Bittersweet- another transition

The last 6 or 7 weeks have just been miserable at bed time. As I mentioned last week, Beckett is able to get in and out of the crib. As of a few days ago, Addy figured it out as well. No, not this sweet little innocent thing.

Add that on top of not napping, hoarding items in their cribs, fighting over books...it has been more than miserable. Eloise is certainly not innocent in all of this. When she gets something stuck in her head like for example that she wants one of us to sleep on the floor in the room, she will yell and scream for what seems like HOURS until it happens. Some nights we just give in. Some nights Beckett ends up in bed with us. Some nights it is Eloise. BTW, she was on the verge of getting out as well as I figured out the other night.

We have been trying to do a few nights one person is "on" the whole night so the other can get some sleep and the "off" person sleeps in the guest bedroom. It's been musical beds which is one thing I said I would not do. Also, somehow (umm, RICH) Bella sleeping on the bed again. I think every one needs their own space. I love snuggling with my kids but I need to sleep and I do it better with each child in their own bed. And the dog on the floor. Plus, until a few months ago, my bed was the only dog hair free place in the whole house. UGGG. Something had to change.

So yesterday after a totally horrendous nap time I had a discussion with Rich and set my master plan into action. It required some consulting with my triplet mom group here, a trip to Target, tons of moving furniture, multiple trips from the 2nd floor to the basement and now have gone from this...
(taken last night with the lights off!)

and this... (holy hoarding things in their cribs!)


(again, all the pictures were taken last night with the lights out)

and this...
-Super crowded room
And this...
-yes, that is what Addy's hair looks like in the morning. She requires more product than me.

And this...
-Beckett handing out hugs like they are free. Also, we've got to work on the lovie situation hanging out of Eloise's mouth. The other night they had fish for dinner when I was stuck at work and I swear Eloise ate a whole fish with the lovie still in her mouth. When I got home it smelled so bad I almost gagged and then I couldn't pry it out of her lock jaw mouth during the night to wash it. So gross. BTW, this is the last picture of the CRIBS!

TO THIS- now where our sweet Mr. Beckett is residing.


His own dinosaur filled room with a queen sized bed. Before he went to bed last night I asked him if he could have anything in his room, what would it be. He said, "T Rex." Dinosaurs it is. We turned the guest bedroom/office into Beckett's room. We only have 3 bedrooms and I was really dreading losing that extra space but it had to be done and he needed his own space. He was sleeping in the guest room sometimes because he wanted the door closed and the girls wanted it open and I think they were keeping him awake. We kept the queen bed already in there because there will be more bed shuffling if we have visitors. And as I type, Eloise and Beckett are sleeping in the bed together. I could throw Addy in there as well and there would be plenty of room. Plus my mom because she is usually the person in that bed. Look out mom, you have company.
Then for the girls I just took all the cribs out and put two mattresses on the floor. Our cribs actually convert to "toddler beds" and we could have just taken off one side but that is a pretty big fall. I could have bought a toddler rail for $60 each or a crib tent to keep them in ($60 each) or whole new toddler beds $100+ but everyone from my multiples group basically said save your money and just put them in regular beds with the $20 rails and call it a day. So mattresses on the floor it is until I figure out what we are going to do in their bedroom.
So I was having a hard time keeping them in bed and sleeping and now I just let them do what they want? Yep. Kind of like that. I think for them, part of the challenge was just getting out of the crib and if they couldn't they would see something like a book and scream for it or throw stuff at each other. Now, they can do it all they want. Get it out of their system. Tire themselves out. And then hopefully they will figure out that being tired is no fun and eventually they will start to sleep again. At least that is my theory. Plus, it was not really safe all the getting in and out of the cribs. It was just a matter of time before someone took a nasty fall.
They also thought it was funny to get in and out as you can see.

See how fast this little turkey is? I could be downstairs and hear him running around and head up stairs and he could hear me and jump back in his crib with his eyes closed pretending to be sleeping by the time I got into the room.


You should have seen how excited Beckett was with his room. It was just the sweetest thing. He kept yelling and pointing "T REX!!" and jumping on his bed. I have a great video of Addy looking around his room saying, "WOW, WOW!!!!" I knew the first few days/weeks of this transition would be tough. Take a look of how nap time went today.

I know, Beckett is in their room. They all kind of played in their beds and around their beds for about 30 minutes and then started to wander further and further away and run back and forth. I had moved a few toys that were originally in their shared room into Beckett's room and once Eloise figured that out she started to haul stuff from Beckett's room into hers. Then Beckett must have realized that so he started to move things from the girls room into his that he thought was his. Just kind of went downhill from there.
Tonight it took Eloise about 2 minutes with the lights off before she took a big tumble out of bed and her head his the floor. Good thing we didn't go to the toddler beds. After 2 more falls in 15 minutes she was done with it. I rocked her for an hour and she still didn't fall asleep and didn't want to go back into her bed. I finally convinced her to with me next to her. Yes, the two of us on a crib mattress on the floor. That still didn't work and she was asking about Beckett. She wanted to sleep with him in his bed so I put her in with him (already sleeping) and she was sleeping in 5 minutes.
I'm sure it will be long couple of weeks but I'm hoping it will pay off because we just couldn't keep going like we were. It was frustrating and exhausting. I'm hoping that giving them a little independence and space will help and we will get back into a groove soon.
Guess I shouldn't speak too soon because next on the horizon is potty training for Eloise, physical therapy for Beckett staring tomorrow and possibly quite possibly Beckett will be starting school with Eloise as well. I'm hoping.
Speaking of that funny little guy he is totally obsessed with firemen and fire trucks along with dinosaurs. I'm hoping you can hear the sound on the video because that is what makes it worthwhile. Here's how Mr. Beckett puts out fires...