bedtime

Sometimes as a parent I have moments when I say to myself, "Duh! Why didn't I think of that before."

I have never been a good "bedtime" parent. It stresses me out. Many nights its a battle. And its been going on a long time. Lets discuss a timeline:

May 2008: When Ana was about 21 months old she figured out how to climb out of her crib. At the time I was 8 months pregnant with Jack and we were living at Dave's parents house. So I rocked her or sat by her until she fell asleep. Sometimes it took about an hour.

October 2008: We had a two bedroom apartment. I really didn't want Ana to wake up a sleeping baby. But she wouldn't stay in bed. So I usually laid down next to her on my bed until she fell asleep.

July 2009: I decided its time the kids can go to sleep at the same time. So I initiated a routine and figured if we stuck to the same thing every night, eventually they would just quietly lay in their beds and drift peacefully off to sleep in a matter of minutes after sending them to bed. This mentality has left me with a year of wanting to pull my hair out every bedtime. Ana would either come out a bunch of times or she would just talk and play with toys for about an hour. This was frustrating. Many times it would end with one of us laying next to Ana in our bed.

April 2010: Jack started sleeping in a big boy bed. Now both of them were climbing out of bed and playing and laughing and coming out of their beds.

All of this time I kept thinking to myself, "We are doing the same routine. Eventually it will get better." Then one day my sister said to me, "Erin, you can't keep doing to same thing and expect different results. Something isn't working."

Duh.

By that point, I knew that everything would get crazy when we moved so I didn't really worry about it. But I knew that once we moved something would change. I just didn't know what.

This last week that change(s) came to us so easily its almost comical.

We turned off the light.

Duh.

I've always had this mystic idea that if I keep a small lamp on in their room that they would sit quietly on their beds looking at books until they drifted peacefully off to sleep.

Yeah, right.

I also decided/realized this week that its going to take an hour to get to kids to sleep no matter what. I could either make it a peaceful time and spend time laying next to kids and helping them calm down for a while and be happy about it, or I could get angry with them and make it a horrible experience. I decided to make it a happy time.

Duh.

Besides, this way I get to read a book for a while in the hallway while I wait for them to fall asleep. And who doesn't love a little quiet reading time?

So far, its been working quite well. Tonight it took the kids about 15 minutes - without me in there - to fall asleep.

I think its finally working.

(Knock on wood.)