Night time play by play

Since Ron and I decided that moving to Joliet, or the like, (what we could afford) was not an option
and staying in the city and buying a condo the same size (only nicer) than our apartment
was not ideal - who wants to live next to five kids under 4!- we needed to tackle sleeping arrangements.

So enter bunk beds. Violet had been extremely reticent to share her space. Every time we mentioned the possibility of Jack moving into her turf she complained that she needed her "privacy" and wanted to keep her stuff. However, given the opportunity to help shop for the beds she started to turn around. Once she realized the beds for going to come in pieces and she could "help" Dad put them together she was sold.

I was nervous about the big transition. Not only are the kids pretty young for bunk beds, Jack is such a good sleeper I hated to disturb that. It was decided though better to try this transition now while we still had time to make adjustments, rather than later when we are in the weeds with three infants.

Night 1: We had a hard time keeping them in the room. Both kept running out making a big game out of bedtime. Lots of yelling (mostly by me) and finally they passed out. Around 3am both came bounding into our room. After attempts to put them back were
unsuccessful, we caved and let Violet stay in our bed with Ron and I took Jack back to the bottom bunk to sleep. I say sleep, but in reality Jack was playing around until about 6:30 then he succumbed to exhaustion. The next day lots of crabby behavior by everyone - me included - as we just did not get enough sleep. Jack who never takes naps not even in the car, fell asleep in the couch in the middle of the afternoon.

Night 2: Much easier time getting everyone to sleep, but had the same problem around 3. This time Dad was on Jack duty and reported had an easier time getting him back to sleep.

By night 6, everyone was going to bed well and sleeping throughout he night!
This is a huge big deal because prior to the big move Violet would end up in our bed sometime after 1am. Here is a break down of how it has been working. We start Violet out on the top and Jack on the bottom. Now when she wakes up she crawls down into his bed to sleep with him. The only draswback is that Violet wakes up earlier
than Jack. She can be heard, without warning, saying "Jackie, wake up sleepy head". This has been around 7-7:30 so not ungodly early and Jack seems to be adjusting - no more passing out on the couch.

All and all, it seems to be working out and I am glad we made this decision and stuck with it. Thanks Ron for the steady hand in this as I wanted to bail on the experiment after night 2.