Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Switching Bedrooms

I'm a little late posting about this...it seems like every day flies by faster than the last (and I'm afraid my new Facebook obsession doesn't help!) and before I know it another day has gone by without a blog post. Anyway, I didn't want to let it go by without mention, so I'm posting now although the event happened last Sunday.

When we moved into this house, Emma got her own room on the first floor, right down the hall from our bedroom. She was still nursing at that time, and her habit was to come into bed with us when she woke in the night. It didn't make sense to have her upstairs, where she might fall on the stairs or at the very least wake her siblings trying to reach us. We told Julia she was next in line for her own room. However, when Emma weaned last spring, she had no interest in changing rooms, and we sort of let it go because Julia didn't seem that interested, either. Unfortunately, Emma's habit of coming into our bed in the middle of the night didn't end when nursing did! And as she got bigger, our bed seemed more cramped, till finally Matt was just sleepwalking down to Emma's bed when she'd come in to cuddle. We were really getting tired of not being in the same bed all night! So on Sunday I mentioned switching up the bedrooms. I was met with universal enthusiasm, and so we got right to work--I was taking no chances!

Julia, Rachel, Emma and I went to work late in the afternoon on Sunday, after we returned from a family bike ride. It wasn't the best timing, admittedly, but Matt said he'd make dinner and I figured we could always complete the transformation over the week if we had to. Ben helped here and there, but wasn't very invested in the work--I think he ended up in the backyard playing with his light saber at some point. All I did was get the laundry baskets and the Rubbermaid totes we sort laundry into out of the basement, and we began unceremoniously piling toys and books into them.

We brought a load of Emma's things upstairs, emptied the things onto the bed, and refilled them with Julia's things and brought them down. As the rooms emptied, I did most of the ferrying and Julia and Rachel had a blast setting up Julia's new space. As we got all the things upstairs, I went to work on arranging things for Emma, with her help as to what went where. It was great because in all the moving we ferreted out a huge bag of things no longer played with as well as broken toys, puzzles with missing pieces, all manner of junk from old drawings to pieces of string, shells to bits of Play Doh that could be thrown away. I always find it cathartic to weed out old possessions and clean things up. And Julia is taking her room VERY seriously--she has been keeping everything preternaturally neat with a place for everything and everything in its place (very unlike her!)

Matt was making noises about dinner being ready, so we took a break. I was feeling pretty good that we'd gotten so much done...I never could have done it without Rachel and Julia's help. I was already planning when I could fit the clothes portion of the festivities in, but then figured I could get started on that after dinner while the kids were bathing and doing the whole nighttime routine. Lo and behold--that part was quite easy since the clothes were just reorganized from summer to winter wardrobes--and I was finished before their bedtime! All that has yet to be done is the careful removal of Julia's handdrawn horse posters from her old wall and the transfer to the new...but that's Matt's job! I know he'll be far more patient and careful than I would be, and Julia is so worried that they'll be torn or ruined that I think it takes his steady hand.

The best news? Emma hasn't come into our bed even once since we did this! I don't think Matt and I have had this many uninterrupted nights together since before Julia was born....

--Jen

4 comments:

MamaBirdEmma said...

Pictures, Woman!!

Jen said...

I will get Rachel on that--she loves taking photos, and she knows how to put them on the computer LOL! I'm always afraid I'll break the camera, and since we now have a new camera.....

Mom of 3 said...

Sounds like the perfect time for child #5!!!!!! Ha Ha Ha, I crack myself up.

Jen said...

Yeah...that's a rich one, all right! But luckily, that won't happen as Matt had the old snippety snip! :) And there's a reason for that--I'd be in an asylum somewhere if I had another one!