Separate Lives

The day has come. I can't take this bedtime nightmare anymore! We tuck them in, Addi causes all sorts of hell, you can't punish her without punishing Lili, too and soon Lili is up and at it as well and next thing you know it's 1.5 hours later of solid screaming and you are not so secretly wishing it was socially acceptable to duct tape your children to their beds. Ugh! Nearly everyone is in tears once all is said and done & we're left thinking we've probably scarred our kids for life. Not a good feeling.

Backstory: over a year ago we had talked with our pediatrician about the girls waking up throughout the night, every night and how we were so sleep deprived. It was happening about the same time each night: 11pm and 3am. She suggested trialing melatonin to see if that would help. The girls had always gone to bed so nice & neatly and of course that continued, but so did the waking. So finally, it seemed as if it was time to quit the melatonin as it wasn't doing anything anyway. So here we are. We did this to ourselves, I suppose...


So last night was the final straw. I came home from work planning simply to weed through the toys and make room for what we may receive for birthdays & Christmas, but as I started to pick up I decided that hell, why not? Bri has been pushing it but I have been dragging my feet. I've always been huge on treating them like individuals, giving them their own time/experiences, but this felt like so much more... But I psyched them up and tore apart the crib and moved Lili into the playroom, moved the bookshelf near our new "reading nook" in Addi's room. Addi's bedtime had a little less drama and tears (not much less, but less) and Lili, well, she's having the best night's sleep of her life. In the end, I think that I'm better about the switch than Bri who may or may not have gotten a little teary. I hate seeing that they are growing up, but I love seeing how they light up when they have their own spotlight. Singing bedtime songs just mama & ___.  Yes, they are best friends. Always will be, but maybe now they can be Addi & Lili and not AddiandLili for a change.