Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Sleeping arrangements...

We have always adhered to the rule: "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." This has been especially true in terms of where our children sleep.

Caden is sort of our wild card because he has stayed so much younger than most children due to his special needs. Caden was in a modified crib/gate crib (yes we rigged something straight into the walls around a mattress on the floor, looked horrid but it worked!) until he was almost 8 if memory serves me correctly. He had been sharing a room with Declan (who was also in a crib) so we needed to keep them separated. When Caden moved upstairs into his new bedroom he went into a twin bed and has done amazing.

Take Avery. She was still in a crib until she was over 4 years old. No, there's nothing about her that "warrants" that but she was sharing a room with Caden at the time and they were both in cribs so it worked. They were sleeping, we were sleeping. It was bliss. She went straight to a full bed and has done amazing.

Then there's Declan. You may have heard me talk about him before (LOL). Declan so far was our earliest to move out of a crib at just a few months over 3 years old, but sleeping has always been a bit of a power struggle for him. Avery and Declan really enjoy sleeping in the same bed, so we have allowed that on weekends. When Avery was off school for Christmas break we allowed it every night and guess who cannot change out of that mode? We have found Declan sleeping outside our bedroom door for the past 2 nights now. For what it's worth, right outside our bedroom door is concrete flooring. He's either desperate or quite ridiculous, but I am not allowed to be the judge and jury on that one.

So I talked with James about it (and a good friend, thanks Val!) and we agreed - why do we have to conform to what "everyone" says about where/how kids should sleep? Why can't we continue to do what we have been doing which is listen to what our kids want/need and adapt to fit our family's life? So it's a school night tonight and Declan is tucked cozily into Avery's bed. They're both sleeping and were out very quickly. They KNOW the rule is: you horse around, the sleepover ends. And they are very good about it! We plan to keep this going as long as they both want to do it. I PRAY that Declan's ready to quit before Avery is. Otherwise, does anyone have an air mattress he can lug about the house after midnight??

1 comment:

Teri said...

Thank you for posting this! I've read the post after this, but I've been struggling with sleep and my boys. They want to sleep with me and they are allowed in here when I have them on Friday. My friend gives me a hard time about it.