The Renamed Room

This past week a very exciting transition occured in our home. Whether or not it is viewed in a positive or negative light just might depend on who you're asking though...

Bentley's room is now "the nursery". It's no longer his room alone, the twins have moved in. Yeah!! Up until this point they've been sharing a crib in our room but it was time for them to move on. Firstly, they're sleeping through the night (on most occasions!) so they won't disturb Bentley if they're sharing a room now. Secondly, they're getting to the point of wanting their own cribs - they have been sharing one up until this point. There's not room in our bedroom for 2 cribs, so I figured might as well move on to their new sleeping location!

I'd spent about a month going back and forth on the thought of buying a 3rd crib (I can't believe I own 3 cribs!), and finally caved in and went for it. Although, as you can see from the picture, the kids look ok with just 1 crib for all 3 of them! I was hoping Bentley would transition to his toddler bed and kindly pass on his crib but he's still rather attached to it. I've had the toddler bed ready and waiting for... almost a year? Yep, it just might be that long! The most interest Bentley has shown in it occured last week when I took the mattress off to move it to the new crib - the toddler bed suddenly became an attractive looking jungle gym. Not quite what I was going for! I've decided to console myself with the thought that I don't want him in the cute toddler bed anyway - the ability of my toddler to get up and roam the house at whim during the night is not something that would enhance my beauty sleep.

When I asked Bentley if he wanted the twins to sleep in his room he gave me a "YEAH!", and then a "NO WAY!" when he further processed the question. I rephrased it as "Won't it be nice to have someone to talk to, so you don't have to be alone?!", and then he was cool with the idea. I'm a bit ambivalent about the room sharing - I'm an only child and never had to share, why should my kids? On the other hand, it's not like I completely enjoyed having my own room when I was young. My parents tell me it took them a good 7 years to get me completely out of their bed at night - I was a clever child and they could never come up with a good answer to the question of why I had to sleep alone in a room when they had eachother. :-)

After the 1st night (with some crying involved from the twins) we noticed Bentley moved his pillow from its customary side of the crib to the opposite corner, farther from the twins, giving himself a few more inches of space from the noise. He put a blanket over his head and went to sleep. Poor guy!

I keep assuring myself that research shows room sharing strengthens sibling relationships, and it's good experience for the rest of life - college, missions, marriage, etc. We'll see!