Bedtime disasters!!!Dire need of HELP!!!

Hey everyone! I haven't been around in about a thousand years, but I find myself at the end of my rapidly fraying rope so I hope ya'll can forgive me and come through with some excellent twinstuff advice.
The girls will be 3 at the end of June and USED to be wonderful sleepers. About two weeks ago they stopped sleeping. This coincided with figuring out how to climb out of their cribs. Now they are in their rooms with just the crib mattresses on the floor (can't pick up their "twin" beds, haha, until next month) and their blankies and they are still up until 11:00 every night running around, wrestling, beating eachother senseless, the usual. They can get bored in two seconds in a playroom full of toys, but an empty, dark room. Now that's hours of fun!! They are both covered with bruises and I think that Katherine would probably like to go to sleep earlier, but Sarah keeps waking her up. I don't have another room to seperate them. I have had to resort to sitting on a step-stool until they fall asleep at nap-time and if I have to do this at night I will, but I'm hoping that there is another way as I'm pretty sure I will fall asleep and fall off said stool if I sit down in a dark room. I'm also afraid that it will take a lot longer at night for them to drop off and I hate the idea of losing hours of the only "Mommie-time" I get. So that's the problem. Any advice or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!! Thanks!

Andrea
Katherine and Sarah
6/30/04 at 39 weeks

 

Would you consider going back to the cribs and getting crib tents?

When K&K had trouble and were being a little too rambunctious then I would threaten to take something away such as their special blanket or I would threaten to lock the door or turn off the light in the room outside their room. They knew these were not idle threats and I would follow through if need be. It usually took care of the problem.

I don't mind if they don't get to sleep right away, it is ok to read books, sing, talk but it is not ok to have pillow fights, tickle fights, screaming etc etc.

 

I read some advice in a sleep book so here is what i do, my girls are 29 months i have a baby gate over their door jam and the door open, if they get up i put them back and say if you get up again mommy is going to shut the door,next time they get out of bed i shut it for 1 minute then tuck them back in, and leave, next time its 2 minutes then 3 i have never had to do more then 3 the book said to start each next night and more minutes first night 1, 2, 3 second night 2,3,4 etc.

Its worked for us, I also don't have any toys out at bedtime they are in the closet.

 

Oh god...I thought I was the only one with this problem. Except that mine are still in cribs (don't climb out thank god) but they cry when we put them in now and wake up about 10 times a night asking us to pick them up or to cover them. DH was so exasperated last night that he's wondering if we did anything to change things, I'll have to tell him that we're not the only ones.

Sorry I don't have any advice just wanted to let you know I do EXACTLY the same thing! I sit on a step stool because they'll quiet down when one of us is in there.

 

i just answered a similar post about this.

we emptied their room of everything but the sleep essentials so that they wouldn't have anything to play with and they still found that they could have a great time with each other.

so we ultimately had to use separating them (temporarily). we have a guest bedroom but if we actually have guests over then we use our room. i think the trick is to identify who is being the trouble maker and to pull that child out.

once they have fallen asleep then we move who ever got pulled out back into their own bed. i was careful not to let them get in the habit of sleeping in a different bed.

for us this has been an ongoing problem. it gets better for a few months then worse again when they reach a new milestone. we had gotten to a point where they were going to bed no problems, just the threat of separating calmed them down... then we potty trained and it started over again.

my boys are 4 1/2 and if they happen to nap during the day then we know we will have to be right on top of them at bed time. if they don't nap then they are so tired that they are falling asleep at dinnertime and bedtime is a breeze.

good luck!

 

Good to hear I'm not alone! I caved last night and sat on the step-stool for bedtime as well as nap and it was okay. Yeah, I fell asleep, but I caught myself before I crashed into the floor. I would say I am now averaging 1 1/2 hours sitting on a stool everyday. Why am I in timeout????????

Andrea

 

Oh Andrea, I feel your pain. It's sooo hard when sleep patterns change from good to bad.

I had major nap/bedtime challenges after one of my girls started climbing out of her crib. It was a week and a half of pure HE double L.

Of course, I hopped onto Twinstuff to see what I could do too. I orderd crib tents after Day 3 but it took a bit before they got here.

I contemplated just transitioning to beds, but I KNEW they would not get to sleep because they would bug each other and run around all night. I think with twins, the transition can be more of a challenge.

If I were in your postition, and it was an option, I'd go back to the cribs and get the tents. Seriously, the peace of mind I have it priceless. And knowing they're not going to get hurt is worth every penny I spent on those tents (which btw I've had to repair with a needle and thread SEVERAL times already).

I'll do whatever I have to to keep them safe, secure and SLEEPING in their cribs.

Good luck,
Daniele

 

Mine can't climb out of their cribs yet (although they still stay up for a while, chattering to each other), so I have no suggestions -- I just wanted to say that your post made me laugh! So, you must be extremely frustrated, but at least you still have your sense of humor. I hope something gets better soon!