is like to sleep all night without interruption anyway. It's challenging, there is no question, but just hang in there and in time they'll need you less at night.