Theta Mom Thursday-setting myself up for future ones!

If you haven't joined in on Time-Out for Theta Mom Thursdays, you should. I think it is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to get together and support one another as moms, as well as remember that we are women as well as moms, something that I often tend to forget.
Well, I screwed up. I was confused, didn't realize we were on the once a month track,and so I posted my kind-of THETA mom Thursday a few weeks ago. If you would like to read that, it is HERE! So for today, I don't have one that has happened yet, but I do have one that I am setting up for...and it will be a long process, but it is worth it to me!



Since my kids have come along, they have had a pretty flexible sleeping schedule. I haven't really minded until recently, and having a later bedtime allowed them to see their daddy when he works nights, and quite frankly it also allows us to sleep later in the morning. But now, a toddler and a preschooler is just too much. I have more things to get done than I have time to do them. I don't have ANY time to myself. Writing is getting harder and harder, and romance is about impossible. Plus, my son is now in preschool and activities, and he needs more sleep. But this is only the beginning of the problem.
Part two is that the kids have always slept in our room. For my son's first two years he had severe sleep apnea so he stopped breathing 24 times an hour...do I need say why he was there? Then our daughter was born as soon as this got fixed and I will admit I didn't have the heart to move him and cause more sibling rivalry than there already was. And I am a big follower of SIDS guidelines, so the plan was to keep her in our room for her first year. She is just over a year so this is where we are.
Part three (and this has no excuse, bad mommy), I would lay in bed with the kids watching tv and let them fall asleep that way. Then little guy felt he NEEDED to watch tv to sleep.

So here is what I am doing to get some time and my bedroom back. To start, no more t.v. It was difficult the first few days, so we just substituted kids music and a rotating light-mobile for the t.v. We stayed with our regular routine of books and prayers, but once the lights went out we have started to make-up stories. My son gives me the characters and pitches in. And then they fall asleep. Next step is to have them learn to do this on their own for naptime (yes I help them fall asleep then too, please no judgment!). Then we will tell them to go to sleep in our room by themselves, and then after that we will fix up their room, do some painting, get a bunkbed (we are only in a two bedroom house) and move them into their own room at night!

I know we won't have the bunk bed by the next TMT, but maybe they will be going to sleep by themselves....I will keep you posted!