Baby's Got a Brand New Crib
The twins are growing. They’re now 27 combined pounds of formula-sucking-and-spitting machinery. I’m glad they’re growing well; it gives me concrete evidence to supply to relatives that I’m performing at least some of my parenting duties correctly.
Growing up means they need new equipment though, large new equipment. Like the two high chairs we’ll have to cram into a kitchen that already barely has enough free floor space for the dog to run full-bore at the door every time we have a visitor. Or the two stationary entertainers we’ll have to stuff into a living room that’s already so full that Abbie has to stack her toys when she empties her toy box.
By far the biggest pain is the second crib. We’ve resisted so far by putting both boys in the same crib to sleep. Not only does this halve the number of cribs we need to provide, but they’re combined presence helps soothe each other, turning hard crying into gentle whimpering that we can easily ignore while preparing bottles for another feeding.
This weekend we decided that it’s time to put the boys in separate cribs. I came to this conclusion when, after a particularly fitful night where they didn’t so much soothe each other as they whacked each other in the face with sleepless arm flailings, I found the boys having scooted into awkward positions. Ian had turned himself diagonally with his head in a corner and his feet in Tory’s thigh. Tory had scooted forward several inches despite only having about an inch of headroom, resulting in him sleeping with his head tilted at a side angle that gave me a kink looking at it.
That morning I pulled our spare crib out of storage. We bought the crib used at a garage sale last summer when we knew the twins were coming but hadn’t figured out how we would afford everything. It’s not exactly a crib, but a 4-in-1 Sleep System that can form everything from a crib suitable for housing a newborn, to a day bed suitable for giving away when we find something better because this thing looks hideous and some of the paint is disturbingly peeling off.
We bought the crib without looking at it because it came sealed in a box small enough to imply “some assembly and possibly smelting required.” After opening the box, I had a mini-heart attack as I feared we were missing the assembly instructions for our highly complicated sleep system with approximately 1,835,213,687 loose parts. Fortunately but I found them tucked into a space between the railings that seemed to have been specially created to store them by engineers who realized someone would have a heart attack if they tried assembling this thing without instructions.
With much groaning and a little cursing, I had the crib assembled in time for their last nap of the day. We set them down and hoped for the best. Tory seemed to fall asleep without noticing his brother’s absence. Ian fussed at first, but celebrated his new space by rolling over in his sleep for the first time, resulting in possibly his best nap ever. Never again will the boys sleep in the same crib. They will however continue to sleep in the same Pack ‘N Play in the living room when Abbie is sleeping in the kids’ room since we’re still not ready to try letting all three sleep in the same room simultaneously, and there’s no way our living room has enough free space to set up two Pack ‘N Plays. Two Pack ‘N Plays is just crazy.
Growing up means they need new equipment though, large new equipment. Like the two high chairs we’ll have to cram into a kitchen that already barely has enough free floor space for the dog to run full-bore at the door every time we have a visitor. Or the two stationary entertainers we’ll have to stuff into a living room that’s already so full that Abbie has to stack her toys when she empties her toy box.
By far the biggest pain is the second crib. We’ve resisted so far by putting both boys in the same crib to sleep. Not only does this halve the number of cribs we need to provide, but they’re combined presence helps soothe each other, turning hard crying into gentle whimpering that we can easily ignore while preparing bottles for another feeding.
This weekend we decided that it’s time to put the boys in separate cribs. I came to this conclusion when, after a particularly fitful night where they didn’t so much soothe each other as they whacked each other in the face with sleepless arm flailings, I found the boys having scooted into awkward positions. Ian had turned himself diagonally with his head in a corner and his feet in Tory’s thigh. Tory had scooted forward several inches despite only having about an inch of headroom, resulting in him sleeping with his head tilted at a side angle that gave me a kink looking at it.
That morning I pulled our spare crib out of storage. We bought the crib used at a garage sale last summer when we knew the twins were coming but hadn’t figured out how we would afford everything. It’s not exactly a crib, but a 4-in-1 Sleep System that can form everything from a crib suitable for housing a newborn, to a day bed suitable for giving away when we find something better because this thing looks hideous and some of the paint is disturbingly peeling off.
We bought the crib without looking at it because it came sealed in a box small enough to imply “some assembly and possibly smelting required.” After opening the box, I had a mini-heart attack as I feared we were missing the assembly instructions for our highly complicated sleep system with approximately 1,835,213,687 loose parts. Fortunately but I found them tucked into a space between the railings that seemed to have been specially created to store them by engineers who realized someone would have a heart attack if they tried assembling this thing without instructions.
With much groaning and a little cursing, I had the crib assembled in time for their last nap of the day. We set them down and hoped for the best. Tory seemed to fall asleep without noticing his brother’s absence. Ian fussed at first, but celebrated his new space by rolling over in his sleep for the first time, resulting in possibly his best nap ever. Never again will the boys sleep in the same crib. They will however continue to sleep in the same Pack ‘N Play in the living room when Abbie is sleeping in the kids’ room since we’re still not ready to try letting all three sleep in the same room simultaneously, and there’s no way our living room has enough free space to set up two Pack ‘N Plays. Two Pack ‘N Plays is just crazy.
posted by Matt at
10:58 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home