I'm sorry to be such a know it all LOL!!! but it's obvious to me that they need separate rooms!!!!
Just ignore me LOL!!!
I got nothing, unless maybe put Clair in with Daniel?
Oy. We went through this with Emma as well when she was 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years old; she just would. not. go. to. sleep. She would be up until 10:00 or 11:00, bopping around and getting thoroughly overtired, then have a miserable following day.
What finally worked for us was to institute two separate lights-out times for her after her normal routine of bath/teeth/story. The first lights-out time was for the main overhead room light, the second was for her bedside lamp. When the room light was on, she could play quietly out of bed, but not loud enough to be heard in the living room, and could not leave her room. After first lights-out, the overhead light goes off, and she has to get into bed under the covers, but her bedside lamp can stay on and she can look at books. Again, no talking loud enough to be heard in the living room. The second lights-out was 15-20 minutes later, and the bedside lamp goes off, books are put down, and it's time to sleep.
I was forced to take a zero-tolerance policy on this. If she talked loudly or left her room (except for the bathroom) during quiet play with the room light on, we went immediately to sleep time with no looking at books in bed. If she talked loudly or got out of bed after after the first lights-out, the bedside lamp went off immediately and we went immediately to sleep-time the next night, with no floor play or in-bed books.
Doing bedtime in two stages like this seemed to help her wind down gradually, and gave her some control over the process. She was often asleep when I went in to turn off the bedside lamp, and it took probably less than a month until we didn't have to do this at all anymore.
I'm not sure how this would work with two girls in the same room, since consequences for one would be consequences for both. Maybe put Jillian in Daniel's room and Daniel in Claire's room, until Jillian gets the hang of bedtime, then "when she's a big girl and can cooperate at bedtime, she's allowed to share with Claire again." Or something to that effect- make it clear that she's not being fair to Claire, and when she can be, she will be allowed to room with her sister again.
Good luck!
Wow, that comment was a book - sorry! I though of something else that helped Emma, though. I got a CD player for her room, and played soothing music at bedtime. Always the same CD, so she associated it with bedtime, and with the volume fairly low so that if she wasn't quiet she didn't hear it.
We used the CD "Goodnight" from Bronn Journey, but anything slow and melodic and soothing would work as well.
If separate rooms aren't an option, since we don't all have rooms to spare, maybe putting on a movie that Jillian will watch quietly. One of my kids goes to sleep better with a little background noise. Another gets kept up with a movie on. Whatever works. Maybe if there is a place you can put a little palate type bed in a part of the living room or some other part of the house where she won't be disturbing anyone.
As for the scalp thing, in my experience the cradle cap is sort of brownish and oily, instead of dry, and the hair will come off with it more often than not. (so eventually I closet my inner gorilla and leave it alone)
This old mom has no advice on this one! Had the same problem with my girls. Gina, the oldest would laugh and talk and tell tall tale until it was the crack of dawn and then wonder why she had to get out of bed to go to school!
I say this again! Your children are gorgeous! Love the picture of your server in action. Quite the stern look there. And Claire reminds me of my oldest when she was that age. Would pose and give the "look" whenever asked. Quite the beauty.
We had the same problem with our older two kids when the 3rd came along. We live in a three bedroom house so two of the kids will have to share a room.
We had our middle child move in with the older one a couple weeks before our youngest was born. Same story-- our middle child likes to go right to sleep while our oldest wants to sit up and talk to himself for awhile. He would keep the two of them up until after 10pm every night! (we'd hear spspsps of him whispering to himself and then Emily loudly whispering "Jake! Be quiet so I can sleep!")
We tolerated the poor sleeping for about 6 wks, until we all were exhausted and crabby. Then we moved the middle child back to her own room for a few months, we decided they just weren't old enough for that step yet (they were ages 4 and 6 yrs). This worked for us because our littlest was still breastfeeding a lot at night, so she was in the pack & play in our room.
After a few months' break (I can't remember how long specifically), we moved the middle child back in with the older. We had a long talk with our oldest about how the middle one likes to sleep etc. It went MUCH MUCH better the second time around.
Good luck! Hopefully things will improve soon!
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