Two Kids One Room... Finally

It's been a month since I started working on getting both kids into one room. We successfully worked through Harper's early morning wake-up and got rid of the pacifier and swaddle. Everything was "ready" except for me. I just kept delaying putting her in the kid's room for the night. I kind of wonder at what point I would have finally done it.... but circumstances intervened and our friends picked up the bassinet for their little one who is due very soon.

So, it has been about five nights with both kids sleeping in one room at night. Harper takes her naps in a portable crib in our room during the day. And then, after her 10:30pm feeding I just lay her down in the kids' room. Z is already asleep and he hasn't woken up from that yet.

I am so extremely thankful that Z is sleeping better at night now. I keep meaning to write about it, but it has been two or maybe three weeks of solid night-sleeping for him (with only a couple of exceptions). John offered to take over the wake-ups (which meant that I stayed in bed, adrenaline pumping from the abrupt wake-up, while he very leisurely, if at all, got up to take care of Z). I honestly think that John's delay in going to him is what helped. And John taking the responsibility, which meant I had to stay in bed, helped me not rush in as well. And perhaps Z also just got through the phase, I don't know. All I can say is that it has helped so much! I am SO thankful. Yet another example of how things change even when you think they never will. That phase was really rough and lasted almost a year!

With both kids in one room, the only problem really has been that Harper wakes up a little early still (6:45am) and plays and coos. She is not very loud, but it's enough at that time of the morning to wake Z up. A few times he has just remained awake and plays in his room and a couple times he went back to sleep. This morning he woke up really upset at 6am (I think because he had to pee) and when I put him back in bed he said he didn't want Harper in his room. I wanted to say- well, you're the one who woke her up! But that has been the biggest problem so far. I ended up feeding Harper early and putting her in the port-a-crib in our room. She is so sweet and just plays and barely makes any noise, but that was pretty much the end of my sleep. Really, though, it could be worse. (It could always be worse.)

At least when Z gets up early he still stays in his room. We've always had to reinforce the rule for Z to stay in his room in the morning until we come and get him. I am so glad we did. He still has to be reminded almost every day, but at least it is usually less of a fight. What a huge difference that 7-8am hour makes in my life! I feed Harper, pump, take a shower (sometimes), get breakfast ready. It takes me a while to wake up so that hour really helps.

Looking back on the last month or so, I realize how much we've accomplished. Here I am at the point of having both kids in one room, which was very high on my list of worries for having two kids. And it's fine! We worked hard to get to this point with the least amount of difficulty and we made it!