A 3 Share
Abbie is now officially two-years-old, as measured by the number of birthday parties. We still have a couple days to go before reaching the anniversary of her birth, but that feels a little trite. The boys are officially six-months-old, as measured by the anniversary of their birth. Going by their original due date, they’re closer to four-and-a-half-months, which is more accurate for measuring their developmental stage, but after six months of caring for them at all hours of the night, I want credit for the full six months.
The point is, the kids are growing, and as they grow we can cast away the temporary care mechanisms that we’ll only use for a few weeks and move on to more permanent care mechanisms that we’ll utilize for a few months. Specifically, we recently moved all three children into one bedroom, which should be where they stay until we move in about a year. Ideally I’d like to move the children into three separate bedrooms, or at least let the twins share one bedroom separate from Abbie, so that the kids wouldn’t wake each other at night, but doing so would require a four (or three) bedroom home instead of our two bedroom apartment. Like I said, we’re moving in about a year.
Until this past weekend, the twins slept at night in one Pack ‘N ‘Play in the living room, while Abbie slumbered contentedly in her bedroom. The living room was the best place to put them for the night, with the only other viable options being our bedroom* or the basement.** Living in such a small home, we’ve been anxious to move the boys out of the living room so we can reclaim the floor space for more useful purposes, like a stationary entertainer.
As long as the boys were still waking in the middle of the night for food, I didn’t want to risk putting them in the same room as Abbie and have her decide that their 5am feeding is her wake time. About a week ago, they started sleeping all the way through the night for 11 straight hours. This gives me the chance for a full night of uninterrupted sleep provided I can break myself of my habit of waking every time they make a peep.
Spurred on by my mother’s visit this weekend and the desire to actually use the living room once the kids are asleep, we moved everyone together on Friday night. This was scary since I knew I still needed to pop pacifiers into the boys’ mouths a couple times a night to calm them down. Plus I know Abbie like to run around her room when she should be sleeping in search of objects that make loud noises. I addressed the Abbie issue by bending down to her eye-level and explaining that I need her to be a big girl, stay quiet, remain in her bed or at least on the floor, and not bother her brothers. Just to be sure she’d be good, I asked if she understood, and she vigorously shook her head side-to-side. Close enough. I could only hope the boys would be good.
The first night went okay except the three of them took turns being awake and squawking for the final two hours of their morning “sleep.” The second night (last night) went better as everyone stayed mostly quiet until I was ready to wake them. Of course I woke at 5am and never really fell back asleep. Some day I’ll reclaim my sleep habits. We’ve already reclaimed the living room.
* Some parents co-bed with their young children. We refuse to even co-room.
** The dog refuses to go to the basement. What does that tell you about its habitability?
The point is, the kids are growing, and as they grow we can cast away the temporary care mechanisms that we’ll only use for a few weeks and move on to more permanent care mechanisms that we’ll utilize for a few months. Specifically, we recently moved all three children into one bedroom, which should be where they stay until we move in about a year. Ideally I’d like to move the children into three separate bedrooms, or at least let the twins share one bedroom separate from Abbie, so that the kids wouldn’t wake each other at night, but doing so would require a four (or three) bedroom home instead of our two bedroom apartment. Like I said, we’re moving in about a year.
Until this past weekend, the twins slept at night in one Pack ‘N ‘Play in the living room, while Abbie slumbered contentedly in her bedroom. The living room was the best place to put them for the night, with the only other viable options being our bedroom* or the basement.** Living in such a small home, we’ve been anxious to move the boys out of the living room so we can reclaim the floor space for more useful purposes, like a stationary entertainer.
As long as the boys were still waking in the middle of the night for food, I didn’t want to risk putting them in the same room as Abbie and have her decide that their 5am feeding is her wake time. About a week ago, they started sleeping all the way through the night for 11 straight hours. This gives me the chance for a full night of uninterrupted sleep provided I can break myself of my habit of waking every time they make a peep.
Spurred on by my mother’s visit this weekend and the desire to actually use the living room once the kids are asleep, we moved everyone together on Friday night. This was scary since I knew I still needed to pop pacifiers into the boys’ mouths a couple times a night to calm them down. Plus I know Abbie like to run around her room when she should be sleeping in search of objects that make loud noises. I addressed the Abbie issue by bending down to her eye-level and explaining that I need her to be a big girl, stay quiet, remain in her bed or at least on the floor, and not bother her brothers. Just to be sure she’d be good, I asked if she understood, and she vigorously shook her head side-to-side. Close enough. I could only hope the boys would be good.
The first night went okay except the three of them took turns being awake and squawking for the final two hours of their morning “sleep.” The second night (last night) went better as everyone stayed mostly quiet until I was ready to wake them. Of course I woke at 5am and never really fell back asleep. Some day I’ll reclaim my sleep habits. We’ve already reclaimed the living room.
* Some parents co-bed with their young children. We refuse to even co-room.
** The dog refuses to go to the basement. What does that tell you about its habitability?
posted by Matt at
11:12 PM
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