Musical Beds/Rooms, etc.

Did you ever consider how much having babies would affect every single aspect of your life, down to the tiniest, most mundane detail--especially, your NIGHT LIFE??? Yes, yes, obviously having a baby affects your night life, but what about your SLEEP life? Did you ever think about how much THAT would suffer??? Even four years after the birth of your first baby??? I, most definitely did not.

When Connor was first born, we lived in a cute little cape cod house...two bedrooms downstairs, and the master "suite" was the entire second floor. Of course, we created a nursery in one of the downstairs bedrooms, and thought that somehow it would fly for us (me--since I was nursing) to run up and down the stairs 25,000 times a night to check on the baby, nurse the baby, burp the baby, lay a hand or an ear on his chest to make sure that he was still breathing (5,000 times a night), etc., etc. At first, (because once the baby was actually born we discovered this was not so realistic), we brought the bassinet and the baby upstairs to sleep next to our bed--along with all the diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream, and burp cloths. We were prepared for sleep. Which, never seemed to come. We all kept each other up--Daddy tended to snore, baby tended to cry, Mommy tended to fall asleep nursing the baby in bed, and then would panic because Daddy slept so heavily (why, and how can Daddy's do that, I'll never understand...) So began the game of musical beds in our household.

After really, really lacking on sleep, I began napping in the downstairs guest bedroom, which just so happened to be next to the nursery. How utterly convenient. The changing table, rocking chair, crib, etc., was right next door...no going up and down stairs in the middle of the night. Hmmmm....I figured it might not be such a bad idea to camp out in the guest room just for a little while, until we adjusted to things. Sleep was vital at this point, to both Tommy and I, so it seemed like the best solution. Well, being the hands-on, can't-put-a-baby-down, kind of mother that I am, co-sleeping was a natural progression, and as soon as the baby would wake up for his mid-night feeding, he'd come back to bed (the guest bed) with me....where he was contended to lay, and dream-feed for the rest of the night.

It worked. It did. We were in severe survival mode, and this was the best way we knew how to survive. Well, when Connor was 9 months old, we moved. We are now in a house where all four bedrooms are on the upper level, so sleeping arrangements SHOULD be straight-forward and easy. However, no one took into account that a baby boy who was used to the comforts of sleeping next to Mommy would not be having any of that sleeping in his own crib stuff...and yes, we tried CIO, and it was awful, horrible, I have extrememly stubborn, strong-willed children, and I can't tolerate it. Soooo, Tommy, Connor and I all slept in the master bedroom. Until it started to get a little crowded.....

To make a very, very long story short...Connor and I then moved to the guest room (mind you, a beautiful little nursery was set up this whole time which, pretty much, housed clothing). We stayed there for a little while, until I decided that he and I should move to the master bedroom, and Tommy should move to the guest room. We switched again. Then, I got preggers (imagine that given our sleeping arrangements :), and we decided it was time for Connor to have his OWN ROOM. We set up his "big boy" room, and used a little (or a ton) of bribery to get him to stay in there. It kinda, sorta worked for awhile. He would sneak into bed at some point in the night, always though. As my belly grew, and grew, and ggggrrrreeeewwwww, I got more and more restless and unable to sleep. Soooo, Daddy moved back to the guest room, and Connor would flit back and fourth.

Then, along came Brooke...she and I moved into Connor's room in the beginning. Daddy and Connor slept in the master bedroom (I don't even know why at this point--it seems so weird and irrational thinking back). At some point, we moved Brookie's crib into the master...but, Daddy's snoring would keep her up, so Tommy was in the guest room again. Connor would go to bed in his own bed, and then sneak in with Tommy at some point in the night. Seriously, people, MUSICAL BEDS. The best was when people would come over and Connor would give the token "tour" of the house, and introduce, "Daddy's room" and "Mommy's room"--I'm quite sure this raised a lot of eyebrows!!! ;)

Well, the point to this incredibly long and dis-jointed story, is to tell you that FINALLY, we created a real room for Brookie--with a bed, since she's been a co-sleeper, too and is used to sleeping in beds, and moved Connor into the bigger bedroom (formerly the guest room, a.k.a. "Daddy's room"). And Tommy and I are back in the master bedroom....at least for most of the night...until Brookie wakes up at some point and I creep into bed with her, and her cry wakes Connor up, and he creeps into bed with Tommy. Maybe, just maybe, someday we'll stay put for an entire night!!!!!!!!!

The point of this whole story is to share pictures of Brookie's new bedroom: