Okay, all you faithful blog readers of mine. I need your help with something that's literally keeping me awake at night (as in, I'm up at 4:30 a.m. writing this... or maybe it's just my yucky head cold??) I'm afraid this is something that may continue to keep me awake at night as I move into our new house where we used to live. The great dilemma is, the sleeping arrangements for our children. I seriously cannot figure this out, and it's driving me crazy!!
So... help. We Bishops are moving back into our house in Idaho that has four good sized bedrooms, on a split floor plan -- two bedrooms are next to each other, behind the kitchen/dining room area. The other two -- including the master -- are far far away, on the other end of the house, behind the living room. This split floor plan bothered me when we lived there before, because we had Samantha and Spencer in the rooms behind the kitchen, which seemed very far away from our master bedroom. Natalie was in the room across from us, but it was a "temporary" arrangement for her, so she was sharing with exercise equipment and a desk in what we liked to call our hobby room.
Now, as we return to this bedroom arrangement, we have some new developments in our children...
-- a much older Natalie, who is climbing out of her crib every day.
-- a scared Spencer who often wakes up in the night and wants to sleep in our room.
-- a strong resistance to letting kids sleep in our room often. (Call us mean, it's just something that DOES NOT work for us.)
-- a Samantha who sleeps fairly well, but doesn't like sleeping alone anymore, after sharing with Spence all this time.
I've tried to figure out how to arrange their bedrooms, who should sleep with whom, etc. And I am lost! Here are some options I've considered:
First, I'll refer to the various room options as follows: the room Samantha used to sleep in, behind the kitchen, will be the pink room. Spencer's room behind the kitchen will be the blue room. And the other room, close to the master, will be called the hobby room.
Option 1: Samantha in the pink room, by herself where she used to be. Spencer and Natalie in the blue room, sharing a queen bed (which would double as a guest bed when we have visitors). Or, we could put bunk beds in Spencer and Natalie's room and sleep them on the bunks, separated. But then what do we do with our rare guests? and with our queen bed?
Option 2: Samantha and Natalie in the pink room, behind the kitchen far from us. Spencer in the room across from us in the hobby room, and move all the "hobby" stuff to the blue room. With this option, I worry Spence will still get up in the night, and being alone will be too scary, and being so close to us might be more of an enabler for him to come sleep in our room, instead of a comfort to him.
Option 3: Spencer and Natalie in the hobby room in bunk beds, Samantha across the house in the pink room, and all the hobby stuff moved over into the blue room. But I worry Samantha will start getting scared, sleeping all by herself over there?
Option 4: Samantha and Spencer in bunk beds in the blue room, Natalie in the pink room, in a toddler bed with the queen bed for guests. For some reason, this arrangement seems like Samantha gets the shaft, though it's what they've been used to here. I just picture Samantha needing her own "space" more, now that she's older, in school, etc. Plus, I painted the cutest blue and yellow stripes on the wall in that blue room. And I feel like I'd want to change it, if they were sharing. Trivial, I know. But still...
Option 4: I know it sounds ridiculous -- in a house with four bedrooms-- but I've seriously considered sleeping them all in the same room, right across the hall from us in the hobby room. Bunk beds for Sam and Spence, and a toddler bed for Nat. Although, she would have to adjust to that. Right now, when they all sleep in the same room, Nattie thinks it's a big party. (We just ended the weeklong "party" they had while my parents were here last week. She finally slept in this a.m. until NINE, after waking btwn 6:30 and 7 for the whole week they were sharing!) hmm... But with that option, we'd have space for a real guest bedroom (the pink room), and a real hobby room.
Oh the trivial, tedious things that keep me awake at night. But see, if I don't figure this out before we move, well... Anyway, I welcome any thoughts anyone has about this. In fact, if you're reading this on your "smart" phones, people, please make a "smart" note to yourself to go to your real computer and type out a comment about this one for me so I can figure out what I should do!
For now, I think the answer is to go back to bed and hope I can go back to sleep! G'nite!
7 comments:
I don't think this is a trivial thing. It seems like you all are making a big change for your kids moving back to Idaho and you are wanting to make it as easy as possible. Why not try all 3 kids in the same room and after a few weeks re-assess the situation. You may find that your kids embrace all the space and want to have as much of it as possible and thus are fine sleeping far away from you in the pink and blue rooms, or you may find the opposite. I don't think I'd make any hard and fast decisions right now, especially since you don't know how your kids will react. You'll make a great decision. You are a great mom. :)
Have they expressed any opinions? I know Spencer likes to have someone else in the room but does he care where and who that is?
I agree with Alysa. I think you're going to have to go through a lot of trial and error once you get there. Not fun or ideal, but you'll eventually find the right solution to suit everyone's needs!
With the struggles you've had with Spencer and how much he doesn't like change (even if it's moving back to your old house) I'd go with one of the options where Spencer is closer to your room. If he's making a lot of middle of the night trips to your room then you'll be glad you don't have to trek back and forth across the house to get him back to his "blue" room.
And if you choose Option 2 then you can use the Blue room as a guest room and not have to disrupt your children when guests come. But then where would your hobby room be???
How about Spencer in the Hobby room along with the "hobbies", Natalie in the Blue room in a youth bed against the wall with the guest bed in that same room (like it used to be with the crib...), and Sammie in her same Pink room--(and you can paint Natti's room.)
That idea just barely came to me after reading Jana's suggestions, but at first--I was going to say the same thing as Alysa. And actually, I DO agree with Alysa that all three kids maybe should be put in the Hobby room together at FIRST, (like your idea with the bunk beds and the toddler bed.) If you tell Spencer right off that that's going to be HIS room, then he can get adjusted to the idea of sometime having a room all to himself, while Sammie and Natalie are getting adjusted to the thoughts of having a room to themselves. And then--just PLAN to go through a few nights of upheaval when the change really takes place. :) right??
It sounds like you've already put a lot of thought into it, Babe, so just add Prayer, and you'll end up doing the right thing. Good Luck. Love, Mom
Put Spencer in the blue room with the Queen bed which will then double as the guest bed. Put the the girls in the pink room together on bunk beds. You can make the adjustment exciting by having them pick out thier own bedding or something. You can use baby monitors in both rooms if you feel like you need to hear them if they wake up.
I would say the last option. And make the old hobby room just for sleeping. Try putting Nattie down before the older ones to ensure that she is asleep? That's what we do with Brynn and Zach. That might change when we move her to a toddler bed! You could do 1 month trials with your two favorite options and then choose which works best. Good Luck! And see you in a few weeks!
sell your house, and move to Morgan. Problem solved!
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