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Chandra
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| Posted: April 12 2007 at 2:11pm | IP Logged
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How do you all handle staggering bedtimes with siblings that share rooms? We have always just sent them all to bed at the same time (and let the older ones read), but I am beginning to think that I need to lay the little two down earlier than we have been. The 20 month old shouldn't be too hard since he has his own room (that's IF everyone else goes to bed QUIETLY) but the 3 year old shares a room with the 8 & 9 year old. She doesn't want to go down before them and when I do get her down early she won't go to sleep until they get in there anyway. She is my resident "non-sleeper" which is why I want her to get to bed earlier b/c she's up sooo much during the night. (anyone else have a child who wakes up 2-5 times a night just screaming and not really awake? what is that all about?!?!)
Anyway, I was just wondering how you all handle the bedtime situation or if I should just forget it and keep them all going down at the same time. What works for you? How do you do it? Have you always done it this way or did you switch? What are your bedtimes for different ages? We have been laying them all down around 8, sometimes not until about 9pm. We are NOT morning people, so I like that they sleep in a little bit. Can't wait to see how everyone else handles it.
Also, what do you do on Holidays? We usually make everyone wait quietly in their rooms until the last child is up so they can open presents/Easter baskets at the same time but our youngest sometimes likes to sleep until 9:30 (and he's a bear if you get him up earlier!) so this year we just let the kids open their baskets as they woke up. It was a little bit different, but not bad--what do you do?
Chandra, mom to
Lexi 9
Tori 8
Liz 6
Gen 4
Becca 3
Michael 20 months
and baby boy due in June
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asplendidtime
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| Posted: April 12 2007 at 5:24pm | IP Logged
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We have our olders share together, so we put those to bed at the same time. They are allowed to talk quietly for a little bit or read.
It helps to have a tape for smallers to listen to, this helps ours to quietly relax, and they tend to stay on their bed. Our older children don't have tape players in their rooms, so it is like a little-guy priviledge.
Right now our seven-y-o girl will read to our little boys before they go to sleep and they really like this. I will put a tape on afterward, and they fall to sleep quickly. I also try to keep it low key and quiet with the older ones who stay up, it just isn't fair to have the little ones in bed and the olders sound like they are having a great time! 
So maybe a tape and some nice books would help?
Peace of Christ,
Rebecca ~Mom to 7 under 9!
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: April 12 2007 at 9:09pm | IP Logged
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I have three girls, 11, 7 and 5, who "officially" share a bedroom. I say officially because my 9 yr old ds and 3 yr old dd are usually there too.
They all go up together. They are allowed to read and I put on a story for them to listen to. Lights out for everyone is at the same time. Some drift off sooner. The 3 yr old is usually last one standing!  Then she comes to our room where her bed is. Often she outlasts us too!
As for holidays, they hang out in their rooms until we get up. We don't bother waking the teen or the three year old! 
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Erin
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| Posted: April 13 2007 at 2:29am | IP Logged
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Chandra
Our dd13 share with her sisters, 5 and 2. The two year old often flakes out during prayers otherwise I sometimes put her in my bed with me whilst I am feeding the baby. To get them to sleep quicker I am best to separate those two.
Dd5 is in bed around 8.30pm and tends to fall asleep sometime before 9pm. Dd13 can read till 11pm some nights The two little girls sleep in a double bed on the bottom and dd13 is on the top bunk above, she has a night light so it doesn't really disturb the younger ones.
When your 3yr old is in with the older girls is she annoying them or just letting them read? As to have we always done things this way, no Things are always changing here, new dc, ages changing, situation change due to personalities etc. Always a state of flux.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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mairejam5
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| Posted: April 13 2007 at 12:00pm | IP Logged
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HI,
I don't have much to say about how to put a wide range of ages to sleep. All of mine are 7 and under and we just all go to bed at the same time right now.
