The bed dilemna

So far, Mark and I have been really lucky with our kids sleeping situation. We have both kids in the same room and bed time is usually pretty easy--or at least, after we put them to bed, that's it (the act of getting them ready for bed is a different story). After we got back from Christmas vacation, we decided it was time Maren stopped using a pacifier. We took Noah's pacifier away at 7 months so we never had to deal with any emotional ties to the things. Maren is 18 months and she was very upset. Fortunately, Noah is a VERY heavy sleeper (which has the one disadvantage that nighttime potty-training is impossible) so he usually falls asleep through Maren's 2-hours worth of crying. Things got better after a couple weeks but then she started getting antsy. She started getting out of her pack n play. So last week we switched her to Noah's old toddler bed.

That's when the real party began. The first 4 nights of Maren refusing to stay in her pack n play/having a toddler bed were awful. She just wouldn't go to sleep. And worse, she kept bullying Noah (biting, pillow/bed/blanket stealing, hitting, etc) and then Noah would open the door and either try to lock her out of the room or both would come out and bug us. We tried to go back to the pack n play while at my aunt's house and that did not work. I wasn't about to give Maren her pacifier back and no way was I going to start other bad habits like milk in a sippy or letting my kids stay up later. So we toughed it out.

Thursday, both kids pulled out all of the clothes/toys/drawers but were at least playing together happily. They fell asleep together huddled up in a ball by the door. After they fell asleep, I went in and cleaned out the room--no toys, no clothes--made their beds, and tucked them into bed.

Friday, Noah was so exhausted, he stayed in his own bed that night. I had to check on Maren a couple times and give her a little water and then tuck her into bed later that night.

Saturday, I heard her crying so went in to check on her to find she had climbed onto the dresser and was stranded. I put her in bed and she stayed there and fell asleep in bed. Plus, she slept in her bed during nap time! (BONUS!)

Today she slept in her bed during nap time and fell asleep in her bed around 8.

WE WON! So happy we stuck it out. I'm sure there will be plenty of nights when I have to go back into the room to put them back into bed, but I will know that they can only handle the routine for a few nights in a row.

Maren dressed herself in Noah's clothes during her nap on Friday. she actually got her legs in the leg holes of his underwear--she just had them inside-out and only pulled up to her knees. not bad!