Last weekend I was a hormonal puddle to say the least.
We have 4 bedrooms in our home, 3 upstairs and one down.
The big boys have shared a room ever since they were both in the world and haven't wanted it any different. They have been in bunk beds for the past 3 years and have done fabulous!
Isaac's room is quite small and we wouldn't have needed to move him out of his crib so soon, but with baby #4 on the way we decided it needed to be done sooner than later.
The room in the basement wasn't quite finished and doesn't have an egress window.
We put some nice carpet from our living room (that was torn out when we moved in to finish the hardwood floors underneath) down there when we moved in.
Richard built a fabulous closet this summer for the room and put up a ceiling as well.
The hole is almost finished being dug for the egress and hopefully that project will be done soon?
After much debate, we decided to move just Jonah downstairs for now and move Elijah to the top bunk and Isaac to the bottom bunk. We wanted to have a guest bed available in Jonah's room and it's just too small for the full size bed and the extra twin bed we have.
So we moved the extra twin bed to my wonderful sister and brother-in-law's house who are allowing us to store it there until baby #4 is done with the crib.
We are thinking maybe next summer we could expand the basement bedroom to allow Elijah to move downstairs as well, but the 2 together in the same bed usually equals silliness and trouble!
Last weekend was the first weekend we were both home for most of the weekend and the last until baby comes. So, we decided we better move everyone to their new room while we had the chance!
Isaac has always been our best sleeper and I was hesitant to rock that boat, but also knew that he would probably transition better to the "big boy bed" before a baby arrived and stole his momma from him!
My mom bought the boys new bedding to make the transition more exciting, so we changed out the bunk beds first, literally moving Elijah's mattress to the top bunk (as he was struggling with Isaac using that bed and it was already made with his new bedding) and putting on Isaac's Thomas the Train sheets for his "big boy bed" on the bottom.
Here are Elijah and Isaac testing out their "new" beds before bedtime the first night...
It was getting late so we decided to put Isaac to bed first and let Elijah stay up to help us set up Jonah's new bed downstairs.
I was teary as we were putting sheets on and Richard was sweet enough to take patrol the first night laying Isaac down. I was trying to fight back tears as Jonah made trips downstairs with his clothes and "treasures" and Richard laughed at me asking me how I would ever handle graduation if I was this upset about them simply moving into a new bed!
In my defense I am weeks from delivering a baby, hormonal in general and quite sensitive when it comes to my babies growing up! As I was wondering myself how I was going to handle it and trying to wipe away tears and put on a happy face for the boys, Jonah came walking by with an armload of items and told me he felt like he was going off to college.
I may or may not have lost it again after that!
Isaac was really excited at first and pretty proud of his new bed. My sister Nikki stopped by and he showed it to her and climbed right in. I tried to get his pjs on in his "old room" (the soon to be nursery) and he wouldn't even go in there!
I tried to explain to him that he was all done with his old room and it was for the baby now.
That only confused him more as he wandered around asking "baby are?" (where is the baby) and when I said the baby wasn't here yet but it was coming soon he ran to the front door yelling "yeah coming" and looked for the baby again!
Guess he'll have to wait for the real deal!
The excitement quickly wore off when it was time for bed and we tried explaining to him he was supposed to stay in there.
We laid him down, sang him songs and kissed him good night and shut the door.
He was crying pretty quickly and saying, "Done! Done!" and I was a mess.
The door to their room shuts really tightly and it is probably the only door in our house Isaac can't open by himself.
So he would go to the door crying out for me and knock for someone to come open it.
I was sobbing before it had even been 5 minutes and Richard gave me a hug and sent me downstairs while he had to redirect Isaac to his bed a few multiple times before he finally fell asleep.
Overall it was probably only 20 minutes, but felt like an hour to me.
I channelled my broken heart into cleaning up the basement while Richard took care of Isaac.
Then we got Jonah's new bed set up for him.
It was Richard's bed as a child and his dad's.
Jonah was pretty excited to be in his own room and in this special bed.
(His room used to be our office so we are in the process of moving out some of the furniture and replacing it with bedroom furniture for Jonah)
I had to laugh the first night Jonah was down there because for the past 2 months almost every night he and Elijah have had the same discussion about using a night light.
Elijah wanted a night light and Jonah didn't.
So every night Jonah would talk about how he couldn't wait to get to his own room so he didn't have to use a night light and Elijah couldn't wait for him to leave so he and Isaac could use one.
When we went to tuck Jonah into bed that night I told him I put one in the bathroom for him so he wouldn't be scared if he had to get up and use it in the night.
He said thanks and then a few minutes later asked if I could put it in his room, but just for that night.
I smiled and secretly was relieved that he wasn't too grown up yet!
The first night went well and the only problem was early the next morning when Isaac woke up he came out saying "done" and wasn't going back.
In his crib, if he woke up early, we could lay him back down and tell him goodnight and he would usually sleep a little longer.
Oh well, I won't be getting much sleep soon anyways right?
The next day I found a small piece of furniture for Jonah's room to serve as a night stand/dresser for now. It is two cubes together with 2 fabric drawers.
The boys had a blast helping Richard put it together...
Overall, the transition has gone better than I thought!
Isaac has stayed in bed each night for the entire night and we have had to go in and tuck him back in once or twice.
Elijah has been fine and Jonah has done really well except for waking up a few times and having a hard time going back to sleep.
Nap time was rough for Isaac the first few days, but he has possibly given up after almost a week in his new bed.
The first two days he got up and brought books back to his bed and I had to go in there multiple times telling him no and that it was time for nap.
He would get up about 4 times and go to the door yelling "Mommy Done" and knocking until I came and put him back in bed.
One time he had found a sucker somewhere in the room and handed me the wrapper when I opened the door then sprinted back to his bed and began quickly sucking on it!
Little Turkey!
It is still weird for Richard and I to go to bed knowing Jonah is all the way downstairs and the nursery is empty next to us!
I don't feel like this baby is coming anytime in the next few days, so I am hoping we are able to get at least one more week in with everyone in their new sleeping arrangement before throwing a new sibling into the mix!
The older boys slept through Isaac being up in the night and I am praying Isaac will follow suit!
Is it too much to pray this little one is a great sleeper like Isaac was?
I have had a few nightmares about having another colicky baby like Jonah who never slept!
Fortunately for everyone, Richard and I are a little more experienced now and will hopefully be able to handle it better than the first time around ;0)
I know they grow up fast, but it's a good thing for this momma that I am so busy getting ready for another little one to arrive that I don't have time to dwell on my "3 babies" being so big!
I am also 99.9% sure graduation will not be easy for me.
At least the boys will probably expect me to be a hormonal puddle for that, so I won't have to do any pretending. Until then, I will enjoy my "babies" needing hugs and kisses from their momma throughout the day! I am sure that won't last forever!
I am crying just thinking about that!
Oh Boy! I better go find a little boy to hold and snuggle with before it's too late!
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