When being spontaneous just works!

So you might remember in one of my last posts, how I had a spontaneous fail of a camping trip. Well, spontaneous ideas are quite a common occurrence for me. I seem to just have these crazy ideas pop into my head, and I just have to follow them through! Well, I had yet another one of these moments just last week.  

We live in a small house. I like to refer to it as a Lego house as its one of those ones that come up on a truck in 3 pieces, and they kind of just click them into place. We have no shed, just a 'store room', which is the size of a toilet, and no roof space to store anything in either. So errrrrrrrrrything from our massive home in Perth has been crammed into plastic tubs and piled high in our spare room (as well as into the girls wardrobes and under beds!) I had kind of had enough of our "spare room" being chokka block full of random bits and pieces everywhere (one of the biggest pieces being DD2s new king single bed and mattress). 

It took what seemed like an eternity to get that child to sleep through the night in her cot (she was well over a year old), and she had only recently just gotten over a nasty 2 week spate where she refused to sleep day and night in there altogether! We had finally just got our peace and quiet back in the terms of her day sleeps, and her sleeping well through the night again...So of course I decide.....HECK why don't we now just bite the bullet and put her into her big girl bed (**read.....craaaaaaaaaazzzy ass idea right there...someone slap me!)

When we were last down in Perth we hunted high and low for some big girl beds for the girls. We were tossing up between getting them a bunk bed to share a room, or King Singles for their own separate rooms. We decided on the King Singles as we thought they would be better off kept separate from each other (due to their intense love for one another to date!) and they would be able to use those beds right til they are adults (provided they stay in good enough shape!)

When we got back home (around January) we set DD1s up straight away. She had previously been sleeping in a toddler bed and LOVED her new spacious abode! We thought we would try her sister in the toddler bed that she had been sleeping in, just on the off chance she would be ready and like it. Ohhh....we were so wrong there. She didn't last but 5 minutes in it. She jumped straight up out of the bed and ran for the door screaming...the poor little poppet! She was just too little and too afraid to have her room looking so different!

The girls have always been in separate rooms and had their separate space. There rooms have always been pitch black (like so dark we even put alfoil on the windows to make it as dark as possible!) with their doors shut too. They both had white noise, which we used to help them block out the noises to from one another when they had day sleeps, but also helped block out general household noises/dogs barking/thunder etc (no...I'm not crazy! Its a common thing.....its just like listening to static on the radio! Everyone always chastises me when they walk in and they're like WHAT the heck is that noise?!! hahaha....it works people....trust me!). As she got a little older though, DD1 did start becoming afraid of the dark and has had to sleep with her door open and lights on in the hallway and a lamp in her room. Whereas we noted that DD2 doesn't sleep well with lights on at all. She still needed it pitch black.

Anyhow, back to the story.....this particular day, when the whim overcame me, we originally were just going to set up the King Single in DD2s bedroom, with her cot still in there too, just on the off-chance she really wasn't ready to change yet. But, then I thought....hold up. Why don't we try putting them both in a room together? It might be just what DD2 needs to help her transition into the big girl bed that I so desperately just wanted to set up and it might even help encourage them to really look out for one another. If one got frightened, the other had the chance to look out for them. They could play with one another and do all the silly things siblings do when they share rooms!

I didn't share a room with my sisters, but I do remember we had a lot of fun over the years! My older sister, Rochelle, and I made up a secret knock on the wall between our rooms, so we had a sort of code where we could talk to one another! I used to get frightened sometimes too and just want to sleep in her bed, but I was too scared to walk to her room, as I was afraid a monster was going to grab my feet on the way! So she would come and get me and piggy back me to her bed!

I never really re-payed the kindness to my younger sister, Maddison, though. There is 7 years between us. When she was about 10/11 I remember her being frightened and coming into my room and I would kick her out of my bed. She would be so scared she would sleep on the floor curled up in a ball by my door.....how mean am I! I was 18...I guess I wanted my space! 

For my girls to share a room, however, it was going to be a mammoth effort, not just in setting up the space, but also for the fact that they are like chalk and cheese! DD2 needs dark and white noise and DD1 needs light and doors open - how the heck was that going to work, I had no idea! We had to rearrange all of the back bedrooms and make their room the old spare room (as it was the biggest of the 3), which obviously meant completely pulling apart DD1s bed, and setting it up again. So, Matt didn't just have to set up 1 bed, but dismantle 1 and set up 2. Along with dismantling the cot and change table as well....eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

I had been at the shops all morning on this WHIMsical day (get it?! haha...). So when I came home around 2pm, I thought I better run the idea past DD1 first. Our conversation went a little like this:

Hey, would you like to share a room with your sister?

Umm...............................................yeah, Ok! I think I would like that!

Really? It would be so cool and special! But, its kind of permanent. Your bed would be next to hers sharing a room. 

Yep, but we like, need to be laying next to one another, you know, just like this (holding her two hands side by side)...

Well yes, your beds will be next to one another, but you will be in separate beds.

Ok...Yes, I like it! **runs to tell her sister the great news**

The toddler was on my side.  Now to convince the husband....Lets just say, Matt wasn't really rooting for my idea! However, he is such a sweetheart and he knows how I just don't cope with mess and chaos and that spare room was just making me itch! So, he willingly obliged and we set to it, at like 3pm that afternoon!  When I get an idea in my head, i like it to happen right then and there...I'm not very good at waiting patiently. We smashed it out - dismantling and setting up beds, moving an entire bookcase and books/baby toys/boxes/random accumulated rubbish things and it was complete and ready to rumble by bed time! WINNING!

We followed our usual bedtime routine, which involves watching Shaun the sheep, saying goodnight to all the animals on the giggle and hoot end of show theme song, then saying goodnight to everyone on the ABC theme song, followed by a little dance to the interim music between ABC3 and normal ABC....off to brush our teeth with the nurdle durdle app, into pjs, bedtime story, say our prayers, and into bed.

We had mentioned to DD1 that she couldn't keep coming out of her bed, particularly these first few nights, as her sister needed to learn that when its bedtime, its time to stay in bed. And, she was a doll! We gave them both a kiss and walked out, and they both stayed put! DD2 was chatty and talking to her sister a bit, but after about 15 minutes DD1 said, time for bed, nigh night DD2! And she was gone! And....they slept through....til 8am! Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

And then the next night, same thing. And the night after that, and that! It has nearly been a week now and I am SO glad we made the decision to move the girls in together. Thankfully, for us, it hasn't disrupted any routines which has been a blessing! If anything, what it has done is bring the girls that bit closer together. As I type this...they are currently "scaring" each other in their beds! DD2 is going RAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR and DD1 is giggling her head off saying "scare me again!!!" I cant be angry at them though, as they are making memories, and their little bond is getting stronger by the day...and as you will have learnt from past posts, that is the one thing we have been working so hard to repair. 

 I also love that we are able to read them both a book together at bedtime, all sitting together on one bed. They take turns choosing a book and whoever chooses the book, we sit on their bed together. I worried that it would be the wrong decision, or that it would be unfair for DD1 to have to "share" yet another thing with her sister, but you know what - life is full of situations where we have to share and it is SO important to encourage looking out for one another...and others. That is a virtue that should be carried right the way through life to adulthood.

So....in closing this mammoth random rambling of a post.. I would like to announce that for once, one of my spontaneous whim ideas has actually, worked....and for the better! I did something successful! That's 1 for me, and like 99 to Matt. I still have a looooooooooooong way to go before he starts agreeing with all my crazy ideas...but, it's a start! Now....what to do next ;)

xxx

PS: how awesome are these monitors! So funny being able to talk to them through them!