Bedtime Re-Boot

Right before Christmas, the girls had gotten into the habit of not going to sleep until 9-9:30pm and then would be grumpy when I woke them at 8-8:30am.  They would fight sleep at night, fight waking in the morning and then just be generally cranky throughout the day.  While it was nice for me to sleep a bit longer in the morning, it really was getting in the way of getting school work done and we would end up rushing to get out of the house for our morning activities.  And it was frustrating for Jeff to have kids getting out of bed continually.  Jeff & I decided it was time for a bedtime re-boot.  So we started on a Sunday morning but waking them at 6:30am….after an evening they had gone to bed at 9:30pm.  We had breakfast and then went for a morning hike.  In the rain.  It was 37 degree’s.  The entire family ended up walking 1.5 miles (yes, including Lavender) to the YMCA.  I stayed at the Y with Scarlett and Lavender while October & Jeff walked the 1.5 miles back to the van to drive to the Y to pick us up.  When we got home and had lunch, we gave them hot cocoa (sugar!!) to keep them awake.  Lavender was allowed to take a nap but we kept the other girls up and busy.  By dinner, there were no less than 2 kids crying at any one time.  It was a bit rough.  But they went to bed by 8pm and never once got out of bed.  The next day, I woke them at 6:45am and we went for an hour & a half swim with October swimming 50 yards.  Again, they went to sleep by 8pm and stayed put!  By the third day, October was waking on her own at 7am and by the fourth day they were all waking on their own at 7am and going to bed easily at 8pm.  However, on day five, Lavender went down for a nap at 3pm and didn’t wake until 7am the next morning.  I guess a week of bedtime re-boot tired her out!  Operation bedtime re-boot was a success!

Walking the Coal Creek trail very near our house the first morning of Operation Bedtime Re-boot.

Taking a snack break.  While it was raining, Scarlett refused to wear a hat and the only raincoat that I could find that fit October was one of my old ones.  It may also be time to get them some actual hiking boots as well.