Oh my.
We were TERRIFIED.
We talked about it for weeks, went in circles, discussed strategies and I talked with lots of other Moms. I realize that for many families, having their kids sleep in the same room from a young age is normal. God bless you all. We have been apprehensive because, frankly, if this relocation of my daughter caused approximately one minute of sleep to be lost, then I feared it wasn't worth it.
;)
N slept in our bedroom most nights until she just turned one. This was just a convenience and 'lack of a better option' thing. And we knew that eventually we would like her in with her big brother at night.
We realized that summer is looming just around the corner (boo) and that if we kept her in the third room at night, we'd have to run three coolers all night instead of just two. And that costs money and seemed a bit ridiculous. Also, we only have one baby monitor. And if we all have a swamp cooler running in our bedrooms at night (we use swamp coolers in the desert... funny, huh?) then it's so loud you can barely hear yourself think (dream?), let alone hear a distressed child crying from the next room. It's just not happening.
And so we decided to make the plunge.
Gee, I build up to this like it was some big thing. It probably shouldn't have been. I talk about it like we were sending her off to boarding school or something...
But loss of sleep is not to be underestimated, right? And a distressed child crying in the night must be heard, right?
Right.
Thanks everyone, for your support.
Aaanyway...
The first night we talked to H a lot about how baby sister was gonna sleep in his room and when he wakes up in the morning he couldn't yell "Daaaaadeeeeee! Da sun is up!", as usual.
I doubted that his little mind would be able to remember these instructions in his delirious just-waking-up-state. But we did all we could to prepare him to stay quiet when he woke up, since he gets up to go to nursery school at least an hour before sweet N usually wakes from her sweet slumber.
However, we made the awful mistake of putting N to bed before we tucked H in. Woops. Should have put her in the room when it was dark and quiet. She was not happy about that. Once we tucked big brother in and turned out the light and shut the door, we listened to find out what would happen next. She wailed for about 30 minutes that first night. Sorry, baby. But H would occasionally say gently to her "It's okay N. It's okay."
He's the sweetest.
Eventually they both fell asleep. And when H woke up and... he stayed quiet!!! I was shocked.
We got him out of bed to come read books in the living room and she kept on snoozing.
Success! Sort of...
We quickly ran into problem #2. My boy has woken up and read books in his bed or his bedroom chair in his room immediately for YEARS. It's his daily routine and habit (we taught him to do this since he was a wee babe). And of course, that routine was disrupted cause he had to come straight out of his room, instead of having his usual in-room-reading-time.
This was NOT okay with him. But we persevered and got through that tough hour with books on the couch and an extra 'rest-time' on the guest bed.
The next night and morning went much better. There wasn't much crying at all!
The third morning, however, someone cried (don't know who) and that woke up the other who then cried.
This was my greatest fear.
So... that one was an unusually early morning for all of us, but it really wasn't so bad. It's nice to have them together, and H is so sweet with her and comforts her if anything is wrong.
Kinda makes me want to fill up that whole room with sweet, caring offspring!
Kinda.
Here they are snoozin' away with the light from the living room late at night. N sleeps with a sheet over her crib. They are both really sound sleepers.
It's been almost a week now and we've got the routine down. Usually N goes to bed before H and we just quietly tuck him in his bed in the dark room after she is asleep.
Sweet dreams!
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