II Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Desperate mommy.....

I know I've discussed this with you all before, but the problem has not gone away. In fact, it has only worsened. Brooklyn refuses to sleep in her own room anymore. I have tried every thing I know to do and nothing is working. She is terrified and completely willing to accept any punishment we threaten but she will not under any circumstances sleep in her own bed. It is about to wear me out!! Even if we lay down with her in her bed until she falls asleep, it's only minutes before she comes running into our room. Last week, she was running so fast she actually knocked a very large mirror off the wall in our room and took out a big peice of our trim! This is really causing a big problem for Matt and I. Not only is that our only time to be intimate...but it is also our only time without the kids to actually talk. If we fight with her about sleeping in her bed, we end up wasting the whole evening yelling at her and inevitably the result is always the same...her in our bed. As it goes right now...the only time we have without a child in our presence is either when my parents babysit so we can go out to a movie or if she spends the night at their house. For a while we told her she had to go to sleep in her own room but if she woke up in the night and wanted to come to our room, she would have to sleep in our floor. That worked for a little bit but then she started complaining of her back hurting all the time and I figured it had to be because she was sleeping on the floor almost all night every night. Now we actually have a little air mattress that we keep in our floor, right next to my side of the bed but she's even to scared too sleep on it. AURGH!!!! I just don't know what to do. We have prayed with her, let her have night-lights on, played soft music in her room...and so on. Nothing is working. I am at my wits end. This is definitely taking a toll on our relationship yet I haven't the slightest idea what to do about it. So..if any of you have any suggestions whatsoever, please tell me!

If you're thinking we should get a lock on our door...forget it. We have one---and even though it prevents her from coming in...believe me...the damage is already done when she is outside the door screaming to be let in. The mood is long gone by then...

Somebody please help....................

4 comments:

Logzie said...

Have you considered having them share a room? I have an almost 5 yr. old boy and a just turned 3 yr. old girl and they have shared a room since she was 14 months. She was still in her crib then. Now, they have a loft bed and my son has the top bed and she has the bottom. There are neat ways to decorate a boy/girl room too. I had painted her wall lavendar and his wall a bright blue and the opposite walls (window and closet) were lime green. I decorated her side with foo foo girl stuff and his with trucks and trains. They really love sharing a room and it really has bonded them together in many ways. They are really close and play really good together. They keep eachother company as they fall asleep and that may help Brooklyn just knowing her brother is there and she is just not alone. We also switched the bathroom door knob with their and so they have a lock on their room but we lock it from the outside. This way they are safe in their room all night and we don't have to worry about them getting out into dangerous things in the middle of the night w/o us knowing, like the steak knives, scissors, or the front door. It also affords me an extra hour of sleep in the mornings or a jump start on my day by getting a shower in first b/c they play together for an hour after they wake up. I think the day that we do seperate them...they will be pretty sad. Well, that's a suggestion...if I can think of something else, I'll be sure to share it. I can imagine how you are feeling...

Logzie said...

Oh, one more thing...we used the extra bedroom for a playroom. We had all their toys in there and this is what made sharing a room possible b/c we could fit both beds and dressers b/c we had all the toys in the playroom. We let them have a couple quiet toys and books in there to play w/ in the morning. And that worked good in and of itself b/c when they have too many toys, they tend not to play with them-my kids anyway-but where there are 2 or 3, they really get interested in them.

Jen said...

Logziella,
First of all, I wanted to ask...do you have blog too? If so, what's your address? You can send it to me at jennimatt10@hotmail.com (my e-mail address) We are going to try putting the kids together tonight and see what happens. Honestly, I will be shocked if it works because they our little one is VERY habitual and goes to bed at almost the same time every night, same routine and sleeps like a dream most of the time. I am afraid putting B. in there will mess him all up too...but I guess it's worth a try! Thanks for the idea! I told my mom about it and she thinks its a great idea so we'll see!

Amy said...

Wish I had a suggestion for you Jenni. Hang in there and keep us posted on the progress. Love and miss you!