Someone give me some advice please!!!?

Question

I am sorry this is for me to vent too but I am going nuts! I have an 18 month old and an almost 6 month old. They share a bedroom and their door doesnt shut. My oldest started the CIO method at 6 months so he could learn to self soothe and stop fighting his sleep so badly. It was so easy. I unfortunately cannot do that with Riley because of Logan. We tried for two days and gave up. During the day Logan would go check on Riley if he was screaming and then try to talk to him. If they would go to bed at the same time for a nap or for night time then they would scream for hours. I cant put Riley in his bed during the day because Logan can just go in the room. I have no where to put Riley because my 2 bedroom trailer(mobile home) is small and crappy. (I own it but I am really starting to hate it. My roof is also leaking by my back door and it is rotting my freakin walls out. Sorry I know I am venting) The boys have the bigger room so I cant put a pack n play in my room for him to sleep because there is literally no room. I can barely open my closet. I dont have anywhere in the living room and it wouldnt help anyway because Logan would just wake him up. Great he just went into the room ... Riley has been asleep for about 10 minutes now in there and he is about to be woken up. I dont know what to do. Riley and I are both losing sleep over this. Riley is also rolling over in his sleep onto his stomach now and its making him wake up. Someone please help me with some kind of advice?

Update:

IMHO thanks for the advice but Logan sleeping in my room wouldnt work. We have tried but he has only ever slept in his crib before.

AP Mommy · Accepted Answer

Wow, I had to read your question a couple times to understand just what your situation is.

Are you a single mother? Have you thought about co-sleeping? Laying down with the both of them? Or putting Logan down in the baby room and taking little Riley in bed with you until he falls asleep.

Have you tried putting a gate on the baby room door to keep Logan out?  It sound to me like the CIO method might not work for Riley like it did for Logan. And personally, I'm against CIO anyway, but that's off the subject.

I'm sorry that you are struggling. And believe me, this time will pass. Just do what works, even if it means laying down with them together.

Do Riley and Logan nap at the same time?  I'm assuming Logan is down to one nap now, and Riley is still on 2 naps.

Try lying Riley down exactly 90 minutes after the time he wakes up in the morning.  That first wake period of the day for little ones like Riley is very brief. I found that out with my 6 yr old when he was little.

I have twins now that are 2. They've always shared a room. They take a 90 minute to 2 hour nap in the day and sleep about 12 hours at night.

I've never did any CIO with them. I always just parented them to sleep and eventually they just didn't need it anymore and I can put them both down awake and they go to sleep. THey'll talk together for about 10 minutes, then they go to sleep.

I wish I had an easy solution for you.  If you are a single mother.. maybe you could ask a neighbor to help with your leaky roof.

Hope things start looking better for you. Just take it one day at a time. Soon it'll be one week at a time.. and time will pass quick before you even know it.

IMHO · Answer

Okay, first you need to take a deep breath.  It will get better.  I don't have any experience with CIO methods as it is not the method I personally used with my children.  As far as Logan going in when Riley is sleeping, would a baby gate help?  At least then Logan shouldn't be able to get right in the room.  I would also suggest trying to have 'special' quiet activities that Logan can only do while Riley is sleeping, to distract him.  Something like playdough, colouring or even a movie you can both sit and watch.
As far as when they need to both go to bed at the same time, for naps I would suggest one naps in your room (probably Logan) while Riley naps in the boy's room.  Follow the same routine every naptime so they know what is expected.  Depending on how late their bedtime is, I would tend to do the same thing - Logan in your room and Riley in his.  You can transfer Logan when it's time for you to go to bed or earlier if Riley is asleep.  Once Riley is into a good sleep routine you might be able to just stagger their bed and nap times by 1/2 an hour or so.

aamh05 · Answer

Go ahead and vent girl we all need to do it sometime I really don't have any kind of advice for you cause i'm not to sure of the question but kids have their own individual personalities and what works for one may not work for the other so try figuring out some different ways to get the baby to go to sleep when it's nap time and bed time. Try soothing music, a nice warm bubble bath right before bedtime and nap time. If nothing works you may want to just let him play his self to sleep hope everything works out for you

Someone give me some advice please!!!?

3 Answers