Frustrated

The girls are driving me crazy.

Ever since we put them in the same room, they can't stop playing and laughing long enough to go to sleep. They went from falling asleep between 730 and 830 to going to sleep somewhere around 930 or 10, or if it was last night 11. That's just not acceptable.

Mike and I spend our entire evening going into their room to quiet them down, yell at them to lay down/stop playing/stop talking, etc. And then dispense spanking hands when all that fails.

We've tried giving Emily a toy as a reward for going to sleep nicely. We've tried giving them books to read that get taken away when they are naughty. We've tried the yelling. The really frustrating part is that Emily wants to go to sleep. She's tired. But Lucy sits there calling her name and there's only so much of that a 3 year old can ignore. Lucy is totally the instigator in this.

Last night was just NOT GOOD. After I went in at 10:40 to yell at them and separate them, I was so mad, I couldn't go to sleep. I wound up tossing and turning until 1. I couldn't get my brain to shut down. So I formulated plans.

As far as the bed time thing goes, this is the current plan:

> Nap time for Emily will be about 1 hour. When she goes to sleep, I will wake her up after she's been asleep for about an hour. I think she still needs the sleep, but I don't think a 2 or 3 hour nap is doing her any good. And it sure isn't helping the bedtime situation any. After the hour is over, she can play quietly in the playroom or go outside.

> Nap time for Lucy will end at 4. She will happily sleep from 1-5, especially on busy days and that's great, but she's not very tired at 7:30 if she's only been out of bed since 4:30.

> Lucy will be going to bed between 7 and 730.

> Emily will be going to bed between 8 and 830, basically an hour after Lucy goes to bed. I'm hoping that this will help Lucy start to settle down or fall asleep before Emily gets in there. I'm also hoping that the later bedtime will help Emily be more tired.

> If the girls are still talking and playing at 9, they will be separated and Emily will sleep in the playroom that night. Lucy has huge dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep and this has got to stop.

So there you have it. My new bedtime plan for world domination.