family bed and bedtime

[gcopeley]

I was wondering how other families with twins and a family bed got the kids to sleep. It is always an adventure for us! My oldest son is 3 1/2 yr and my two youngest are 7 mo. We finally have a prebed routine kind of. We all take a bath together and then read stories but I have no idea how to put them all to sleep. Often once I get one down they are woken back up by the time I almost have another one asleep. Sometimes no one wants to go to sleep and they jsut wnat to play untill they are too tired and everyone is crying.

[toepea]

What I did was have my two in bed(queen sized bed)--nursing- with me and had my 3 year old in a twin bed right next to my bed. My 3 year old would have the option to quietly read for awhile as his brothers nursed to sleep or I would turn on the radio. As he got older I started to move the 3 years old bed further away, towards the other wall. It started off with his head towards my bed and then I moved the bed against the wall and actually had walking space between the two beds~ yahoo!

Looking back now (my oldest is now 6) it seems like it was pretty easy, but I know that I had moments of going absolutely bananas trying to get them all to sleep and to stay asleep. Oh, and we usually bathed and then turned on a movie for a short time before bedtime too.

[laralou]

Mine are 7 mos old too. Here is our imperfect routine. We nurse around 7:30 or 8 then I either bathe them and put them in their sleepers or just change them to their sleepers. Then I nurse them again around 9ish. They usually fall asleep on the nursing pillow and I put them in my bed, complete with bedrails and all for safety. They don't wake up at that transfer like they do during the day (I walk into the bedroom holding the nursing pillow with two sleeping babies on it, then I rest it on the bed while I lift each baby into place).

Of course this isn't solid, because it always seems to get messed up by things going on. I will probably live to regret the nursing to sleep thing, but for now it works.

Ds is old enough to go to sleep on his own, but he usually waits until the girls are down before hopping in bed.

When dh is here, he helps me with the transfer.

Maybe you could put your older ds down first then get the twins to sleep together.

[1Plus2]

I'm glad you posted this question because I'm in the same boat as you are. My oldest dd is almost 3 (is that even possible?!) and the babies are 6 1/2 months. I nurse the girls on the couch at around 9:00 and then carry them (sometimes still awake..sometimes sleeping) to our bed. I then put on their Baby Mozart CD. Most of the time they will go right to sleep but sometimes I will go back in to nurse one or both of them down again. My oldest dd WILL NOT go to bed without me plus I wouldn't trust her to not bother the babies while they were sleeping. So she usually stays up until I go to bed. Which most nights is very late...I try to get most of my housework done at night.

I really want to break this routine with my oldest dd. I've been thinking of putting a single bed by our King sized bed for her but I don't know if it will work or not. It's worth a shot...she needs to be going to bed earlier and I need some "non-thinking" time at night.

[gcopeley]

Is there such thing as an easy way to put 3 young children to bed at night???? It is comforting to see that it is not so clear cut for others also. Thanks for your suggestion Laralou but my son won't fall asleep untill all is quiet and I lay down with him and I don't know what I would do with the babes while I was putting him down. I think he really needs the one on one time. Sometimes this is the only time of day that he has my undivided attention. Something I have found after I posted this thread is that I can't have him in the room while I get his brothers to sleep. I jsut need to tell him he needs to have some quiet time in another room till they are asleep and then I will be all his. Then I put him to sleep with books and hope I don't fall asleep in the process. Housework??? I was obsessive when they were first born about staying on top of everything and now I have let it all go. I got too tired and found that I wasn't giving them the attention that they needed. I keep thinking maybe I will get more organized and I may start to catch up but it hasn't happened yet. Aside from bedtime I love us all being in the same bed (or should I say 2 mattresses right next to eachother). Our long term plan as they get older is to have all 3 of them sleep on the queen mattress and we'll be on the double. Then as they get used to this we'll eventually move them to another bedroom. We'll see how it goes and I have no idea of when this might happen.

[gcopeley]

Karen, thank for reminding me about music. I always forget about using it for bedtime

[GoodWillHunter]

Now that the twins are 3 years old (!), I let DH put them to bed. He lays between them and they go to sleep. After that, he puts DS3 to bed 'cause he just won't fall asleep after nursing. Darn it! I cuddle with DS1 and discuss his day. It all seems like it's a piece of cake now, but when they were munchkins, we were up half the night getting them to sleep. I remember going to sleep at 1 a m and they finally let us sleep untill 6 a.m. Not much sleep, but it gave us hope!

[gcopeley]

It is good to hear that it won't always so challenging.

[angie6]

Try getting 6 to wind down at night in the summer time!

Lately things have been crazy and I am completely out of patience by 8 or 9 pm. I just want to sit or lay down and read or watch a little HGTV peacefully and then go to bed. Well every since school let out it screwed everything up. I don't make them follow the usual schedule so they can stay up and have fun and the twins did not take to it very well. It is just too much stimulation for them. So I end up getting upset around 10 or 11pm and running th eolder kids off. My oldest is 14 and has always been great at going to bed by himself and getting lots of sleep. My older daughters, 12 and 9, just want some mommy time and I feel guilty when I have to brush them off. Then there is my 5 year old that is usually hanging off of me somewhere that he can grab a lock of my hair to twirl and pull while the twins hang off of both breasts. Finally everyone gives in and are out for a small portion of the night. I then have to carry them all off to their beds. In about 2 - 4 hours the twins ar eback in my bed and the 5 year old is layin gon his place on the floor next to our bed. Most of the time our oldest daughters end up sleep together in one of their rooms. Then I take a little time for me, a midnight snack (I don't need!), catch up on emails, etc..

I wish there was a magic way to put kids down at night but I guess we all have to do what works for us at different phases of our lives! Good luck mamas!
Angie