Sleeping arrangements

K and I have spent the last 6 years or so working on a sleeping routine for our kids. I consider us quite lucky in that B-man was sleeping through the night by 4 wks old, and continued this until the past year or so. AJ we weren't so fortunate with when it comes to sleeping; he wakes up at the creek of the floor.

About a year ago the boys started asking to share a bedroom. I was very hesitant to do this because I had to share a bedroom with my brother growing up and I HATED it. Clearly a boy and a girl 3 yrs apart vs 2 boys 18 months apart is not a very good comparison on how the sharing of a bedroom would play out; but needless to say my experience made me delay this as long as possible.

Both boys were in separate rooms, both with full size beds. This posed a conveniently inconvenient issue. If they woke up at night, K or I would just go sleep in their bed, thus allowing them to sleep in our bed whenever they wanted. We chose our sleep over the 2 am argument. As I'm sure one would guess, this got old real quick. (although not as quick as one would think, I'm talking like year or so)

I used the boys wanting to share a room as incentive to get them to remain in their beds. In order for them to share a room, they would need bunk beds-which they both thought would be SO COOL. So I told them they had to sleep in their beds in their rooms for at least 30 days. They did this, and without much difficulty-which I found frustrating, to only find out that a little bribery would work so quickly.

We went through the process about 4 months ago now, to convert B-mans room into the new toy room and now AJ and B-man share a bedroom and have full over full bunk beds.

These bunk beds are monstrous, and open up so many possibilities for a young boys imagination. We have had a jungle, army fort, castle to name a few.

The boys had an endless supply of concerns with this new bed arrangement too. The top was too scary, the bottom too dark, what if I fall, what if I bump my head.. it went on and on for the first week or so.

I am happy to say though, both boys have been sleeping in their beds, through the night for 10 days now.

They currently have a chart with 25 boxes. It takes 21 days to form a habit, so I have given them the goal of 25 days to sleep in their beds and through the night, and every 5 days in a row, they get a prize.

Fingers crossed that this 21 day habit forming rule rings true!!