For the life of me, I can't understand my children! One boy and one girl who, most days, fight like cats and dogs, but who cannot sleep apart from each other any night of the week.
It started a couple years ago. Both Grace and Evan were having terrible nightmares. One, or both of them, would separately wake us in the middle of the night because they were having such bad dreams. NO ONE was getting any sleep.
Out of desperation, I decided to move the mattress off Ev's bed into Grace's room, just to see, as an experiment only.
Both slept perfectly for a week. NO nightmares.
Well, you know me and decorating.....the mattress just looked hideous on the floor, so we took down Ev's bed, and moved it into Grace's room. They shared a room and a closet for a year.
They were both sleeping good at night, but it was HORRIBLY hard to get them awake in the morning for school. I figured out why, one night, when at 10:00 (we put them to bed at 8:00), they were STILL talking.
We decided to move them back to separate rooms, because the late bedtime was making them horribly grouchy, not to mention mama as well!
They did ok, apart, but on the weekends, begged to sleep together again. I just couldn't figure it out. What kid doesn't want their own room, their own space? So, on the weekends, one of them took turns sleeping on a small cot that we moved back and forth from room to room.
Needless to say, another year later, the spell has been broken again. They just couldn't handle separate sleeping conditions, and begged for more than just the weekends. The cot was too small, though, so I found this on craigslist for $20.
It's a fold away cot from a very nice family in Goshen. It was an extra bed at a lake house.
Grace claimed it immediately! We put the extra blankets/sheets on it, and moved it into Ev's room. (It's been at least a month since he's slept in his own bed.)
I think the smile gives it away, you fake sleeper!
Now, they don't fight about sleeping together, they fight about who gets to sleep in the "bouncy bed" (it has some incredibly bouncy bed springs in it!).
I guess this is just one of those parental battles I'd rather not fight.
I know I can't exist on only a few hours of sleep, so I'm happy for no one running downstairs in the night with a nightmare.
We'll see how long this fad lasts.
Well at least they are getting along right? :) By highschool they'll have to start sleeping in their own rooms again!! And you are more than welcome to come with me to Greece since my husband does not want to. He actually says I cannot leave the country without him, so this might be a challenge :)
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