Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Learning the Hard Way...

I am spatially challenged, so even armed with a tape measure, I can't "see" what rearranged furniture is going to look like until I have it rearranged. My husband, being the engineer that he is, finds this beyond irksome. And so, I usually have to rearrange furniture on my own. In fact, in the 13 years we've been together, I think we've happily rearranged ONE room together, ONCE.
Guess what I'm doing today?
Yup. Rearranging. Beds, this time. Again.
BR made wee P his very own toddler bed this summer, and ever since then we've had troubles with sleeping arrangements. Annika has always been a very good sleeper, and happy to sleep in her own space and in her own room. Pedar wasn't quite sleeping in his own space just yet, but showing signs of willingness and desire. So the bed was made to provide him with his own space in their shared room, even if only to sit on to read or play with his cars. Annika was delighted with this new arrangement, having her wee brother's bed RIGHT beside hers. BUT! When that bed was empty every night, she didn't like it one bit. Pedar wasn't happy to sleep there right off the bat, and somehow just having the empty bed there made Annika anxious. For awhile we were dragging her little mattress into our room each night to sleep beside me on the floor. But that didn't quite suffice either, as she was 1 foot off the floor, and I was up on our big nest bed close to the ceiling, or so it seemed to both of us. And when we tried to bump daddy and sleep 2 kids and mummy in the nest, it didn't work either. Kids were bumping into each other and nobody was getting much sleep. So about a month ago, I retired (for now) the beautiful nest bed, that Brent made for us the weeks before Annika was born. I put the king mattresses on the floor, hauled up a single to go along beside, and we slept there quite happily, everyone sleeping better than we had for weeks. Well, except daddy. Well, and Pedar, who was going through his troubles with whatever it was/is, and Brent couldn't sleep alongside his tossing, turning, moaning little body. But wee P has calmed down considerably most nights, and so I am totally rearranging beds again. I am making our big room the "sleeping room" for everyone. I have put the single bed into the kids' shared room, moved their 2 little toddler beds into our room making more room to play in their room, which is now the "play room". And I'm HOPING that they will sleep happily in their own wee beds next to our big bed in our room.
Oh, but yes, the spatially challenged thing... I somehow measured out that we could fit a queen mattress alongside the 2 toddler beds, all side-by-side like, keeping our sleeping-in-one-big-bed feeling going. So I hauled the king mattresses downstairs, half the queen mattresss upstairs, and then realized that that didn't work. But not before I tried to squeeze them in on all 3 available walls. Urgh!
So then I asked Annika if she thought she could sleep toe-to-toe in her little bed (pushed with the footboard up against Pedar's footboard) with Pedar's, and she said yes! So now I have all this space and am taking a breath here before hauling the queen BACK downstairs and the kings back UPstairs...
But that's just how I am. If I hadn't TRIED it every which way, I wouldn't be convinced that it wouldn't work. And so now you see where BR's frustration comes in... He can just KNOW that it WON'T work in his head and doesn't like to oblige with the experimentation "just in case".
And what am I going to do if Annika decides she CAN'T sleep unless we're all in a line? I hear there's a great cabin in the woods somewhere closeby. I could sleep THERE! he he

2 comments:

new rhodes said...

omg, I'm baffled!? and you must be exhausted! Why didn't you just move Pedar's new bed out of Annikas room? I am a firm believer in getting enough good quality, sound, uninterupted sleep so that we can all be happy. It seems that you are a firm believer in something else? Why do you all need to be in a big nest? Can the children get out of their own beds & come into you when they need to?

Mary-Sue said...

I am a firm believe in good sleep too. For EVERYONE. Children who feel any fear sleeping on their own don't develop to their full potential. Remember the last time YOU felt fear (a sound, a thought, something niggling) when trying to sleep? Sleep is only healing and effective when the sleeper is at complete peace. Children should not have nightmares, and if they do, it's because they are feeling fear. We ALL sleep better when we all feel secure in each others' presence. The notion that everyone sleeps better cut off from each other is a very new one: tribal people never sleep alone and can't imagine why anyone would choose to.
I guess we all choose what works best for us. I do ache for the children I see who seem to have behavioral problems, when really they're not getting enough deep, restful, secure sleep...