Three's a Crowd

I woke up yesterday morning and decided that I was tired of sharing our room with Annie. As cute as she is, she wakes up too much during the night and I know part of the problem is that we hear her and we feed her before she has a chance to sooth herself to sleep.

So I announced that it was time to move Annie into Ellie's room. I have been agonizing about how and when we were going to do this. There are just so many logistical things going on - between the different bedtime routines and sometimes different bedtimes. Plus the only way to reach Ellie's bathroom is to go through the bedroom (and it's the only one with a bathtub in the house), so we have to figure out how we are going to do bathtime if Annie's already asleep, etc. But I had had it. I was done! We're going to have to figure it out sooner or later, I figured so we might as well figure it out now.

So we set up the pack n play (because Ellie's is still in the crib - yet another thing we have to change around here, but that will take some time) and asked Ellie if she would like Annie to be her roommate. She seemed excited at the prospect and didn't even seem to mind it when we told her that Annie would cry at night and maybe wake her but that she needed to go back to sleep if that happened.

It didn't start out so well. We put both girls to bed at the same time. For some reason, Annie began to wail as soon as we left. And of course that meant that Ellie couldn't fall asleep. If there were one quality I would use to sum up Ellie it would be tenderhearted. She has such a sweet and loving heart. As we sat there in our bedroom listening to Annie screaming at the top of her lungs, we heard Ellie saying "I'm sorry Baby Annie, it's OK, Baby Annie" over and over. She truly was concerned about her little sister and trying to comfort her the best way she could - by talking to her.

We decided that part of the problem was that Annie could see Ellie. So we went back in - Matt comforted Ellie because by this time she was crying and I calmed Annie down and put a blanket over the side of the pack n play to block her view of Ellie. That seemed to do the trick because Annie was quiet and fell asleep. We heard Ellie quietly singing a bit (which I think she does every night) and then soon silence.

Annie woke up twice to be fed (2am and 5:30am), and both times Ellie woke up but she was so good! She went back to sleep and didn't cry or anything. I was so dreading this night!!!! But it really turned out better than I thought it would. Of course, it was only the first night and I know there will be a transition period. But it was so nice to sit in my room with the light on and not have to sneak around in the dark afraid of waking a baby. A little before 8am I heard Annie softly cooing and Ellie rustling around. I opened the door - there was Ellie lying on her tummy looking at the pack n play and Annie happily cooing. It was really cute. I hope they will be very happy roommates. I asked Ellie if she liked having Annie as a roommate and she said, she's my Anniemate and I'm her Elliemate. It was really cute!

So far we are a success. Score one for the parents.