In Your SELF Interest: The Move-In

Two weeks ago we moved in to our new place. So. Many. Boxes. And so many amazing people from our branch that came to help us. One of the great things about the church: immediate support system.

We gave the kids the big room. All the toys are in there to which is GREAT (no more toys all over the living room! Okay, that's not true, toys still come into the living room, but it's not THE playroom which makes me happy). The room has a massive closet where both of their dressers are, and a bunch of our junk too. Our room is slightly bigger than the size of our bed, so yeah, kind of tight, but it's all we really need out of our room anyways.

Unpacking Shae's toys was like, the thrill of his life. He was so excited about everything. (Two weeks later he is pretty much back to playing with none of his toys. It was nice while it lasted).

Sleeping has probably been the most stressful part of all of this. We moved Shae into a toddler bed. I was really worried that this would make sleeping difficult for him. I thought that he'd just get out and play, that he would never nap again, etc. That hasn't been the case (thankfully). Strangely enough, he still seems to think he is in a crib. After his nap he just sits and does his little wake-up moan until we come in to get him. Sometimes he is literally standing up at the side rail waiting for us. We're like, "uh Shae, you can get out yourself. You do realize that right?" Silly kid. So huge blessings there. He is still napping and doesn't run out of bed a bunch of times at night instead of sleeping. His biggest challenge (which really hasn't been too bad at all) is that he occasionally falls out. We put a comforter by his bed so it doesn't seem to bother him when he does fall out. He just sleeps on the floor until we put him back in bed. He did have a three day stretch going where he didn't fall out, so he seems to be getting better.

The hard part has been the two of them sharing a room. Shae sings and talks and is pretty loud going to sleep. He wakes up Belén if she is already asleep, or if they go down at the same time, he just keeps her awake or wakes her up once she has fallen asleep. Some nights it works, other nights she ends up in the pack n' play in our room then we transfer her to the crib after he is asleep. Mornings were stressful too because, hello...sleeeeep. Shae tends to start making noise at 6 something but then falls back asleep until after 7. The noise at 6ish would wake up Belén and then we're up for the day. I wasn't willing to do that, so what we've worked out is that after I feed her at 3ish, I move her into the pack n' play in the living room. She usually sleeps till past 7, Shae won't wake her up earlier, if she does wake up earlier she just coos from the living room and I don't feel pressured to rush out of bed.

I tried putting them down for naps at the same time and that just left me in tears with two wide-eyed kidlets. Now Belén takes her nap in the pack n' play in our room and Shae in his room.

I know this probably sounds crazy to many of you, judge away, but it works for us, and sometimes as parents (especially when it involves sleep) you do what works for you. This is working for us as of right now. I'm sure we'll figure out the shared room thing at some point (and/or resign to never sleep again). Some transitions just seem to work better when you do them gradually rather than all at once, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Also, the girl started getting up on her knees right when we moved here. That always seems to complicate sleep a bit.

We are loving our semi-spacious balcony. Shae really enjoys going out on it. I love that we have a huge glass sliding door that lets in air and the prospect of chilling out there on some of the cool fall days to come.

So with that, we FINALLY got to return the truck that we had for far too long. Shae thought he was the bees knees driving in the front seat with daddy.