James' Bedtime

James has been better about bedtime now, thankfully. He isn't really screaming for any length of time now. He still cries just for a bit when we tell him it's time to go up, but he calms down pretty fast. The only time it lasts a little bit longer in bed is at naptime when both Jock and I are home - whether the kids are home or not. He tries clinging to whichever parent is not taking him up for nap - doesn't matter which one either. Strange. But as soon as he stops screaming he is generally asleep fast.

At naptime, James usually sleeps for about an hour, maybe 1 1/2 hours. We usually do lunch around 11:30 am. He's usually a little wild and crazy right after lunch, so the early lunch gives him a little bit of time to settle down before naptime. I try to get him down by 12:30, because we leave the house again at 2:25 to pick the big kids up from school. One day last week, the kids got out of school early due to a snowstorm. Two hours out early meant we had to leave home at 12:25, so his nap was delayed about 45 minutes past normal time. Once we got home, the big kids watched movies in the basement, while James took his nap. He surprised me that day by sleeping for 2 1/2 hours - and I slept for nearly that long as well! The big kids were happy to have some movie time before they had to get back to their homework.

In the evening, once he has his PJs on, while we're tucking the other kids into bed, we'll tell him to go get in bed. He usually runs between his bed (in the far corner of our bedroom) and the hallway, a few times while we're tucking the other kids in bed and giving hugs/kisses. When we come in, he goes right to his bed and folds his hands. We turn down the lights, pray with him, give him hugs and kisses, cover him up, and then get in bed ourselves. He usually doesn't fuss at all any more once he's tucked in. Sometimes he plays around in his bed for a few minutes, but what kid doesn't?! We just remind him that it's time to go to sleep, if he starts talking or getting up.

It's becoming less frequent that he wakes up in the middle of the night. When he does we usually try to be silent and just let him go back to sleep on his own. If it takes a bit though, we'll just say something to him like, "It's OK", or "Go to sleep", and him hearing our voice will calm him down. When he does do this, it's usually around 4:00 in the morning, for some reason.

We have James going to be around 7:30 or 8 at night, and he'll sleep until around 7:15 in the morning, when it's almost time for me to take the big kids to school. Sometimes he's awake already, and sometimes I have to wake him up. On Wednesdays, since we don't HAVE to take the kids to school until an hour later, he will sometimes sleep later, but other times he's up. Sometimes it also depends on how noisy Daddy is getting ready for work between 6:15 and 7, and how noisy the kids are getting ready, at the same time.

In the next couple weeks, we'll have to start seeing how James does with waking up about a half-hour earlier. We'll probably have to be getting him up around 6:30, to get him ready for daycare when I go back to work next month. I'll probably have to figure out what daycare's lunch and naptime schedule are, so I can try to mirror that, and determine if we need to adjust the bedtime schedule at all. I'm not sure how much earlier we can go with bedtime though, since we only have about 2 1/2 to 3 hours at home in the evenings before bedtime once I'm back at work - and Elijah's bedtime is squarely at 7:30 pm, so them sharing a room would probably make different bedtimes very difficult. He may just need longer naps!

I'm not sure yet what the timeline might look like for moving James out of our bedroom and back to his bedroom (that he'll share with Elijah). Maybe we'll start sneaking out of the room, instead of staying until he's asleep, and see how does with us not being in the room with us. Maybe also as he continues getting more consistent with not waking at night. We shall see...