Our family is growing. Quickly. We have until February to make room for our newest bundle of joy and to prepare our home for his arrival. And the walls are closing in. Ha! Just kidding. Sort of.
Our house has 3 bedrooms and 1 office that
could be a bedroom (because it has a closet and apparently in real estate terms that qualifies a room as a potential bedroom),
however, our office is really small with an open ceiling (like a studio) and houses our computer, 2 desks, some toys, ironing board, etc. And there's no where else for all those things to go. So the office will remain an office. We've never once considered attempting to transform it into a bedroom. Which means we really and truly only have 3 bedrooms. But we're about to have 3 kiddos. Which means not everyone gets to have their very own room... aka the big boys will need to share a room.
So Sunday night was the big night. The start of our Fall Break (I've been determined to work this whole transition around a break from school from the start... plenty of time to adjust without having to wake anybody up early and make them go to school, including me) and a perfect time because Austin is now a little over 2 (the exact age as Garrison when he moved to a big boy bed) plus he will absolutely love sharing a room with Garrison. They will both be thrilled. They will stay up a little later than normal talking and laughing and excited about their new sleeping arrangement, but then they will sleep late and wake up happy and overjoyed about being together and sharing a room.
WRONG. Boohoohoo!!
Sunday night was tough. Austin was totally thrown off and even a little scared. Something we never anticipated. Garrison's room is a little darker than his and poor baby just cried and cried and said more than once
Autin cared,
Autin cared. Bless his heart. So after attempting to leave the lamp on and then deciding that was too bright, we moved another night light in and Terrell and I were back and forth, in and out of their room 6 or 7 times. All the while, Garrison is trying to go to sleep but Austin is on and off the bed, crying, or doing whatever to keep him awake. I felt so guilty for putting them both through it, but
finally, after about an hour they both got quiet and went to sleep. Yay!
They slept all night (yay again!) but Austin woke up around 6 am and then woke up his brother. Noooooo! My boys never wake up that early. Ever. We even heard Garrison trying to get Austin to go back to sleep. When that didn't happen we decided to just let them be and then after 7 (an appropriate time for kiddos to wake up at our house) I finally went in to get them up... where they were still going strong talking and playing in bed.
And so began my toughest parenting day ever.
The whole day was hard. The easiest part was going grocery shopping. Go figure. Garrison was a little testy and emotional but overall I thought he handled his lack of sleep great. Austin however had meltdown after meltdown after meltdown. He refused to go potty and almost fell in more than once. He spent lots of time in his crib in time-out because of refusing to listen, cooperate, go potty, get dressed, you name it. He cried in my lap a lot. He dumped his plate of lunch in the floor. He went potty in the floor after refusing to go on the potty. He got hurt numerous times because of him and Garrison playing too rough. It was awful. I think I yelled more at my kids yesterday than ever before. I also cried with them and cried because of them. And I prayed a lot.
Then I felt guilty about it all. I felt guilty for yelling and losing my patience. I felt guilty because all of the drama was my fault for making them share a room before they were ready. I felt guilty because the stress and emotional roller coaster of the day couldn't be good for Layton. It was ROUGH.
(I can't even accurately describe naptime except to say that Austin cried and threw a fit and was totally inconsolable with me sitting right beside him for 30 minutes or so until he finally gave up from exhaustion and cried himself to sleep. I cried too. Sigh.)
Then daddy came home and we had supper and the boys played outside and Austin got a little better and we thought we'd just start over fresh and try again. Night 2 had to be easier right?
Wrong again.
Austin wasn't scared this time he just didn't know how to settle down in Garrison's room, in Garrison's bed,
with Garrison. He cried off and on. He layed all over Garrison's side of the bed. He threw their blankets and stuffed animals behind the bed. He threw his pillow behind the bed. He talked and looked at books and kept Garrison up for around 2 hours. And then we gave up. On night 2. They had already been up since 6ish (over an hour earlier than they normally wake up) and it was already after 9 (over an hour later than they normally go to bed). Enough was enough. It wasn't fair to either one of them. Once they were separated they went right to sleep and slept until 8 this morning. I think they were both exhausted.
I went right to sleep after all that too. But not before I had one more good cry. Mama was spent. Terrell and I didn't even talk about the drama or a solution or plan B or anything. I think he knew I was done and in no mood to talk and I knew he was just as frustrated and in no mood to talk, so we just didn't speak a word about it or anything... until this morning.
After discussing things we both believe that Austin probably just isn't ready. He's not only moving into a big boy bed, he's moving into a new room and attempting to sleep in the same bed as Garrison. It's a lot of change for a just turned 2 year old. Soooo, the new plan is to try again later. We're not exactly sure when. We may try every Friday night for a while and try to make it a special treat as a way to ease him into it. We may put it off until Christmas and our next long break from school when Austin will be just a little older. We may try naptime first when Garrison won't be in there to get him used to that before attempting bedtime again.
The good news is that we do have some options. The bad news is that one way or another they have to share a room eventually. Unless we move to a bigger house really soon... which would be a huge surprise.
We're also thinking of letting Garrison sleep on the top bunk (but without the ladder so Austin can't climb up there). That way Austin will have the whole full-size bottom bed to himself and Garrison will have some space and privacy on the top bunk where he can possibly go to sleep even if Austin is talking/playing/all over the bed below him. Sleeping in the same bed has been really tough for both of them. Something else I never would've predicted. I thought it was just going to be fun and happy and special for them getting to be together. Oh well. It'll be okay... and one day far, far from now I'll look back and laugh at how crazy things were when they shared a room for the first time ever.
While the "move in" was
way more stressful than I ever anticipated we are still holding out hope that we'll be able to make the transition before February. That's our ultimate goal. In the meantime, it's just gonna be trial and error with a lot of prayer and patience thrown in.
