Bedtime Routine FML

Our kids are good sleepers; I shouldn't even be complaining. They sleep through the night and they sleep in their own bed. But the bedtime routine is something I do not look forward to.

Our 4 year old was in a crib until he was about 2 1/2. Everything was great - we lay him down, he falls asleep. However, when we put him in a toddler bed, everything went to hell. He would come out of his room 50 times before settling in. Literally one of us would sit at the top of the stairs to keep putting him back in his room time after time.

Things have gotten better since then. He still comes out of his room to tell us he has to go to the bathroom, he needs a drink, or because he has to "tell us something." But most nights that is just once or twice.

The purpose of this post is all the little stuff. When we tell him it is time to go up, he says he wants the other one of us to do it. So if I am the one who says "ok, its time to go up for bed" he will be like "no, I want mommy to do it." and it pisses us off because neither one of us wants to take him up so if it is my turn, she will say lets go up and then usually he will want me to do it.

Next he walks up the stairs SO SLOW. I'm like, let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Then we need to brush teeth, and he has to be the one to put the toothpaste on the brush. Then he needs a drink of water, but if he drinks too much he will wet through his diaper. So it is always a fight about how much water gets to drink. Then he wants some kid mouthwash and he has to be the one to measure out the proper amount. Again, he just takes a long time to do these things and they must be done on his terms.

Now it is time to lay on the floor and put on his two diapers ( a normal one and a pull-up - he still soaks through both of these on a regular basis). The struggle here is WHERE on the floor he will lay down. He picks a new spot every night and sometimes decides to switch spots in the middle of changing, which really pisses me off because I have to crawl around the floor following him. Sometimes during this process he gets noisy and I get afraid he will wake up his little brother, which is a separate issue.

Finally, he is in bed (he has a regular bed now) and I lay in the bed with him to read a story. I let him choose the story and then he is likely to change his mind once I start....Without fail, before the first paragraph is over, I am yawning.

Now the story is over and we are downstairs and he is coming out of his room within one minute saying he has to go potty. This process takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. So if we take him up at 8:30 it is 9pm by the time he is in his room for good. After an exhausting day, we are usually going up by 9;30-10 which doesn't exactly leave much personal time in my typical day....