Sleeping Arrangements

For the past couple of weeks things have been a little messed up at bedtime because Amanda has refused to sleep in her crib.  It was strange because she would sleep there for her nap, but wanted nothing to do with it at bedtime.

It started around the time her allergies were really bad.  We weren't excited about her sleeping so far away from us so we brought her into bed with us.  That lasted about a week.  Then, Charlie went out of town for a guys golf weekend and I continued to let her sleep with me because I had so much room in my bed and I didn't want to deal with her crying.  She sleeps so much better in our bed that I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night to mess with her.  It was wonderful.

When Charlie returned, however, he reminded me that this couldn't go on.  We worked very hard not to make our bed a family bed, as the crunchy diaper mamas I know call it, because we wanted some time away from the kids.  I don't care if other people do it, I'm not against it, it's just not for us.

We were planning on moving the kids around this summer anyway, and I had talked about how Amanda would get Andy's bed and Andy would move to her room, or something of that nature.  I think bunk beds will eventually be involved, but we didn't get that far.  When Amanda again said she didn't want to sleep in her bed I asked her where she wanted to sleep.  "Andy's bed."  And where was Andy going to sleep?  "Couch."

That worked for a day or two, but Andy didn't really want to sleep on the couch.  I'm not sure why because the couch in the game room is more comfortable than any bed in our house, but if he didn't want to be there we couldn't make him sleep there.  So, Andy slept on the futon in our room and Amanda slept in his bed.  Do you see what is happening?  This girl is making decisions for the entire family that impact us all, and we're letting her.  We are so off our game.

Finally this weekend we took down the crib (no, it was not sad at all, it was joyous!) and moved the futon into Amanda's room.  Then, we moved all of Andy's stuff out of his and Sarah's room and moved most of Amanda's stuff out of her room.  It was not at all what I wanted to do this weekend, there are so many other things I need to be cleaning or purging, but it is done and everybody is happy.

Especially Charlie and me because we finally have our room, and our bed, back to ourselves.