The big move in.
Thank you for all your sweet words and prayers for our Gabe. I'm happy to report he's having a awesome day today!!! David has already been up to see him today and I get my chance tonight. I promise to keep you all updated! :)
We've been in the farm house for almost two months now. For the most part, things were working out well, but it seemed like we were having a hard time adjusting as easily as we normally do when we move (because y'all know how we love to move!)
For a week or so, I chalked it up to the horrible winter we've been having and the fact that we had pretty much all been sick since we moved in. Yes at one point I even contemplated the idea if it was the house making us sick, but after some research and a talk to the girls pediatrician, we decided that wasn't the case.
Anyways...I started to realize it was our setup for sleeping arrangements that was making life hard in the farmhouse.
If you remember, Amelia was sleeping in the little alcove room. It didn't have a door or any way to really close it off. So, we pretty much tiptoed around anytime when she was asleep. Olivia would be banished to her room to play or to watch tv quietly in our room. As soon as the kids went to bed at 7, we'd retreat to our room and stay put for the night. It was hard to get anything done after the kids were down and it was just plain annoying to never be able to sit in the living room and be able to watch something besides cartoons. Oh, and it was really hard to sit there and listen to her scream while putting her down to nap or bedtime. There was nothing to even muffle the sound. She's not a big fan of sleeping.
I honestly started admitting to a few people that the farmhouse may have worked better for us if Amelia was just a little bit older.
Right after we moved in, I started Googling "tips on siblings sharing a room with babies" and was honestly amazed how many people have siblings sharing a room with a baby. Yes, babies who still get up multiple times a night. Not to sound silly, but in our neck of the woods, its rare you hear of a sibling sharing with a baby.
Amazingly, those blogs swore it could be done.
Around that same time, I had a homeschool mom friend post on facebook about how her two month old was sharing a room with her two year old! I was intrigued and one day at storytime, asked her a thousand questions about it. Once again, she swore to me it could be done without that much trauma for everyone involved.
But then I got scared and decided to keep putting it off. Neither of our girls are good sleepers...they get it honestly, and I was scared to screw up what little bit of sleep they were getting.
However, the week after we got back from the cruise, I was over constantly tip toeing around and told David "let's do this!" So, we moved Amelia into Olivia's room.
Y'all, I cannot tell you how wonderfully it's working.
Everything I read or heard said it would take at least a week for everyone to get adjusted, so we prepared ourselves for a week of rough nights, but the girls did awesome from the very first night.
It's almost like they have both started sleeping better since they know they are together. Which I guess shouldn't surprise me since Olivia has been begging for Amelia to sleep in her room since before Amelia was born.
Amelia still gets up twice a night (yeah, let's not talk about how she's almost eight months old....I'm a sucker for that kid) and believe it or not, Olivia has only woke up once to Amelia's two a.m. cries. She sleeps right through two night feedings every night.
Since Olivia doesn't nap anymore, it has actually helped Amelia to nap better. Olivia still has full reign of the house while Amelia sleeps and I'm not yelling at her to be quiet 100 times a day. Plus, since Amelia has to scream anytime you put her down to sleep, it's easier to deal with since we have a door to somewhat muffle the sound. When she was in the alcove, we would usually quickly get tired of the screaming and cave into picking her up which usually then resulted into no nap.
After a few nights, David and I agreed that it finally felt like the farmhouse was working out for us all. It was finally starting to feel like home.
Amelia didn't need to be a little bigger, I just needed to get over my fears.
We've been in the farm house for almost two months now. For the most part, things were working out well, but it seemed like we were having a hard time adjusting as easily as we normally do when we move (because y'all know how we love to move!)
For a week or so, I chalked it up to the horrible winter we've been having and the fact that we had pretty much all been sick since we moved in. Yes at one point I even contemplated the idea if it was the house making us sick, but after some research and a talk to the girls pediatrician, we decided that wasn't the case.
Anyways...I started to realize it was our setup for sleeping arrangements that was making life hard in the farmhouse.
If you remember, Amelia was sleeping in the little alcove room. It didn't have a door or any way to really close it off. So, we pretty much tiptoed around anytime when she was asleep. Olivia would be banished to her room to play or to watch tv quietly in our room. As soon as the kids went to bed at 7, we'd retreat to our room and stay put for the night. It was hard to get anything done after the kids were down and it was just plain annoying to never be able to sit in the living room and be able to watch something besides cartoons. Oh, and it was really hard to sit there and listen to her scream while putting her down to nap or bedtime. There was nothing to even muffle the sound. She's not a big fan of sleeping.
I honestly started admitting to a few people that the farmhouse may have worked better for us if Amelia was just a little bit older.
Right after we moved in, I started Googling "tips on siblings sharing a room with babies" and was honestly amazed how many people have siblings sharing a room with a baby. Yes, babies who still get up multiple times a night. Not to sound silly, but in our neck of the woods, its rare you hear of a sibling sharing with a baby.
Amazingly, those blogs swore it could be done.
Around that same time, I had a homeschool mom friend post on facebook about how her two month old was sharing a room with her two year old! I was intrigued and one day at storytime, asked her a thousand questions about it. Once again, she swore to me it could be done without that much trauma for everyone involved.
But then I got scared and decided to keep putting it off. Neither of our girls are good sleepers...they get it honestly, and I was scared to screw up what little bit of sleep they were getting.
However, the week after we got back from the cruise, I was over constantly tip toeing around and told David "let's do this!" So, we moved Amelia into Olivia's room.
Y'all, I cannot tell you how wonderfully it's working.
Everything I read or heard said it would take at least a week for everyone to get adjusted, so we prepared ourselves for a week of rough nights, but the girls did awesome from the very first night.
It's almost like they have both started sleeping better since they know they are together. Which I guess shouldn't surprise me since Olivia has been begging for Amelia to sleep in her room since before Amelia was born.
Amelia still gets up twice a night (yeah, let's not talk about how she's almost eight months old....I'm a sucker for that kid) and believe it or not, Olivia has only woke up once to Amelia's two a.m. cries. She sleeps right through two night feedings every night.
Since Olivia doesn't nap anymore, it has actually helped Amelia to nap better. Olivia still has full reign of the house while Amelia sleeps and I'm not yelling at her to be quiet 100 times a day. Plus, since Amelia has to scream anytime you put her down to sleep, it's easier to deal with since we have a door to somewhat muffle the sound. When she was in the alcove, we would usually quickly get tired of the screaming and cave into picking her up which usually then resulted into no nap.
After a few nights, David and I agreed that it finally felt like the farmhouse was working out for us all. It was finally starting to feel like home.
Amelia didn't need to be a little bigger, I just needed to get over my fears.
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