However, about her waking up screaming and not really awake. I'm not sure it's the same thing, but my daughter (who just turned three) has had a difficult time waking up several times a night crying or just really unhappy... but not really awake because she is still so sleepy. There are two things I have done that seem to have helped a lot. The first is that every time she did this the first thing I would do is cuddle her (in her bed if possible) and make the sign of the cross on her, bless her and pray for good dreams and a good nights sleep -- whether or not it seemed to be a nightmare that woke her. I also often recited the St. Michael prayer. She does tend to have more nigtmares than the others. Since I started that her nightmares have greatly decreased. One of our priests who deals with ..ahem... certain stuff a lot, if you know what I mean... said that blessing all the senses with holy oil is another good combat against bad dreams. Now, even if she wakes up for something else, she always asks me to bless her anyway.
The other thing was trying to figure out if there was something physically hurting her. That was hard because even though she is very verbal, she's somewhat stubborn about telling me where she is hurt and she was generally not fully awake anyway -- that was another reason for my blessing her, in case there was something hurting her.
In the end I think I figured out what most of it was...
I have what I have recently discovered is called "restless legs." I've had it all my life and rarely complained about it because whenever I tried to explain it no one seemed to understand. I just figured it was something weird about me. It's this weird tickling/crawling sensation on my feet and legs that causes me to need to move them constantly or massage them. During the day it rarely happens and is not hard to deal with but it can completely keep me from sleeping or wake me up if it happens at night, no matter how tired I am. I noticed with Mairin that she would kick her legs a lot and kick her covers off, but obviously still prefer being covered by the blanket. I also noticed that she slept better with jammie pants on no matter what the temperature was.
To sum up this rather long explanation  ... I found a homeopathic remedy called Restful Legs that I have been using this pregnancy (because that is when I get plagued the worst!!!) and I decided to use it on her when she woke up like this and it has really worked! She's stopped kicking madly and waking up frustrated and miserable. When she does wake up she clearly tells me that she has had a bad dream or that her tummy hurts or something, whereas before she could never explain it. So I think she has what I have. This might not be your child's problem, but I figured it was something to consider.
Hope you find what works for your family!! :)
Maire
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juststartn
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| Posted: April 14 2007 at 9:45am | IP Logged
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Chandra, is your dd potty trained? I know my middle one is really bad about sleeping really really hard, but needing to go to the bathroom will wake her juuuust enough to give her bad dreams, and she'll need to go to the bathroom...it's like her bladder makes her have the bad dreams just so she will wake up.
I've discovered that she usually starts off talking to herself, and then gets to screeching...if I can catch her early enough, its enough to get her on the toilet...otherwise, it might take a wee bit for her to get back to sleep. I do make it a point to tell her that "it seems like when you have a bad dream its because you need to get up and go to tbe bathroom" so that Hopefully someday (hopefully soon!) she'll get herself up and go on her own when she is having those weird dreams, and just not bother the rest of us...
LOL
My oldest one never did this. But my middle one (she'll be 5 next month) has been like this ever since she was night training....deep sleep, and she just doesn't wake without a nightmare (but its better than her wetting the bed). I usually know she'll be up if she's had a really hard day of play/activity and no/a short nap....
HTH
Rachel
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Married DH 4/1/95
Lily 3/11/00
Helena(Layna) 5/23/02
Sophia 4/19/04
John 5/7/07
David 5/7/07
Ava Maria, in the arms of Jesus, 9/5/08
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juststartn
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| Posted: April 14 2007 at 9:48am | IP Logged
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Oh--and all three of my dds share a room--they are 7, soon to be 5, and 3 this next week. They all go to bed at the same time. My oldest one is no longer napping really well (altho I do insist on some quiet time on her bed, cause she will nap about 1/2 the time), so she's usually tired enough to sleep at 8-8:30.
I think frankly that that's plenty late for all three of them (they aren't allowed to nap after 4--preferably after 3, if I can manage it), so they get more outside time and wear themselves out again between naps and dinner...bath time and then some reading and then off to bed. I'm going to continue keeping them at that time, even once the boys arrive.
Rachel
__________________
Married DH 4/1/95
Lily 3/11/00
Helena(Layna) 5/23/02
Sophia 4/19/04
John 5/7/07
David 5/7/07
Ava Maria, in the arms of Jesus, 9/5/08
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Bedtimes/Room Sharing
