This is what Rich said to me Tuesday morning as we were scrambling to leave the house in time to get the train. "We need to make some changes. I'm calling the contractor to see about having the basement finished off."
My response was, "Wha, wha, wha... wait a minute."
We had a difficult night with the girls on Monday. The teething situation is partly to blame as is the room sharing situation. Allie would be so close to falling asleep but her eyes would pop open and she would start fussing every time Anna moved or sighed. Rich eventually took Allie into another room assuming that she would fall asleep in there and he could just put her back in her crib asleep.
Anna didn't fall asleep until after 10:00 and by 11:00, Allie was still awake in the guest room with Rich. We decided to just allow Allie to sleep in our bed with us as something was obviously bothering her. That arrangement worked fine and dandy for a few hours until Emily woke up and fussed and fussed to the point that I needed to bring her downstairs to sleep on the couch cushion bed in the family room. That worked fine and dandy until 5:00 in the morning when Anna started whining. I somehow managed to grab Anna out of her crib and situate her next to me on the couch cushion bed without disturbing Em's sleep.
I still debate on whether moving the girls to their own rooms is going to help with their sleeping problems. I debate. But after what I witnessed today at nap time (or shall we say non-nap time) and last weekend, I think that separate rooms may be for the best. Today (and last Sunday) the girls nap time was pushed a little later than usual. Allie just wanted to sleep. Here's the conversation that took place in their room:
Anna - "It's gonna be okay, Allie."
Allie - "No."
Anna - "It's gonna be okay, Allie."
Allie - "No."
Over and over and over. Em was asleep until Rich and I tried to take Anna and Allie out of the room. Great.
Our house only has three bedrooms and a small room that is our office/storage of everyday crap room. In order for each girl to have her own room, we need to clear out the office, which is where finishing off the basement comes into play. I don't want to finish off the basement right now. That is money I would rather use in other ways and I don't even want to think about dealing with any type of construction any time in the near future.
The solution: We think we are going to move the office essentials to the kitchen, which means moving my lovely cabinet to the basement. Some of the other items will have to go to our bedroom or the hall closet, which I think can be cleaned out of some no-longer-used baby items. It will take some rearranging and it might not be pretty but it can be done.
I also want to convert the girls beds to toddler beds in conjunction with the move. Let's just do it all at once.
Who knows if our plan will work. Has anyone had success separating their kiddos from a shared bedroom this late in the game? Good? Bad?
7 comments:
I nanny for twins and they'll be five at the end of this month. They did the conversion to toddler beds from cribs shortly after they turned three.
They didn't switch to their own rooms (and "big kid beds" at the same time) until this past summer. They did great with the switch.
we had to with our twin boys-they were 14 months and still in cribs but within days they were both through the night. And we were all much happier including 3 year old big sister-definately worth the try to see what happens-darci
Have you considered loud white noise? We find that helps drown out the waking each other up. I would love another room to split up our kids but we desperately need our home office so they are stuck with each other until we can afford another house (which is probably never). My triplet sisters and I shared 1 room for 6 years - I recall jumping on the bed with some disasterous results (ie, stiches for our Allie). :)
Sarah~
If I had the option of putting my boys in their own rooms, I SO would!!!Nap time is my problem. They are in toddler beds and they just play and play (favorite game is stacking up all the pillows and blankets and jumping off the bed into the pile)! I think doing it all at once wouldnt be a problem. New room, new bed. If your cribs do not convert I would go straight to twin beds, and just put up a rail. I want to get my boys twin beds soon.
Sarah, my twins are only 3 months old but I would definitely have separate rooms if our house was bigger. As it is, I'm seriously thinking about having one of them sleep in our office/ guest bedroom.
We will have to move to a bigger house one day when I have the energy and some more money for a movev....
Thanks for the feedback. We do use white noise but it only blocks out so much. The cribs are only a few feet apart from each other. With 3 cribs in one room, we are limited on where to place them!
I have also been asking myself this question for the last 5-6 months with my twin boys who will be 3 at the end of the year. After tonight and them not wanting to go to sleep I am seriously considering at once again. BUt as you mentioned time is so limited and moving everything around take so much time. Can't someone just wave their magic wand for us just his once? ;)
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