something needs to change about sleeping.....

My DS and DD sleep in the same room and for about the past month have crawled out of their PNPs (where they have always slept)

Since they started climbing out, we have been laying on the floor in their room to get them to go to sleep without getting out. They used to go to bed at 7 pm and sleep until 7 am or later and used to go to nap at 1245 and sleep until 315.

Now our lives are crazy! My husband lays on their floor at night for almost 1 1/2 hours and nap time take about 45 minutes for me to lay on the floor before they fall asleep. The really difficult part for nap time is that I am also trying to get my 6 month old to sleep! So, there I am, laying on the floor, nursing her to sleep, trying to get the twins to be quiet (or vice versa)!!!!!

The past few days have been terrible! Today they wouldn't nap and I just don't know where to go from here. We have put toddler beds up in their room, but they just jump on them and are absolutely horrible about sleeping in them.

I am losing my patience and close to losing my mind! I can't believe a 2 year old can drive a grown adult so mad! I really need a break in the afternoons, and I feel like I am a terrible parent and disciplinarian for not figuring this out. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

What do you think I should do? Just totally babyproof the room and let it be a free for all???? Today I called my husband crying because I just don't feel cut out for this! Should we look into crib tents? (not sure there are ones for pnps????)

Thanks for any help. I asked one of my friends (she does not have twins, though) how to keep them in their beds, and she said, that is where discipline comes in! UGH! Now I feel awful - like I can't control my kids!

PLEASE HELP!

 

I would try the following starting with their nap:
1) Baby proof the room and get rid of anything they would want to play with (diapers, garbage, chairs, etc)
2) Naps...at this age they can take them or leave them. Give them that hour or so as usual. For the first few days they will not take naps. (That night just put them to bed earlier and endure the grumpy babies for the first few nights). Go in once or twice and tell them "i can hear you, stay in bed!" and take something away. When they start crying tell them to stop or you will take "blah" away next. This usually calms things down. They will not stay in bed without reason. Why would they?

This will be hard...but laying on the ground for an hour or so is hard too and you don't want to do that forever! GL :grouphug:

 

I would normally say crib tents but with PNPs there is no choice really... at that point I'd remove everything from the room, and just close the door and call it a night. Maybe remove the PNPs also and put them in the toddler beds, even if they don't stay in them, just so they know that's where they should sleep.

Frankly... we switched much later (very close to 3), but it was easy for us. Because we just let it go. If they play for one hour then fall asleep on the floor, whatever really. Even now we'll just go back in after a while if they make too much noise, put them back in bed and leave again, and that's it.

 

actually they DO make crib tents for pack n plays
I would DEF get those
but also, we had this same problem

what we did, I started sitting in the hallway, if they got out of their rooms or cried for me
I went downstairs
which they hated and would get in bed so I would come back...

 

i'm in the toddler-proof-the-heck-outta-their-room-put-them-to-bed-and-leave-them camp. we did that with our girls when we transitioned to toddler beds at 18 months. the first few weeks they played & played & played (i have no idea what with - there was nothing in their room :laughing but would eventually fall asleep somewhere (usually on the floor). after they got over the novelty though they started staying in bed & falling asleep quickly, usually within a half hour or so. for naps, we put them down at their regular time & they were in their room for 2 hours, whether they slept or not. GL!

 

I could have written your post. We had ours in their cribs until they decided to crawl out of that. we went to toddler beds and we too stayed in the room with them until they would fall asleep. My husband got tired of all the time we were wasting and we decided to stop doing that about 2 weeks ago. It has been a nightmare since then. We have stripped their room of everything that was in it. Currently there are two toddler beds and a dresser that is bolted down to the wall. We basically close the door and let them be. Trust me they find a numerous amount of activities to do even when ther is literally nothing in their room to play with. I leave them in there until they fall asleep for their naps, some times it takes 1 to 2 hrs but I don't give in, they need to learn to give me some peace and quiet. For bed time it takes them about 1 to give in and fall asleep which most often than not they fall asleep on the floor and then I go in and put them back in bed once they are completely asleep. Bottom line, I don't have any answers for you, I know exactly how you are feeling right now and I would just hang in there because it has to get better, at least that's what I keep telling myself. Good luck to you.

 

Thanks for the replies! I think this weekend we will totally babyproof the room....last night DH (who usually puts them to bed) came out after 45 minutes and said - they are not asleep, let's just see what happens...WELL....what happened is that the curtains were pulled down, and everything in the room was a MESS!!! DH was not quite sure what they were capable of! He went back in after 30 minutes and put them to sleep...

Any ideas of babyproofing curtains??? My son likes to play with them. Sigh....

I guess this is just another one of those "phases" we have to get through!

Thanks again!

 

I would just leave the curtains down for now. Can you tack up or tape up a sheet to just cover the window itself, that doesn't hang down, so they aren't able to reach it?

 

Yes, curtains must come down until later. Try to figure out something to cover the window with until you can put something up again. It is interesting when you think you have baby proofed their room and then you realize that it is not the case. There is something you will miss. Hang in there; it has to get better, for your sake and mine.
Tell yourself and your husband that this is not just you guys going through this, there are more people like us going through it to, it helps me get through most days.

 

I have been lurking as mine turn 2 in a few weeks. Mine are still in cribs but we are having to do the same thing because it is taking SO long for them to fall asleep. They just play and play. We are wanting to switch to toddler beds but are scared. When you ladies are talking about completely babyproofing, are you taking all the toys out too? What do you do for a nightlight? Do you let them still have their crib stuffed animals, twilight turtle, etc. I am so not ready for this!

 

We initially took all the toys out except for one lovey each (they now keep all their loveys & books in their room as it's less of an issue now). We put a shelf up above their change table with everything from their night light to their white noise machine to their fan/humidifier. The cables run down behind the change table into one of these outlet covers.

 

You have time!!! Seriously we would have waited until 3 if they hadn't decided to climb out...

We removed all the toys except the stuffies. They actually didn't have many at first but they kept bringing more and more to bed, but in the end it hasn't made a big difference. Mostly it's for safety purpose so they don't get hurt... we had to remove the monitor and the nightlights are those kinderglo portable ones... but unfortunately I don't recommend them anymore because two have broken after a few months, which is really a shame. Not sure what we'll do when the new one breaks again, but they don't really need them for now. My kids wouldn't leave anything plugged in.

For the curtains etc we have cordless blinds and we haven't had any problem with those... we did have to empty the closet and they busted the door of it though... and the dresser. Really it's just two mattresses, bedding and stuffies pretty much (and their rainforest music thingy but they keep eating the batteries so it's going soon).