When J and I chose the Town Home we live in we never excepted to have more than 2 children. We were done. 2 was enough. So we chose our residence that has 3 bedrooms and one bonus room. Each child would have their own bedroom, we'd have the master, and J could use the extra as our (um, I mean his) office.
So when little Soren was found to be cooking in the oven we realized it was going to throw us for a loop in regards to sleeping arrangements. We knew that we would have 3 months after he was born to puzzle out just what to do, as each of our children always slept in our room in either the bassinet or car seat, and then would go to a crib in their own room.
Well folks, the three months is up. And instead of a bassinet or car seat, Soren has been pretty adamant about sleeping in our bed. I really cant blame him. Bassinets are small, car seats (awesome to use when your child has reflux) don't allow you to move much. And our bed is fantastic! Of course, he loves it so much that he tried nightly to sleep in the middle of our Queen size bed, making it hard for J and I to maneuver around his little body to fall asleep ourselves.
I know a lot of folks love to co sleep. I am just not one of them. There are definite perks, don't get me wrong! I love rolling over when I hear him snuffling around for food and falling back asleep in 5 minutes. I love how he snuggles right into me when I come to bed, twines one hand into my shirt or rests it on my cheek. I love waking up to him, grinning ear to ear and babbling happily at me. I love actually sleeping. Those are things that make co sleeping so worthwhile! But I also panic that I'll smother him in my sleep. I know its not going to happen, especially as I prop myself on 1/16th of the bed to ensure he has plenty of space! I panic he may learn to roll over at 2 am while I'm comatose and smother himself. I worry he will grab my quilt (which I'm very careful to keep away from his face) and suffocate himself. I hate not being able to kick J as easily when he starts to snore.
So the time has come for me to regain my bed back. And that meant figuring out how the hell to go about doing that. After a lot of back and forth with J, figuring out finances we decided to look for a bunk bed. Our budget is tight so I couldn't go crazy but I had a type of bunk bed in mind. It had to be wooden and sturdy. Knowing my kids anything but sturdy would be demolished within 3 months. It had to have a ladder so Ashe wouldn't climb it as easily (although this is now a moot point since Ashe can climb almost anything Xavier can. Yay for big brothers teaching their younger siblings)
I've been perusing furniture stores and was dismayed by the prices of new bunk beds. Definitely out of our budget limit. So I looked on craigslist. Every once in awhile I'd find a decent deal, but it was never the right kind of bunk bed, or we didn't have the money at the time, or something else would occur. However my patience paid off yesterday. I found the perfect bunk bed and mattress thrown in along with it for dirt cheap.
It was such a good deal that despite knowing J was on a conference call I emailed him 3 times from the downstairs laptop whining as to when he would be free so I could talk finances with him. He, of course, ignored me for 3 hours until he was done. I pounced on him the moment he opened our (I mean his) office door and made my case as to why this was such a good thing: we could teach our kids how to share better. We could stop Zavi from slamming his door on Ashe, which he frequently does to annoy his little brother. We could have the kids go to one bedtime. They could make great memories. We would be saving oodles of cash going this route if we got this bunk bed and mattress. We could have our bed back. We could have OUR BED BACK!
Seeing I was not going to give this up, J relented and allowed me to email the person to get the deal going, so long as I organized and converted the boys bedroom and picked it up. He agreed to put it together. I made an appointment to pick it up tonight and did a happy dance.
After dropping Ashe off at preschool today, Zavi and I spent time cleaning his room and organizing his toys. Which was a feat in itself since I couldn't see any carpet peeking through his mountains of Lego's and Hot Wheels cars. I'd send him to drop off things downstairs and while he was gone would hurriedly rush through and toss any broken toys in my line of sight. I cant do that when hes there because he refuses to let anything go. Ever. Halfway through we stopped to grab Ashe from preschool, had lunch, and then all of us, Soren in tow, went upstairs to finish up. Xavier vacuumed while Ashe brought in books from his room and I moved toy boxes and bookcases in. Soren unhappily watched from the bean bag. We got Xaviers car bed frame out into the hallway to be put away for Soren when he's ready to transition to a big boy bed. And I talked up how cool sharing a room would be while also letting them know the new rules of sharing a room. Xavier wants time to read in bed after so I promised him a flashlight of his own so long as he promised to not annoy his little brother with it after lights out. I know already that thing will be taken away the first night.
After dinner Xavier and I popped in the van and drove to get the bed. I didn't realize it was an A line bed with a twin on top and full mattress on bottom. Actually I think that will work out better. One boy gets the coolness of being on the top bunk while the other gets a bigger bed. It's now sitting in pieces in our downstairs hallway ready to be put together. Our quest tomorrow takes us to Target to get Ashe new bedding and drawers for his clothes.
The plan is to set up the beds and give the boys a week or two to adjust to a new bedtime routine before building the crib in Sorens room (formerly Ashes) and start getting him to sleep there. transitioning 3 kids to new things at once is just so not going to happen. We'll take it nice and easy. The next few weeks will be a pain in the butt for us all, but in the end I'm hoping its well worth it.
I just keep thinking about peaceful, sleeping kids in their own beds, and the fact I can easily kick J at night when he starts to snore. Having access to do that will be well worth the stress of the upcoming weeks. Trust me.
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