This bed is too... not mommy and daddy's

It's 11:00 at night and my guess is that most of your kids have been asleep for hours. The computer is right by the door to Madeleine's room and as I sit here I can hear her talking to herself.

Now, I'll admit that our bedtime and wake time schedules are a bit unorthodox. I've always been a night person so when Kyle got on his current schedule (4:30 am- 1:00pm) I thought about what baby bedtime would work best with how I operate. Since I'm terrible in the mornings and I love time to myself at night to watch TV and unwind, I opted for the twelve hour block of ten to ten as "baby bed time". It allowed me to stay up til twelve or one by myself and still be able to sleep in. I so no reason why, as I mom, I would want to put them to bed at seven or eight, force myself to bed earlier than I want to, and wake up early as well. With that schedule I'd have seven hours alone with the kids in the morning when I am at my worst. With this one, it's more like four.

With all that figured out I started moving towards this new bedtime/wake up routine slowly but surely. And it worked great at first. Sure, I'd get some looks and comments when we were at Target shopping at eight at night. And my cleaning lady is constantly confused if the kids are still sleeping when she shows up at ten, but it works for us.

However, lately something has gone terribly wrong. During the move to our new apartment I let Madeleine sleep in our bed more and more to get her "adjusted". Really, I just wanted someone to spoon with when Kyle left for work at three. Now Madeleine refuses to go to bed in her crib. Every night is an all out fight.

It's been almost two months since we moved in and it isn't getting better. It is now 11:16 and my stubborn 22 month old is exhausted but not asleep. She believes that she belongs next to daddy and mommy at night and by golly she will fight to get her way. Unfortunately for her, her mommy is stubborn too.

I used to love the schedule I got the kids on but it seems like it gets pushed later and later. It was easy getting them to go to bed later but the hard part is getting them in bed earlier. Somehow I'll make it happen but until then, God bless the people who live above us. Because by this time of night both Madeleine and momma both want to scream.