Adding peace to Bedtime?

Sleepy time has never been our forte’. Our first was never a great sleeper and ended up sleeping in bed with us until just recently when we finally moved her back to her big girl bed. Luckily, our second seems to like his crib and sleeps relatively well in comparison. But, still, we are having lots of trouble with both kiddos sleeping through the night in the same room. Lately we’ll have one decent night (with only one or two wakenings) and then we’ll have a night like last night …. with one or the other one up about every 45 minutes :(. Needless to say it is exhausting.

We’ve tried to be consistent with bedtime routines, but definitely could be better. We’re thinking an earlier bedtime is in order for deeper sleep, or so say the many sleep ladies. A few nights a week Johnny doesn’t finish work until 6:45 pm making dinner 7pm. So by the time the kiddos are ready for bed …. it is later than we had planned and they are getting their second wind.

So I decided to try an idea I read from LaDawn Jacob, a sweet lady in our ward who has lots of kids who turned out great. She served dinner earlier for the kids and then later for her husband on days that he worked. At first I wasn’t keen on the idea, but the more I think about it … the more I want to try it. And so I did tonight.

The first good thing about feeding the kiddos at 5 pm is that I know that dinner will be ready for sure when my husband gets home. I even have time to do the dishes! The kiddos little tummies are full and happy. When daddy gets home he can eat and play with the kids and then it is off to bath and bed. Hopefully it will go much smoother and it will bring a little more peace to our home in the evenings. I will let you know!