Our sleep schedules have been fairly chaotic for a week or so. Lately, my two older kids cannot seem to stay in bed after the nighttime routine is done. They either get out of bed right away to let someone know they had a nightmare (before they even fell asleep) or they wake up in the middle of the night and go seek out my wife. The newborn is always fussy at night now and she usually has my 3 year old son in bed with her because she is too exhausted to put him back in his sister’s room when he sneaks out of there.

My wife gets very little to no sleep and although I get about 6 or 7 hours of sleep, it’s not quality sleep and I am waking up earlier and earlier since my body is sensing (dreading?) the morning call for help. Juggling 3 different sleep times and individuals is exhausting to say the least.

I’m trying to think through what a good solution would be. I love sleeping in the ground and don’t mind sleeping in the litttle nook near my 3 year old son so he can have someone in this room that can comfort him at night (and most importantly keep him away from my wife). What I don’t want to do is create another problem by trying to solve this one. Me being in the room with my older two kids cannot be seen as a crutch for them. I also don’t want to develop any back or shoulder pain, which has happened before when sleeping on the ground for a few months when they were sleeping in their respective “big kid beds” for the first time.

What I appreciate about how my wife and I communicate now is that even though I think this is probably the best solution, she knows I am not saying this is the only way to solve this. She will brainstorm her ideas and we will chat in the morning when we both hopefully have a little more energy (and coffee!) in us. Hopefully we will crack this sleep puzzle soon!