school age and toddler in same bedroom... how to get them to sleep

[PinkPalace]

we have a 3 year old in with her 5 year old sister. they go to bed at the same time. sometimes the 3 year old will go to sleep first and i will let the 5 year old stay up. she will go lay with her little sis until she falls asleep and then come out to the lounge room later. occasionally my 5 year old will fall asleep first and her little sis will crack up a bit and say she cant sleep and cry but she doesnt really wake her older sis up. it has happened a couple times and i just get them to lay in the same bed together and that usually works. this usually happens if my youngest has had a nap during the day.

could you hold off on your DS day sleep? or wake him up extra early so that he goes to bed earlier?

I have tried not to let him sleep but if he does to bed before 7pm (even with out a day nap) he is up at 5am

DD crys because Ds is making too much noise at bed time

i keep thinking i should just sleep in ds's bed with my daughter and DH can sleep with DS

[2CheekyMonkeys]

how long does he nap for duing the day? i think it might be a matter of cutting it back to even half an hour during the day and putting up with a bit of an early rise. you might find that he starts to sleep in a little bit longer after a while.

dont start sleeping with dd and your dh sleeping with ds because it will start a habit that you will find even harder to break. (i speak from experience there) LOL

will he stop crying if she hops into bed with him? will they fall asleep together after having had a little chat and cuddle together?

[PinkPalace]

he hasnt had a day sleep in about 6 months, but he is exhausted by 4pm that i usually just keep him up and unfortunately he will fall asleep on the after school run.
so if he does fall asleep it is usually about 40 mins then i wake him up (this might be 1-2 time a week)
so i guess doesnt really have a day sleep.

it is so hard as we play musical beds as it is through the night so night sleep is exhausting for all of us.

She wont hop into bed with him (there is only a Metre between beds anyhow) as she wants to sleep and he is a very restless sleeper and gets frustrated with him.

omg i cant see any other option than putting her to sleep first and letting him stay up with Dh and i until 8 and then let him fall asleep next to us blah!!

[2CheekyMonkeys]

the only other thing i can think of is if you put your dd to sleep in your room to begin the night and your ds in his own bed then he can carry on as much as he wants to without disturbing her. then when you go to bed take your dd into her own bed?

you could even put a single mattress or a cot mattress on the floor in your room that way she isnt actually in your bed??