My first born child was always really easy to get to sleep, of course she co-slept with me from the day she was born up until three or four years of age so when I went to sleep, she went to sleep. My sons on the other hand never really co-slept from the beginning. My first born had a bassinet beside my bed so that I could easily nurse him in the middle of the night but after 8 weeks he switched to formula and was in a crib in my bedroom. My last born child co-slept more than his brother but less than his sister. It seemed the boys were not as easy to have in our bed because they didn’t sleep when we slept necessarily and at that time I started getting concerned for their safety being in a bed in between two adults, whereas with my daughter I was a single mom so it was just her and me in the bed.

The first born boy has always had issues with sleeping through the night, it was given from the day he was born that we would no longer get a good nights sleep with this child but we had hoped in time this would change. In the past few months my first born son has started to sleep through the night but now the three year old wakes mid night with a wet pull up or wet pajamas and bed due to peeing too much while sleeping. I have tried to cut back on drinks before bed, make the three year old use the toilet before bedtime, but none of it keeps this child from waking mid night. If we are lucky there is one night in a seven day week that we can sleep all night without our deep sleep being interrupted from yelling boys.

The bedtime routine is pretty strict and each child is fully aware of it as it has been in place for many years. Up until about a year ago the routine was the same but both boys were placed to bed at the same time, they share a room so this ended up becoming a nightmare. The boys would jabber, feed into each other and if they got too hyper chatting then they wouldn’t be too easy to get back to sleep. After going to my first born son’s counselor with my concerns regarding bedtime routine, we were told to do each boy separately which in turn can make bedtime start as early as 6:30pm for the youngest and as late as 9pm for the oldest on some days. I personally want all three of my kids asleep by 8:30pm at the latest on a school night.

It’s been such a struggle with bedtime routine, which has been discussed with the counselor, but it is the only method that works right now to get them to sleep with less troubles and engagement between the boys. A normal night I spend two hours waiting for kids to be asleep and it’s killing me. I do not want to spend two hours every single night getting kids to bed, I feel like there has to be another option. Aside from wishing I had three bedrooms, I don’t know what else to do.

What would you suggest with my situation regarding wanting to cut down bedtime routine time?