Roman has always been our homebody.
He likes his toys.
He likes to imagine.
He likes free play.
After we looked at the "faces" at Mt. Rushmore he turned to me and said, "let's go home, Mom!" I said, "back to the cabin, right?" "No" he said, "back to our green house."
So I have always had to balance Deacon's enthusiasm for going places, my agenda and Roman's desire to stay home.
But lately Roman has wanted to go more places. "Let's go, go, go" he says.
So we have.
But he apparently doesn't exactly know what he needs.
Last Sunday morning (after a full week at VBS) he was done. I could see that he really needed a mental health day. So as much as I hated to do it, he and I stayed home from church and cuddled and read books. It was good.
But it has gotten worse. And I am pretty sure now that it is less the going places and more the sleep factor.
I have been putting them to bed at 7:30, but they haven't been falling asleep until 9:00. And Roman really needs that extra sleep. Basically the baby keeps everyone awake at night and wakes everyone up in the morning.
I really need them to have 12 hours of sleep a night.
They really need to have 12 hours of sleep a night.
So I am not sure what to do yet.
We really need an extra bedroom.
I am sure I will come up with a great plan.
8 comments:
Can you stagger their bed times? When we go camping we put who ever needs to go the bed down first, when we are sure they are asleep we put the next one down, etc. It helps to eliminate the distractions. And gives us a little one on one with the remaining child(ren).
i am having the exact same problem. Put to bed at 8 fall asleep sometimes at 10! Up at 6:30 and every one is exhausted and super cranky, including me. We really need an extra room too.
The problem is, if we put Link up there first, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't fall asleep in a reasonable amount of time, and then he'd just wind back up when the other two showed up for bed.
On the flip side, it would be more practical for Deacon and Roman to go to bed first, fall asleep, and then put Lincoln in there, but that doesn't seem fair to the older kids to have to go to bed first.
Ah, sleep issues - the bain of every parent's existence. Let me know when you get that one figured out.
That's why I say who ever "needs" to go to bed first...a lot of the times it ends up being the middle one because she didn't get a nap, other times the oldest. We tell the older two that if they want to stay up late they can take a nap in the afternoon and that seems to cure all protesting for the evening (sometimes it even works). I know all situations are different; this is only our camping routine.
The last half of this post made me go, "How did she read my mind!" I could have written that last half!
My kids are put to bed at 7 but talk until 9. They need 12 hours. The baby has been keeping us up with toothy pain at night. We need another bedroom! I'm not sure what to do!
The first thing I am going to try is to step up policing, make Lincoln stay in his bed or laying down.
I think things will get better when he becomes nap free (the other 2 were long before his age)
And if I have to, I guess I will move the older ones to the downstairs bedroom. I am not sure they are quite old enough, but maybe...
Oh, and Billi... if the older ones complain about Lincoln I may pull him, let him stay up until they go to sleep...I just like them to all be up there so I can be off kid duty for a while in the evenings...
Thanks for all the suggestions and sympathy! Can you imagine a pioneer family and all being in one room?!?
I'm very anxious to hear what ends up working - and then I'm going to write it down somewhere so that I can remember it when that situation inevitably hits!
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