Day: August 13, 2006

I claim a victory in the Battle of the Bedtime. I confess I cheated, but I still won. At 7 pm I took all four of my kids on a walk. I was the only one walking, everyone else had wheeled vehicles, but they were muscle powered an thus still tiring. Only Patches rolled in effortless splendor in his stroller. It was a long walk. They were all glad to get back home and put the bikes away. When I put Gleek to bed I checked back in 10 minutes and she was out. This is a major improvement over last night where she was awake for 90 minutes after I put her to bed. Link went to sleep quickly. Patches struggled a little bit. He really wanted to go sleep in my bed, but Howard had already crashed for the night. Besides Patches needs to be sleeping in his own bed, that’s why we have it. This only leaves Kiki awake, she’s next on my list.

Then I need to go to bed too. Because I can’t win tomorrow night’s Battle of the Bedtime unless I make all the kids get up at a reasonable hour.

Bedtime struggles continue, but I now suspect that at least part of the problem is biorythmic rather than behavioral. Kids only need so many hours of sleep at night and if I’m letting them sleep in until 9 am (or later,) they won’t be sleepy at bedtime. So I’ve printed out some charts so that I can track sleep patterns for my kids. Hopefully the act of keeping track will help me adjust the schedules so that we’re better prepared for school to start in just over a week.