For many months, longer than we can remember or are willing to admit, we have been battling with Claire about bedtime. She did not want to go to bed when the boys did and she definitely would not go in her crib. We found our options were to either rock her to sleep for hours on end, which she still sometimes woke up from, or just let her "hang out" until we were ready to go to bed. In most cases, by then she was ready to crash. As you can imagine, we created a bedtime monster...and then to make matters worse, she started going to bed with us instead of her own bed because we were more desperate for sleep than she was!
After our spring break vacation week, we decided it was time to re-train the bedtime monster. After several failed attempts at SuperNanny solutions and stuck body parts in the gate at her door, we stumbled into an alternative solution.
Night 1: Brady upset by Claire being upset led to Daddy laying down with both of them in Brady's bed. They both went to sleep shortly after.
Day 2: Chris and I remembered that we did not have these bedtime battles with the boys when they transitioned to the big kid bed. Perhaps, the bottom bunk bed is magical!!
Night 2: Musical bed game began!! We asked Brady to go sleep in our bed, so that we could give Claire his bed temporarily. Claire only required a parent to lay down with her for about 10-15 minutes. After a couple hours, the music started back up for the kids to be moved to their proper bed.
Night 3-8: Musical beds is a nightly game with great success! Chris and I gained our evenings back!!
Night 9 forward: The game has changed. Brady has now decided that he will sleep on the top bunk with his brother and Claire can use his bed. For 3 nights now, they are all going to bed in the same bedroom at the same time and sleeping through the entire night.
Chris and I love the new sleeping situation! I have also officially concluded that Brady's bed is indeed a magic bed! As an added note, I find it quite interesting that here we are motivated to find a 4 bedroom home so that they each have their own bedroom and they have all piled in one room together! It's really sweet now, but I am sure it will change as they get older!
