This is a picture of Nicole using a part of our new addition before it was ready...any guesses?
No guesses yet? Here's Hannah, with a normal looking expression.
Our new addition is a .....
BUNK BED!!!!!!
Living in a two bedroom house with (almost) 3 small children present a few challenges. One of which is the obvious, sleeping arrangements. So, we have been looking for a bed for several months now. We were originally looking for a trundle bed and found a PERFECT one on Craigslist that I wanted SOOO badly. However, it was part of a set and the sellers were not willing to separate:-( So the search continued.
Then, we began to toy around with the idea of buying a full size bed and having the girls sleep together. I was afraid people would think we were "weird" for doing this....kids don't sleep together anymore. They don't share rooms, they don't play together, they don't chase outside....no...they twitter and text and send e-mails to each other....no more interaction, right? Anyway....this idea sounded pretty appealing. One larger bed, one crib in the same room, works for me.
I pretty much refused the idea of a bunk bed because of obvious safety hazards (which I am NOT over) AND we have low ceilings. The other night however, I came across a listing on Craigslist for a bunkbed with a full size bottom and twin size top bed. I thought to myself..."Self, this could work. We could use the bottom for several years starting right now, and store the twin until baby boy is ready to move up to the bed. AND...the bunk bed is not very high, so it would fit in our little house. Plus if by some horrible, unfortunately circumstance he rolled out of the top twin, he'd at least land first on the part of the full bed sticking out."
We brought the bed home and decided to put together the twin and install it on top even though no one will be sleeping up there (I hope) for a long while. So...for less than a weekend away we bought a bed that will eventually hold all three of our children, very safely and comfortably. It's big, but we are thrilled. It's a very well built, solid piece of furniture. We found out later it's from Haverty's, which I think is a pretty nice furniture store. And, the dark blue doesn't "match" the room..but I think it tones down some of the girly pink in there.
As you can see, the girls don't like the bed at all (Just Kidding!)
Tonight is night 2 of sleeping in the bed, together. I had to sit in there for about 45 minutes last night, Hannah wouldn't stay in the bed. Tonight, I decided to just *try* leaving the room. I had to take Hannah back in several times, but she didn't fight me to hard over it. And, after about 40 minutes, both girls were fast asleep. Nicole napped in the bed today, and Hannah was already asleep for her nap when I laid her down in it.
I think it just might work. I can already see (and hear) the girls enjoying this bed. I think it'll be good for them. Tonight, Nicole said the sweetest (and saddest) thing to me. The one time Hannah put up a little fight with me, she started crying. Nicole said, "Mommy...I don't like it when Hannah cries, it makes me want to cry too." Awe...melt my heart away. I love those two, they are precious!
In other news, we have been EXTREMELY BUSY this weekend on a very HUGE project. I think I'm going to wait to blog about it though until it's completely finished. However, this is a photo of our "green room" after a weekend of projects and craziness....survival mode. (it's now a bit more picked up:-)
10 comments:
What a great idea. I shared a bedroom with my 2 sisters when I was young, I shared a bed with one and the other had her own. Then when my parents first moved to Naples, I shared a room with my brother for a long time until I moved down there full time. Some of the best times I had growing up was sharing a room with my siblings. Your kids will love it! You take care of yourself..he will be here soon!
Kirsten, THANKS for the encouraging words. I needed to hear it from a "real life survivor" of sharing rooms/beds hahaha.
And I was about to say congratulations....to a "real" new addition! LOL
That is sooooo cool Michele! All of it. Even the big mess. I am encouraged. lol. I was about to email you for tips on getting kids, with a baby, all to sleep in one room. I'm kind of curious.
Amanda...I"ll have to reply to your e-mail in a few months to see how successful we are, haha. Right now I've been fighting through an hour and half of "nap time" (kids think it's "get up and play time). I'm wiped out today too. The first day I felt like I NEEDED a nap in a long time, and no sign of one happening. Oh well.
I love all the pictures, thank you for sharing.
Your mom & I shared a room for awhile in the Haunted house in Gahanna. I guess you can ask your mom about it. I am sure for her it was a pain sharing a room with her little sister who is 10 yrs younger then her. It did not bother me, but who am I to say I was like 6 yrs old then.
I love the bunks beds and the full size is so cool for the girls.
Miss you all. God Bless!!
Love,
Aunt Julie
My girls share a full right now (we also have a two-bedroom) and have had three kids for a year now! LOL. Gigi's crib is in our room. But the plan is to get a bunk like yours here in a year or two.
Anyway, my girls don't sleep fine together. Riley is a kicker :/ And Evelyn has never slept well at night. I can probably count on my fingers the number of times they've both slept through the night. But what are you going to do? That's life. We live within our means, and right now that means a tiny house.
Blessings!
Oh no Kendra...that's to bad. We've only had a couple of nights so far. Last night was not good, but Hannah was sick and kept waking up crying. One time I went in and she was crawling over top of Nicole's head (and Nicole was still asleep). I think Nicole will be ok, Hannah is the light sleeper, so she's going to have to get used to it:-)
Who knows what the baby will be like. But....we can't have him sleeping in our room. He'll be in the living room, in a pack n play until he's sleeping mostly through the night, then the kids will have to "duke it out" and learn to sleep amongst each other's noises, haha. It'll be interesting.
Oo. Honestly, with the other two I was all about co-sleeping. But when Gigi came along I changed my tune. I do love having her in our room though. Her crib is less than 3 feet from our bed. But she has slept through the night since 1 month and takes 3 hour naps. I know that never would have happened in the noisy part of the house. Plus there is no room in our house for a pack'n play. It would have had to come down every day! They say you should wait until they're 9 months to sleep with a sibling.
Oh, wait. Do you have a crib in the girls room still? We don't even have room for that. Haha.
Amanda, I don't have any trouble getting the girls to fall asleep in the same room. I just turn the lights out. It's figuring out how to keep myself awake that I have issues with.
We are totally not co-sleepers. We can't even have the baby in our room for more than a few days. It just doesn't work for us. Nicole was in for about 2 weeks (pack n play) and Hannah was in for about 5 days. We have a living room that we'll put the pack n play in...a little corner. We're going to hang curtains around the pack n play to create a little "room" space, especially at night.
Yes...the crib is still up in the girl's room. Hannah isn't officially out yet (she's been sick this week, so we decided to just let her sleep well and change over next week). Baby boy will take naps in the crib, and hopefully be sleeping in it by the new year. That's *my* goal anyway. It doesn't give them much space to play in their room...but that's ok...their room is for sleeping. They can play somewhere else in the house.
Yeah...Amanda, getting the to sleep in the room isn't a huge deal once you know their sleeping habits. Nicole is a heavy sleeper and has very rarely been awoken by Hannah (even the other night, Hannah was crawling over Nicole's head in the middle of the night and she was still sleeping). Hannah, however is a light sleeper. She's the one that will have problems with me coming in for the baby, which is why I want him mostly sleeping through the night before I put him in there full time.
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