School started a week ago. In that time, we’ve been trying to figure out our new bed time and routine.
It’s a little hard when the kids are almost four years apart. Olivia obviously needs to go to bed earlier than Alyssa and yet when we all go to bed at 8:45 (which we did last night) Alyssa is sound asleep by 9 and she sleeps until I wake her up at 6:30, so I’m thinking she needs more sleep than she’d like to admit.
Liv, though, would actually go to sleep if I took her to bed at 8:00 each night. The problem is that she wants me to lay down in the same room with her. Well, she wants me to go to sleep at the same time and stay right there in the room with her all night but sometimes, I don’t stay there after she’s asleep. You know, because there is so much zombie TV to watch and so little time.
All kidding about zombies aside, the 8pm bedtime doesn’t happen because I don’t get home from work until 5:00, we have dinner at 6:00. Olivia is usually in the bath at 6:45, having her evening snack at 7:30 and we have to read and then brush teeth between 7:45 and 8:15. All that depends on a perfect night, a night where there are no unexpected visitors, or phone calls, or homework help needed. If we can just go and go and go from the minute I get home, we can get to bed at 8:30.
Alas, this causes a bit of whining from Lyss because when we got up to bed at 8:30, she doesn’t get her daily snuggle-with-mom time and that makes her cranky.
I know…I know. If, once upon a time, I’d taught these girlies how to go to sleep on their own…If I’d put them in their beds, tucked them in, kissed them good night and vacated the room, I could do that very thing with Olivia at 8:15 and then go down and spend the next forty-five minutes giving Alyssa her very much needed snuggle time. Then, I could send that child to bed at 9:00 and then, maybe, have an hour of zombie time all to myself.
In my dreams. For now, we’re making do with an 8:45 bedtime for all.
On the bright side, I’m getting way more sleep these days, what with going to bed at 9:00 each night…since, you know, even if I plan to get up after the girls go to sleep, I always fall asleep right along with them. Huh…guess that means I need more sleep too.
A mom, a dad and two daughters. We're living ordinary lives with a twist of 5p- (Cri du Chat) for spice. But we're about so much more than our younger daughter's genetic diagnosis.
1 comment:
Oh, the 9PM go to sleep time. In my dreams. Two nights a week, I don't even get home from the gym until 9PM. Riley usually heads up at about 9:30 with a "Is it okay if I go to bed now?" I follow within 20-30 minutes, then I read for a little bit. Those nights that I look at my alarm as I'm setting my book down and it's WAAAY to close to 11 or even 12...those nights make me want to cry. Because I know that 5:30 alarm is gonna hurt. Occasionally, I just head to bed at 9PM because I'm beyond exhausted. That's usually on a Friday night because yeah, that's how cool I am in my forties.
As far as kids being trained to go to bed on their own? Yeah, it's fantastic. But I do miss evening snuggle time.
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