We need ideas. We have ideas, but we need input on those ideas and new ideas to consider.
Here's the schedule: mine and my husband's time together at the end of the day is HIGHLY important to us! It is beneficial for both of us to have time away from the children to focus on our relationship with each other. As his schedule changes constantly, so does our flexibility with our boy's bedtimes, but on a normal day to day basis the boys go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00. We understand as they get older (this applies to Elijah more than Judah right now) their need for lengthly night sleep will decrease. Judah is still needing 11-12 hours a night to be fully functional the next day. (fully functional as in NOT screaming and crying about anything and everything) Elijah DEFINITELY needs more than 8 hours (as found this past week in his refusal to sleep, 3 nights in a row he had only 8 hours and it made for a VERY disagreeable boy!) They both take a 2 hour afternoon nap. Sleeping for the full 2 hours rarely happens, but they are required to rest for at least 2 hours. Elijah will often sleep 3 1/2 hours if I don't wake him. If he doesn't sleep at all during naptime (which has happened on several occasions) he's a blubbering emotional mess by the time 6:00 pm rolls around, which in turn makes for a very unrestful evening for everyone. Tonight it was nearly 9 before he fell asleep (I know this because I was checking on him every 5 minutes to ensure he was still in bed - we've been fighting this battle for over a week now and it's been utterly exhausting!)
The problem to be solved:
As the time my husband and I get together in the evening (or I get to myself when he's on night rotations) is so important, we are in search of a QUIET and constructive activity for Elijah to do at night in his room (he and Judah share a room - keep this in mind) while he unwinds from his day. He tires with flipping through books after 10 minutes or so, likes to color but quickly loses interest in coloring ONLY on the designated coloring area, and LOVES movies but we hesitate to pop in a movie for him EV ER Y night (unless ya'll have some awesome ideas of educational movies for his age). We've tossed around the idea of getting him one of those little Leap Frog laptops, but hate to spend the money if he's just going to get frustrated with it and be coming out of his room constantly to ask for help - I also don't want the noise of the laptop to interfere with Judah's sleep and Elijah has proven to hate headphones. He's worn them, but not without breaking both pairs we've tried. So there you have the challenge - brilliant ideas only, please! ;)
5 comments:
Becky, I'm not sure if this qualifies as brilliant, but our boys share a room, too, and we got Thane a Tag Reader- he loves it. The little pen thing that reads the words/ facilitates the games has a volume button on it, so it can be really quiet. I don't know if it would wake up Judah, but it is very entertaining to Thane.
We have tried altering nap times. Our kids nap pretty early in the day and Malachi doesn't always take a nap, but is required to rest. By taking early naps, both kids are ready to go to bed by 8pm.
It will be interesting to see the comments that people have on this subject. We are in the exact same position. Lily and LB share a room and for the last 2 YEARS, we wait outside their room for noises that they are getting out of bed or for talking. Because once they start talking, it's all downhill from there. It seems to be, in the last month, it has gotten better. But I hate to say that only because it probably is just a faze and won't stay that way.
That being said, Lily has a tag reading pen and I bought it for this purpose of not staying in bed. But the Cons outweigh the benefits. She needs a light to be able to see at night with it and it's loud for LB. It does have a headphone jack on it but you said he doesn't leave those on, so I'm not sure it would be worth investing in that right now.
Do they need to share a room?
how about a special toy (that takes time?) like legos that he's ONLY allowed to play with in bed during this quiet time? or a puzzle? GI Joes...not brilliant but it is an idea. :) good luck!
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