We decided to bite the bullet, take the plunge, make the move, etc. and put the girls in the same room last night. My rough plan was to do it sometime in August, so we had a buffer A) before school started and B) well before the baby arrived. And so, if we had a set-back, we had time to regroup and try again. But C. continues to have trouble going to sleep when we put her down and then wake up at least once a night because either her teeth are bothering her or just because she’s a stinker and enjoys waking us up, so we were dreading making the move.
Then, yesterday, we said, “Screw it,” and moved her bed into M.’s room.
I’ll chalk it up as a success, at least after the first night.
Bedtime was a chore. Because of her wandering ways, we had sunk to putting a gate in C.’s doorframe, so that when she did get up five times in the first 30 minutes after we put her down, she was at least stuck in her room. We decided to keep doing that, which required explaining to M. that should wouldn’t be able to get out of her room and if she needed us, just to call our names and we’d hear her on the monitor. She said she understood, we tucked them in, gave them kisses, and shut the door on two sisters who were very wound up about sleeping in the same room.
As we walked away, we heard M. repeating everything I had just said to her to C.. “If we need mom and dad, we just call their names and they’ll hear us on the monitor and come and get us, ok?”
About ten minutes passed and we heard M. calling our name. I went up and C. was sitting in M.’s bed with a big smile on her face.
“Dad, C.’s in my bed.”
I explained that might happen, it was ok, and to just ask C. to go back in her bed if she didn’t want her in.”
Five minutes later M. was calling my name again.
“Dad, C. took the thing off the door.”
She had removed the pull-knob off the drawer to their nightstand. I replaced it, put C. back in bed, and told M. that she only needed to call our names if she needed to go potty or something like that.
“OK, dad.”
Ten minutes later, “Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad.”
I went up, opened the door, and was greeted by the stench of a dirty diaper and M. telling me that she needed to go potty. The power of suggestion I guess. I changed C., helped M. take care of her business, then put them back to bed. This time C. wasn’t very happy, and as I closed the door, I heard M. telling her, “It’s ok, C.. Just relax. When I don’t feel good, I take a drink of water and then I smile and then I feel better. Can you do that for me, sweetie?” It kills us when M. calls C. sweetie or honey or baby.
My times are probably off a bit, but by now we were about an hour in. They continued to play, talk, and bug each other for awhile. We heard M. telling C. that she needed to get back in her bed and go to sleep a few times. Finally, M. was calling for me again and S. went up and spent five or ten minutes with them, which apparently did the trick. There was a little more noise but sometime after 10:00 there was total silence. Two hours to get them to sleep, without any major incidents. Not too bad.
C. did wake up around 5:00. I went to check on her, tucked her back in, and while I was in there M. rolled around a little. I looked at her and she rolled over, smiled, and said, “Good night, daddy,” put her head down and went right back to sleep.
Next thing I knew, it was almost 8:00 and the girls were just then opening their door. That’s the latest C. has slept in months. Hell, maybe ever. So that part of it worked out well.
Night one was good. We’ll hope things continue to go this well. After we had moved all the furniture around, changed sheets, vacuumed, etc. we decided there was no way were we doing all this again. So they have on choice but to figure it out because there’s no going back to separate rooms.