Unhappy bedtimes

[lauradj]

We have three boys, the two in question are 4 and 2.5 and they have been sharing a room for the past 4 months.  Bedtimes are awful!  They used to be so lovely when each boy was in his own room.  We would have bath time and stories, then we'd tuck each boy into bed and sing him a song and off he'd drift to sleep.  It was a bedtime full of love and gentleness. 
Now that they're sharing a room it is horrific by comparison!  They ramp each other up during bath time, they briefly quiet during story time and then it cranks back up as soon as they lie down in their beds.  80% of the time my husband or myself have to go in multiple times to read them the riot act and get them to stop talking.  Their 6 week baby brother sleeps next door and because our house is 55 yrs old, you can hear a fair amount between the walls.  They have occasionally woken him because they're being so loud.
How can we bring our loving, gentle bedtimes back.  This breaking our hearts and spirits. 

[lily_layne]

(((hugs)))
Our two had to share a room this summer at our cabin and there was a fair amount of night-time shenanigans. Some nights DD needed an earlier bedtime and it worked nicely to put her in and then take DS in once she was asleep. On other nights we just put DD in our bed and then moved her later in the evening. I don't have any other tips - sorry.

[lauradj]

Thanks for the response!    We've been trying a couple of new things the last two nights.  I spray a Bedtime essential oil on their pillows, which seems to mellow them out.  We also put on some soothing lullabies before bath time.  Hopefully it helps, we're only two nights in.

[Erin M]

Do they both fall asleep quickly?  For us (when my girls did share a room) was the issue that dd1 fell asleep quickly while dd2 took longer. Sometimes you need to keep one out of the room while one falls asleep - staggeredbedtimes could help if it’s possible with your schedule.  Also, at one point mine had a sticker chart for reducing the number of times I had to go back in.  If I didn’t have to go in more than once, they got stickers, which we then turned into fun activities.  Mine might have been slightly older at that point though. 

[lauradj]

That's an interesting idea!  It's our youngest who takes longer to fall asleep so I suppose we'd take him in first, then his older brother.  I'm not sure how that would go down, as they love being together but it might be worth a shot.  Naturally, tonight they both passed out cold  .