Now my boys are sharing a room, they are keeping each other awake for hours!

[Pinkchampagne]

Moved from a 4 bedroom house, where the boys had their own bedrooms, to a 2 bedroom house, where they obviously have to share a room. They are now in bunk beds & very excited about the whole thing, but they are bouncing off the ceiling at bedtime, and keeping each other awake for hours!

Tonight I put DS2 up at 7pm, and DS1 up at 7.30pm, but they were still very excitable at 9pm!

DS1 has school, and I don't want him going in tired every day. Not quite sure how to tackle this problem & feel pretty exhausted myself!
Anyone got any tips?

we put Ds2 in spare room (or our bedroom if we have guests) and put him in his own bed later. It's not ideal but it works for us!

I will try anything, Hilllary!! I will look out for some black out blinds - they sound like a good idea!

If you cant afford blackout blinds, a piece of black fabric works really well. I got piece cut at the fabric shop to fit their window exactly and it doesn't let in a chink of light. But they still get up before 6...

I will try to black out their room, but I have this horrible feeling that my youngest son will still be up & jumping on his brother at the crack of dawn!

Have a look at your local car boot sale too, you can pick them up there somethimes, they do linings for curtains. I jumped for joy when I got mine, my dd1 used to stay awake until about 10.30 in the summer months, after putting them up she was asleep within half an hour.

Lucky you, hatrick!

Wow, big difference then, Hilllary!

Yep I love them it stays dark in the mornings too so they tend to sleep in, Wonderful!! They are great for draft proofing the windows too, I'm not on comission honest!

not saying your ds's wont still play as they will but not for as long

(I should really post once and type it all down)

Thanks - I shall look into investing in one, Hilllary!

Oh we have this too. We have enough rooms for everyone but it was just as bad when they were in their own rooms as they were just running in and out and across the landing. We put them all in one room a few weeks ago and the novelty hasn't worn off yet!

The only way to do it is to stagger bedtime but then it takes ages and I want my dinner, or to get on with some work or whatever and it really eats into your evening.

The problem for us is, the ideal is to put the younger one down first but he's the most manic of them all - so if he's not absolutely exhausted he just doesn't go to sleep.

On Saturday night we put ds3 down first, at around 7pm. At 9.45 we brought him down again to watch the end of the Grease programme we were watching (recorded!) as he was sat on the landing playing with his teddies!!

Oh, the boys are 6, 4 and 2.

They do settle. FWIW my ds goes to his dads one night a week and dd cannot sleep well at all because she knows she's on her own.

My 2 DDs have to share a room and I do find it difficult. DD1 loves to go to bed and go to sleep and is an early bird in the morning. DD2 likes to stay awake and chat and irritate her sister, to the point where DD1 goes and sleeps in my bed to get some peace!

I have blackout blinds, but TBH I don't think anything except tying up, gagging and drugging that girl will get her to be quiet and go to sleep

God, reading this thread I'm either very lucky or my kids are scared shit of me!

When ds3 came along ds1+2 had to share, the first night I let them have abit of a paly and make arackett but after that it was, and has always been since once they are in bed, thats it. Bed is for sleeping.

Ds2+3 share now, and although DS3 sometimes keeps the others awake on the whole they are all asleep within about 15 minutes.

I'm afraid ds1 and ds3 just don't need much sleep and that's just the way they are. Ds1 went to a football match the other week and didn't get to bed till gone 11 - he was in the school next day, got up as normal, no sign of tiredness at all. He's always last to sleep, first up. Well, either him or ds3. Poor ds2 - he can sleep for England!!

GDK, my ds1 is the same. and my ds3....and bloody hell, how wierd, so is my ds2!!

I think you need to have a ds4 then we can compare those two aswell.

I always wonder how people do this and I do feel for those who have DCs sharing a room. Ours only share on holiday and it has ruined our holidays sometimes. I suppose they just never get over the excitement stage in a week or so.

LTH - er, no!

Well tonight I staggered their bedtime again, and thankfully DS1 didn't wake DS2 when he went up tonight, so they weren't up messing around for hours again! However, DS1 did keep getting out of bed & playing with his toys on the floor (I kept going up & ordering him back to bed!), and he didn't settle for ages.
I guess all the changes aren't helping their sleeping habits right now. We only moved just over a week ago, and this is the first time they have ever shared a room.

Gobbledigook - my DS2 used to do the running into his big brothers room, when they had separate bedrooms! I would often find him sleeping curled up in DS1's bed!

We moved house so they could have a room of their own....and DS2 and DS3 are always traipsing into each other's rooms and/or want to share!

It can be a bit frustrating, as neither of them need as much sleep as their older brother, but I want em in bed asleep! Especially when DH is on ridiculous shifts, and they're keeping him awake (started a thread on this tonight). They're usually only talking, but even when only talking the youngest (8) is very loud. And he just doesn't get whispering, lol.

It's a nightmare isn't it?!!