Night routine - hell-p

We have great twin boys, just turned 3, but we struggle with night time. We were Ok for quite a while, but have gotten into a rut with one who is stubborn and fights every step between brushing his teeth to getting into his crib..

We are still lucky as they like them and only have tried to climb out - well they put their feet up a few times, but never go that far.

The other one is good, but wakes up at night for the past few months and wants to come into our room. Then we gave in and now it is a habit.

They get one of their trains in bed, their new Diego jaguar, and that is it. We sit and read them a story, but once it is time to get in their cribs they aren't happy.

Then we go up and down 10 times to give them what they want. (I know, we try to stop but it is just so hard at this age to listen to them get so upset it is crazy

 

Our girls were about 6mos younger than your twins when we changed but I found that bed time got MUCH easier when we moved to beds. Not sure that is normal. We were having some of the same behavior and the change up and excitement of "big beds" (ours are actually toddler beds) was a big thing for them and really brought them around.

 

We have always had pretty good bedtimes, but we did get into the same rut as you that we would go up and down the stairs 10 times a night giving them a different car that they wanted or picking up something that fell out of the crib or fixing a blanket...it got RIDICULOUS!

We finally just put a stop to it. First we stopped allowing them to have anything in the crib that would fall through the slats. They could have a couple of stuff toys, blankets, and pillows. Then once they got used to that we told them when we said goodnight that was it and we weren't coming back up. My one DD didn't seem to care, she was always easier unless something fell from the crib. My other DD had a fit and the first night it lasted over an hour, next night 30 mins, the next night was about 20 mins and that was it. No more fussing. The only thing now is DD will call down from her crib that she can't hear me and I have to yell up that I am here and to go to sleep. :lol:

Just letting them cry was the only thing that would work and I know that they are old enough that I could explain why we were doing it.

 

I would tell them what the routine will be, how many hugs and kisses etc.... I also use their stories etc. as incentive to get things done. So, get our PJ's on and brush teeth in quick order or we are going to start losing stories. (We start at one long story and a short or 3 shorter and go down from there....works well for us. They hate losing privileges!!)