I Need Help

We have serious bed time issues here and we are just at a loss as to what to do. If you've had toddler bed time issues, I need your help! Here's a brief run down of the issues and what we've tried....

• Bed time is at 7:30pm - most nights the boys don't actually fall asleep though until 9:30 or later. That's two hours of messing around!
• The boys do still nap most days, but even on the days they don't nap they still mess around for a couple of hours.
• They're waking up at 6 or 6:30 in the morning and often have crabby tendencies as a result.

What We've Tried

•   Super Nanny technique of just putting them back in their beds without talking. The boys thought that was hilarious.
• Locking them in their room (we've reversed the door knob) and ignoring them. Works great until we hear crying and fighting.
• Sitting the offender in an extra long Time Out (5-10 minutes depending on how many times they've been in TO that night already) in an attempt to let all the kids calm down completely.
• Moving the offender to a different room to fall asleep and then move them back to their room after they're asleep. Problem here is those door knobs aren't reversed, so Nick and I will often end up in the hall holding the door shut until they just give up and lay down.
• Giving them 10 minutes to just lie in their beds and talk before telling them it's time to be quiet.
• Sitting on the floor in their room for 10-15 minutes until they're calm and quiet (then about 5 minutes later they're wild again).

Some of those attempts at controlling them have worked for a week or two and some have never worked. Last night a friend suggested giving them each a certain number of "passes" for coming out and asking for hugs, kisses, to be covered with a blanket or to use the bathroom. I may give that one a shot, even though I'm not convinced the boys are old enough to "get it".

Any other ideas? By 7:30pm my patience with the boys is done. Another 2 hours of shenanigans sends my stress level through the roof! Nick and I often alternate dealing with them, but boy would it be nice to just sit on the couch and talk or watch a movie without having to pause it every 3 minutes.

Congratulations, Chase!

A few weeks ago Chase started waking up in the morning with a dry pull-up, so about two weeks ago we told him he could go to bed in roos (what they call underwear). Know what? He's woken up dry the majority of the mornings! There were a couple of times last week when he had a ton of water just before bed and woke up soaked in the morning, but other than that he's been good to go. We're so proud of our big boy and are hoping the other two follow suit soon!

Speaking of bedtime (sorta), we have some new sleeping arrangements. They're less than ideal, but it works for us. Bed time has been terrible here. We would put them down between 7:30 and 8 (usually closer to 7:30 if I was in charge) and they would proceed to party it up in their room for 2-3 hours! Nick and I were constantly ushering a child back to their room, holding the door shut, going in and telling them to lay down and be quiet, breaking up fights, etc. You get the picture. Lots of fun.

I asked a wise triplet mom I know (her boys are a couple of years older than mind) what she did. I knew her boys shared a room, so I wanted to know if this was just my boys being terrible or a 3-boys-sharing-a-room thing. Turns out it was a sharing a room thing. She shared a piece of advice that has changed our night time chaos dramatically...

We put them to bed in separate rooms. Just like at nap time, one sleeps in their room, one sleeps on the futon in the playroom and one sleeps in my bed. After they're all asleep we move them back to their beds. Now, instead of goofing off for 2-3 hours they only goof off for 30-45 minutes and sometimes it's shorter than that. Much better!

See, by 7:30 I am done with dealing with these boys. D-O-N-E. Adding 2-3 more hours of misbehaving was not making things better and after 4 months of room sharing they clearly weren't "learning" how to share a room at night. This set-up is not ideal, but it's an improvement. In a few months we'll let them try sharing a room again, but for now Nick and I can relax a little bit sooner at night.

Life With Boys - Video Clip of the Week

Life with three boys is, well, interesting to say the least. They're active. They seem to have a never ending supply of energy that I'm quite sure must be somehow supplied to them by sucking energy from me. I don't know how they do it, but it's the only explanation I can have for being so dead tired all the time.

Those of you who have boys, or at least one boy can likely begin to imagine what life is like here. Just imagine 3 of your wildest boy. For those of you who don't have boys you probably aren't quite sure what I'm talking about. Here, let me show you....

Note, this is only 32 seconds long because I don't want to frighten any moms who are currently expecting boys, have a boy(s) that is still a tiny baby who can do no wrong or are thinking of embarking on the motherhood journey.

I need a nap.