Why won't my babies sleep....

With having an almost 4 year old and a 4 month old, one can say our house is always pretty busy. However one would think bed time would be early, nice and peaceful at our house.... WRONG! It is anything but, and honestly I have NO IDEA how to make it better.

We have the structured night time/bedtime routine - supper, Evan bath time and Kyle play time, then Kyle shower (he is a big boy now) while Evan gets ready for bed. After both boys are ready for bed it is story time. Kyle picks 3 to 4 books. Depending on who Kyle wants to read that night depends on who rocks Evan to sleep. Usually by the time we finish books Evan is asleep or almost. We lay Evan down and then take Kyle to his bed. His routine is ALWAYS the same. Big hugs from mommy and daddy, we name our favorite part of the day, prayers and then kisses night night.

Then you would think that is when our night should end....well that doesn't even come close. Really that is where the night time running begins.

Kyle starts with his "calling us" one time it will be "Daddy I'm scared...", the next it will be "Mommy I'm thirsty..." This goes on for about 30 minutes. To help with the I'm scared, Kyle has started sleeping with a glow stick. I have no idea what this glow stick will do since his room is practically lit up like the JFK airport (honestly he sleeps with a lamp, night light and during the holidays - Christmas tree lights) but it makes him happy and so we buy them.

Once he finally goes to sleep Ben and I hurry to get our showers and get ready for the next day. Usually just as we are about ready to drop, Evan wakes up and its time to feed him.

Once Evan is diapered, fed, happy and asleep AGAIN.... Ben and I crash!

Then Kyle wakes up... he comes to our room, crawls in the bed and the next thing I know I have his foot in my face! (He is a WILD sleeper!)

Then before you know it 4 hours has rolled around and Evan is awake. So its time to get up and stagger to the kitchen, make a bottle....and then Kyle appears in the kitchen. "What's wrong, why are you up?" - I say. "Mommy, I'm thirsty..." and thus the routine starts all over again. So during bottle time (which is usually around 2:30 ish) I have Evan AND Kyle up with me in the living room. I do the no TV, no lights, thing not to wake Evan up much however. When he opens his eyes he sees Kyle up and he thinks "Hey Brothers up...it MUST be playtime."

Once bottle time is over - I lay Evan back in his bed and take Kyle back to his room. Evan spends the next hour in his room playing, cooing and squealing cause its playtime. And Kyle spends the next hour crying cause he wants to sleep in our room!

AAAaaaHHHhhh!

No joke this scenario actually happened Saturday night. From 2:30 am to a little after 4 am, Ben and I were wide awake listening to one child play and one child cry. We kept going in there rooms checking on them but would not get them up. Needless to say Kyle was not happy with us. Evan on the other hand was as happy as he could be, he spent his hour squealing and kicking his legs.

Then around 4 am the crying and the playing stopped. The house was quite again.... Ben and I jumped up to check and yes both boys were FINALLY asleep.

So we got to go back to sleep.... I think before I rolled over it was 6:30 a.m and Kyle was in our room asking "No school, Mama?" "That's right baby no school, now why don't you lay back down and rest." "No, it's playtime!" And within about 20 minutes Evan was up and ready for his bottle.

And with that our day begins.....

So to any moms out there that may possibly be reading this....HELP!!!! How do I get these boys to sleep?