Summertime Sleep

First off Happy 4th of July!!! I love Fourth of July BBQs which brings me to my next thought... Summer is one of my favorite seasons (second only to Spring... Love, love, love the Spring). In the summer you've got great weather, BBQs, the beach, and long long days. What's not to love? Well the long days are great, It's nice to eat dinner with my family and still see the sun out. However (and this is where I start to complain), the sunny evenings are keeping my Munchkin awake, and he in turn is keeping Bear awake.

Munchkin has a typical bedtime of 8:00... Earlier if I need a break earlier and later if I'm keeping him up for a kiss from daddy. We have the typical suggested bedtime routine: bath, books, bed. Usually this works. Munchkin has always been a pretty good sleeper. He started sleeping through the night at 4 months and transitioned into a big boy bed rather easily. We've never had to "sleep train" him. The most I've done is sit in his doorway until he settles enough to fall asleep.

Lately bedtime has become more and more frustrating. Munchkin just doesn't seem to be ready for sleep while the sun is up. I suppose you can't blame him... But this is me trying desperately to cling to a schedule. I like 8:00 bedtime (I like 7:30 even better). I actually have some time to decompress and finish up some chores I didn't get to during the day, or just plain veg out.

Tonight, everything was going so smoothly. Munchkin didn't fight me at bath time (which started at 7:15), and came to his room willingly ready for stories (7:45). After his books I kissed him goodnight, closed his door and walked out. I figured he'd probably get up but as long as he stayed in there he might tire himself out and fall asleep. WRONG!!!!

I was sitting across the hall in Little Bear's room rocking and feeding him his bedtime bottle and here comes Munchkin with some random request. I think he requested bed time music (his term for lullabies). Of course now that he's come in, bear is ready to ham it up. So with Bear in one arm I drag walk him back to bed. This repeats at least 6 times. Then I kind of gave in and told him he could lay on the floor while I rock Bear. Nope, because of course he wants to have a conversation. Then I decide, perhaps he just needs quiet time in his room. So I toss some books on the floor, and him too, then shut the door again. This back and forth goes on for another twenty minutes, each time rousing Bear from his "almost a sleep phase". Munchkin finally settled down close to 9:30 with a little help from DH (I think he started to feel my frustration when I shot him daggers from my eyes as he came in for an impromptu goodnight kiss and got both boys all giggley again).

Anyway, moving forward somethings gotta give. For one I will push bedtime back a bit and I think I'll try quiet time for both boys in Little Bear's room. Hopefully I can get Little Bear sleepy enough to fall asleep during his bottle, and I know Munchkin just wants to be close by even if it's quiet time. Plus maybe it'll be dark/dim enough for Munchkin to go to sleep to. I also read that maybe I could try some room darkening blinds, I'd probably get temporary cause I'm cheep thrifty ;).

Until next time, wish me luck! I'll keep you posted.