Friday, April 5, 2013

Sharing a Room (part 2)

I didn't want to blog at all about this at first because I didn't want to jinx it. If you want to mess up anything: babies sleeping through the night, good behavior with kids, success in potty training, anything at all, just post about it on facebook or blog about it.

It's your kids supernatural way of humbling you and proving once again that you are NOT in control of your universe.

Levi (age 3.5) and Aria (15 months) have been sharing a room for maybe a few months now. I'm specific about their ages because I think that's a big deal when it comes to kids and sleep. I feel like any child under the age of 18 months, sleep is still a little dicey. So we did it a little soon, but we kind of knew that.

At this stage Aria always goes down first. If we put them in bed at the same time she usually laughs and squeals too much for them to go to sleep. A few nights we have just let them to go sleep like that, but haven't let them do it... as I write I wonder if it would be okay to let them go down at the same time.

Some get-by parenting:
I lay with the kids a lot. Now at nap times I lay with Levi because when I would put him to bed he would usually wake Aria up from her nap as soon as I left the room. We had spankings several times for this but he didn't seem to remember. So, for now I'm laying with him for 15-20 mins until he falls asleep.
Also, the other morning they woke up at 5. Ben woke me up and told me they were making noises, so I went into the room and Levi had the light on. They were squealing and laughing. I started laying down the law in there real quick. "It's not time to get up yet" and all that kind of stuff. I laid down in bed with Levi and told Aria to lay down and be quiet. I was shocked when she obeyed. She did this the other night as well. They weren't going to sleep and she had been crying. Levi was yelling at her to be quiet and so I went in, laid in Levi's bed with him and told her to be quiet and lay down. I shushed every time she started to make a noise and eventually she went to sleep.

(Rabbit trail)
It still surprises me when I see that she can understand what I'm saying to her. It's like she's moving from being just a baby to a toddler. It's just as shocking (and angering) when she rebels. Oh my, when I tell her to come and she looks at me with that little look that says, "mommy, I understand you and I don't want to do what you are asking." Oh my ... this is quite shocking.

I know from experience that this is only the tip of the iceberg and I am not looking forward to the months ahead where she will become more disobedient. Lord, help me to be diligent in my parenting. Help me to be on top of things and consistent. Jesus, give me strength.

(Back on the path)
So far I'm glad that we have them in the same room. I think the bond between them in thickening and I am thankful that they are sharing. We still have to figure out the nap times. I'm thinking about getting a clock that changes color when they can get out of bed, it's called a Tot Clock I'm just putting if off because of the price though... It might be worth it.

So, yeah, I definitely recommend putting kids in the same room. It's challenging at times (for sure!) but I think it's teaching them to sleep through stuff better with noises in the room and just giving them that connection.


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