AAAAaaggghhh - Kids in the same room and won't sleep

[mellymell]

I have two sons - 3 and 1.4 yrs - and we recently put them in the same room together and it's a nightmare.

It's the youngest son who is the little devil - stands up in his cot yelling and giggling at his older brother, who happily joins in. They are keeping themselves awake until 9:30pm-10pm (and they go to bed around 7:30pm).

It's only been a week, and my DH has told me to give it a bit more time, but is it more sensible to separate them now and try again in a few months' time? Much as I love joyful giggles between my sons, at 9.30pm at night on a school night, it's getting a bit much.

definitely stick with it, a week is not long in the big scheme of things. the novelty will wear off soon enough, my kids did this (although slightly smaller age gap)as long as they are safe i dont think there's anything to worry about- be glad they are getting on, imagine if they were being horrible to each other when you werent there!

Very true - thanks for your post.

Do they go to bed at the same time? Perhaps move the bedtime of one forward by 15 mins and the other back by 15 mins and see if that helps.

My two dd's aged 2.5 and almost 6 recently started sharing a room. They carried on excatly like you are describing for about a fortnight untill the novelty wore off.

They sleep just fine now. Have you tried putting the younger one to bed half an hour earlier than the older one to give him time to get to sleep?

I've tried putting one down then the other 30 mins later. However, the minute the eldest one enters the room, he deliberately makes a noise (and yes, I have tried all sorts of threats - no tv, no pudding, removing his toenails one by one), and the minute the youngest knows his brother is there, the games start. It's hilarious but deeply frustrating.

Try putting the older one to bed 30 mins before the younger one. He'll probably hate it and get annoyed, but tell him if he's quiet and doesn't disturb his brother then he can go to bed later than him the next night.

Also, could you introduce some white noise? Lots of kids find it quite soothing and if one child is already asleep then his brother making a noise is less likely to wake him than if there is a sudden noise in an otherwise silent room. We used to use the washing machine as white noise for DS and it worked like magic (we live in a flat so his room is across the hall from the kitchen), radio tuned to static would work too.