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.

night wanderer

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Jack was climbing out of his crib. Well a couple of nights ago, after Ron put him to bed, we noticed the light going on and off and Jack talking to himself. After maybe 10 minutes of quiet, Ron went in to turn off the light and this is how he found him. I don't know if he was just exhausted or what because usually he will climb back into his crib to go to sleep. Good think Jack is not a thrasher like Violet (or his mom) or I fear he might have crashed to the floor. I guess he must have just been tired because he did not wake through this photo shoot or when Ron lifted him into bed. Doesn't he look so big?!

Last night we dyed Easter eggs, and the kids had a blast. This is the first year we tried this and it worked out well. Even though there is quite a bit a waiting around (it takes 5 min for the eggs to stay submerged to achieve coloring) the looks on their faces when we pulled them out was worth the wait. Pure amazement. If you click on the pictures they will become larger. I don't think we will be hiding eggs just quite yet - too many overstuffed nooks and crannies for potential disaster for my sensibilities.
Ron's dad and step-m0m sent the kids Easter baskets so we will be skyping them on Sunday so they can watch the kids open them. Hopefully we will be (finally) enjoying some spring like weather.

Getting ready for the arrival of the babies!

I am washing all the tiny baby outfits and could not resist putting up a photo of these itsy bitsy diaper covers. These are new, the ones we had for Violet and Jack were not quite this small. In anticipation for the likelihood of 5-pounder's I bought some preemie covers - too cute. We also bought the kids bunk beds this past weekend and are expecting delivery some time next week. I will post pictures when we get them set up. Hopefully we will have a smooth transition for both Violet sharing her space and Jack sleeping in a big boy bed. Fingers crossed. This is starting to feel real...