Musical Bedrooms

For a while now, Mike and I have been contemplating what to do with the girls and their bedrooms when (or before, ideally) the baby arrives. Until now, Sienna has been in the "nursery" in a crib and Isabella has been in the room across the hall from us. We have one more room down the hall that has been used as a guest/play/junk storage room. We knew that we wanted to move Sienna out of her crib well before the baby needed it to avoid (or at least minimize) any resentment. We considered a variety of options... Should the girls share a room? Would they ever sleep if they shared a room? Should we loft Isabella's bed and add another twin bed to her room to keep the girls across the hall and still have a guest room? Is 4 1/2 too young to sleep in a top bunk? (Manufacturers suggest that you wait until a child is 6 years old) Should we move Isabella down the hall? Would she be scared being farther away from us since she likes to know that we're close by? Should we move Sienna down the hall? Would the garage door wake them up every morning when Mike left for work since the extra bedroom is above the garage? Do we buy a twin bed for the other bedroom or just have one of the girls sleep in the queen bed that's already there? Do we move both girls down the hall since that room is the biggest? Decisions, decisions... We talked to the girls about sharing a room and they seemed to like that idea. Actually, Isabella liked the idea, but Sienna's standard answer to most questions these days is, "No way!" Then Isabella suggested that she sleep in the playroom and Sienna sleep in her room. This was one of the ideas that we had but we didn't think they'd go for it. Since Isabella came up with the idea, we gave it a shot over the weekend and it was a huge success, thankfully. Sienna seemed to like sleeping in the "big girl" bed although she was awake for a solid hour playing with stuffed animals. Isabella also did great sleeping down the hall. No issues (so far)!! The next morning, Isabella said emphatically, "I know!! Now that I'm sleeping in the play room and Sienna is sleeping in my room, the baby can sleep in the crib in Sienna's room!!!!!" Well, now there's an idea!!!!! Why didn't we think of that?!? As Sienna tries to process these changes, she keeps telling me, "Babies live wif cribs, bid dirls live wif bid beds." (Translation: Babies live with cribs, big girls live with big beds) We decided to have Isabella sleep in the queen bed for now, so she keeps telling us,"I have a fat bed and Sienna has a long bed." At least they are both embracing the new arrangements for now. Today Sienna and I raised the mattress on the crib to get it ready for the new baby (and to keep Sienna from wanting to sleep there again). Now we just have to shift furniture and clothes and try to make each of their rooms their own. Mike is very sensitive to the fact that Sienna will be the middle child, so he doesn't want her to feel like she's always getting Isabella's old stuff. We'll have to work on that... At this point I don't think that she really cares yet.

Sienna is ready for her first night in the big girl bed. We have her convinced (as we did Isabella) that she needs one of us to lift her in and out of bed. (She could easily clmb out if she wanted to, but she hasn't figured that out yet)

Sienna, Isabella and Mama (and her belly!) read stories before bed

Sienna fast asleep

Isabella fast asleep

Now we just have to get Sienna to wear her "undiewears" and use the potty! In addition to, "No way!" Sienna also says, "Don't want to!" As we learned with Isabella, it really wasn't worth pushing her. Once she was ready, she was ready and she rarely had accidents. I think it will still be a little while until Sienna really wants to use the potty.