Strange Sleepers

My kids all have sleep issues. Jared falls asleep at the drop of a hat where ever he is when he gets tired. I think I have posted before about him even falling asleep at a concert. Justin sleep walks. Jerome likes to mess with him when he does. Jadyn likes to sleep in odd places...

I have spoiled her a bit. But, we are working on fixing the problem. She had gotten in the habit of wanting me to rock her before she would go to bed. Or she would fall asleep in my bed (even if she were by herself) and I would have to move her to her own bed. We have been trying to get her to go to sleep around 8pm in her own toddler bed like the boys go to bed each night. With a little bit of crying. Well, at first a lot of crying, then a little she has started going to sleep more regularly. The problem is she gets up and sleeps in odd places. Sometimes she will get at the bottom of our bed by our feet. Her favorite place to go in the middle of the night is the couch. But the other night she threw us both for a loop, LOL.

Jerome and I were up watching TV and she came downstairs. But she only came to the third step from the bottom. Jerome told her to go back to bed and she just pretended to be asleep. He then told her to come lay on the couch with mommy. Still she pretended to be asleep. I knew she was pretending because I went over there one time and I could see her peeking. But, after a few minutes we thought she went back to her bed. I didn't dare go up there for fear that she would start crying about having to sleep by herself.

After a while Jerome and I decided to go up to bed, so we turned off the lights and headed up. Jerome almost stepped on our little sleeping baby who, after all the pretending, really did go back to sleep on the steps!

Last night was a SUCCESS!! I gave her a both, put on pj's and told her it was time to go to bed. She got her baby and went to get in her bed. I tucked her in and kissed her and she went to SLEEP!!! YEA She did get up about 4:00 and went to get on the couch. But, at least she is going to sleep in her bed first. This will be very important in a few weeks when Jerome leaves. After the kids go to bed is MY time. I will be able to relax and read my Bible or watch TV or just eat ice cream. Deployments get stressful! So planning downtime for myself as well as needed rest for the kids will help out a lot! I am trying to get everyone on a schedule now so that we are prepared. It may change a bit, but better to be prepared than not.