Sisters/Sanity Savers

Sleep. It is an essential thing for a mother's (and father's) sanity and well being. Sleep, at our house has been unbelievably hard to come by lately. Lauryl went through a rough patch of a few weeks about a month ago where she was having some SERIOUS night terrors. The worst night by far, we could tell she was still asleep but she seemed awake. She was frantic, nothing we did helped. It was scary and we felt helpless. Later we learned that it was our fault, we had done the worst thing you can do for a child experiencing a night terror (although the totally natural response for a parent watching a child experiencing a nightmare)- we had tried to wake her up.

The terrors eventually stopped, but in their place was a new fear; a fear of going to sleep, a fear of bedtime, and most definitely a fear of being in her room alone. We tried many approaches to overcome. We tried rocking to sleep, sitting in the room while she fell asleep, night lights, white noise, and even sleeping on her floor. Although we could get her to sleep with these methods, we could not keep her asleep. Sitting in the rocker every hour when she woke up until she fell back asleep was torturous. We were sleep deprived and grumpy, as was she.

So, I decided it was Kendyl's turn to take a stab at helping her sleep. I know, how selfish, make your almost 6 year old take on the sleep issue. Even worse- try it for the first time on a school night on the eve of her 6th birthday. What can I say, I was desperate.

Lauryl was thrilled when I mentioned my idea. Her face lit up and she was ready to head to bed immediately. I bathed them and tucked them in with a story and a final warning about not goofing around and going to sleep. Within 30 minutes they were both passed out. No one left bed the whole night and they slept past normal wake up times. I honestly think Lauryl was smiling in her sleep, she looked so relaxed and at ease.

The girls have slept together every night since then. There have been a few hiccups like horsing around when they first lay down, waking in the middle of the night for group potty breaks, and Kendyl's use of the threat that Lauryl can't sleep in her room if she doesn't do such and such. Mostly though, it has been great. They refer to KB's room as "our room", they moved both sets of doll bunk beds in, we've stopped collapsing the trundle, and often I go in to find them cuddled up together or as close to each other as they can get while still technically being on their own bed.

Here's a shot of what I found when I walked in to check on them the other night. PRICELESS. The unidentified third child is Noah, one of KB's twin American Girl babies:-)

Here's what I found when I walked in tonight...
I love that they are sharing a room and we'll see how long the sleeping arrangements last!