We live in a two-bedroom house and have three children.
Which means that unless we are
willing to have a child residing under the table, we need to get all three
kids to sleep in the same room at the same time.
It hasn't been easy.
When you have one child sleeping in
a room alone there is always a chance that something will go wrong on any given
night. When you have three kids sharing a room the chances of something going
awry increase exponentially due to what I call "the domino effect of
disaster".
Allow me to illustrate with an
example from my own life.
Our problems almost always originate
with our two-year-old. She still takes a good nap in the afternoon and thus
tends to be pretty wide awake at her brothers' 8pm bedtime. Once the boys fall
asleep, it becomes imperative that she stay quiet so as not to wake them
up.
The interaction that follows tends
to go something like this:
8:45pm
ME: Shhh. OK, sweetheart.
It's OK, here's a little pacifier. Time to go to sleep now.
TWO-YEAR-OLD: (singing)
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!!!!!
ME: OK, shush now. Let's
just calm down.
(Furious
soothing of two-year-old begins)
TWO-YEAR-OLD: Look! I
dancing!
(Shushing
recommences)
THREE-YEAR-OLD: Mommy?
ME: Ugh! Go back to sleep! Your
sister is almost asleep over here.
TWO-YEAR-OLD: MOMMY! I like
applesauce!!!
THREE-YEAR-OLD: I'm going to
have a bounce house for my birthday right?
TWO-YEAR-OLD: (singing
recommences at increased volume)
THREE-YEAR-OLD: RIGHT????
ME: We'll talk about it in
the morning. Go back to sleep.
THREE-YEAR-OLD: (beginning to
wail) I want to to have one!!!! I really want to!
(Shushing
two-year-old, while attempting to make soothing gestures towards older son with
right foot)
ME: OK, fine, we'll get one.
Yes. Now be quiet.
TWO-YEAR-OLD: My baby doll is
JUMPING!
THREE-YEAR-OLD: I WANT A
BOUNCE HOUSE!!!!!!!
ME: FINE!!!! I SAID FINE!!!!
TWO-YEAR-OLD: WAH!
ME: Sorry baby, I wasn't
yelling at you.
TWO-YEAR-OLD: Wah!
THREE-YEAR-OLD: And I want a
construction cake!
ME: (over sounds of two-year-old's
wailing) Oh, goodness!
(Suddenly, a voice from the toddler
bed).
FIVE-YEAR-OLD: Mommy?
ME: NOOOOOOO!
TWO-YEAR-OLD: I love
butterflies!!
FIVE-YEAR-OLD: Is it breakfast
time? I'm hungry!
Cut to midnight, by which time
husband and I have banished the two-year-old to a pack-and-play in the living
room and convinced both boys to return to sleep with promises we'll surely
regret in the morning.
We stagger back to bed, grumble in
each other's general direction and attempt to grab some sleep before the next
day begins at 6:30am.
Yeah, it's really not going all that
well. For the time being we are trying to shift nap times and figure
out how to keep our two-year-old entertained quietly at bed time.
That - and we're desperately looking
for a bigger house.
