The Room Dilemma
Rerun is beginning to sleep through the night – yay yay yay yay!!! – and I weighed and measured him yesterday with my own tape measure and bathroom scale. He’s 25.5 inches long by my measurements, and about 14.5 pounds. He’s got a doctor appointment in a couple of weeks, so we’ll get much more accurate stats then.
But the bottom line is that he’s starting to outgrow the basinette, and if he’s going to start sleeping through the night, he needs to move out of our room, too. He could sleep in the cradle for a while, but we really do need to get the crib set up for him.
Dilemma: where?
The long-accepted theory was that whatever Rerun was, boy or girl, he/she would be sharing a room with Tad, because we could fit a crib back into that room with a little furniture adjustment/removal. This theory still holds true, and in the long run, it does make the most sense for the boys to share a room.
The problem is that Tad has the smaller of the kids’ bedrooms. The Webmaster and I are now mooting around a much bigger idea – switch Ane over to the smaller room (which was the initial “nursery” for both her and Tad), and move the boys into her room.
This may make the most sense, but there are a number of problems involved.
1) Furniture. Ane has more of it that she uses, and they are larger pieces – she has a twin daybed, for example, while Tad is still in a toddler bed and Rerun will be using the crib, which take up less of a footprint on the floor. She also has a bookcase and dresser, plus my old dollhouse that lives in her room and would have to move with her. The bookcase might have to stay in the room it is currently in, but then where does Ane put her books?
2) Closet space. Because of the way I put closet inserts into the kids’ closets, the current configuration in Tad’s closet won’t work for Ane’s clothes. Yes, this is not an insurmountable problem, but it does require a fix, which will involve taking out something that works now and spending more money on something else. Is it worth it?
3) Paint. As in, both rooms will have to be repainted. This is not negotiable. Tad’s room is still a pastel yellow with a Baby Snoopy wallpaper border, and he doesn’t mind it. Ane minds, and the only way we could get her to even consider switching rooms was to offer her a paint job with the color (within reason) of her choice. Ane’s current room is a light shade of periwinkle, which could be boy-adaptable, but it would make more sense to just repaint the room now in a bluer shade and begin creating an ocean and sea life motif for both boys.
4) Time. We refinanced our house recently, and we really have no intention of moving anytime soon. The Webmaster and I have differing opinions on how long “soon” is, but it’s a fairly sure thing that we’ll be staying put for at least a couple more years. Is it worth it to re-do everything now for that length of time, or should we just make do with the boys in the smaller room?
5) Room Use. Ane’s room is also her play area. All of her toys are in her room – as compared to Tad, whose toys are spread out all over the house. This came about because Ane really needed to have a space away from Tad to play in, and we have enforced the principle that Ane’s room is her domain, and Tad can’t just invade when he wants to. The reverse is also true. Ane also has friends over to play in her room, so the extra space is definitely helpful. Tad just doesn’t use his room in the same way – to him, it’s a place to sleep in, not play in, and sometimes it’s even a fight to just get him to sleep there. Maybe we should just set up a sleeping bag for Tad in our room and move Rerun into Tad’s room? It would work… no, no, no, not good for the long term.
And those are just the problems that I can come up with just off the top of my head. So if anyone has any brilliant ideas, I’d like to hear them, please. And no, we can’t just move or add on to the house. And the boys are too young for bunk beds – can you imagine Tad on a top bunk? And as much as Ane might like to share a room with Rerun, I’m not sure that’s the way we want to go right now – though I suppose it could be a last-ditch possibility in a short-term situation. No, Ane and Tad cannot share a room. As Harry Potter said at the end of Deathly Hallows, they will share a room only when I want the house demolished.
In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend, celebrating Oddball’s birthday on the Fourth. And Independence Day, too. 🙂
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July 2nd, 2010 06:23
a delemma only you can solve
July 2nd, 2010 11:54
Being someone whose moved four times in the last five years, I know the hassle of the whole ordeal pretty well. So here’s my input: I think you should do the room switch. Even if it is for just two or three years, it will be two or three years that are much more convenient. Yes, Ane’s room will be a little cramped, but she will still be able to have her own space (and now that space won’t be as far from the living room and kitchen – so you won’t have to yell as loud for her). And that also means that when Tad and Rerun are napping, they will be in the farther room, and get less noise from the rest of the house.
There will be the costs of paint, closet organization, etc. but to be honest that’s just the costs of life and kids. Ane wasn’t going to want a periwinkle room forever anyway. And a good investment that we’ve found is shelving. A decent craft store or home decor store will have floating shelves in a variety of styles. We have them all over our house and it’s a great way to keep pretty breakables out of the little hands’ reach, and it doesn’t take up any floor space.
As for Ane’s books, our girls have a small, narrow bookcase in their room for their favorite books (found at Target), but the majority of their books are in the living room. Maybe you could move a bookcase to the living room where the cradle currently is (if it’s where it was when Little Cousin was a baby) and put all the kids’ books there. Or you could move the coffee table out of the living room and put cubbies for toys and book below the window (since I haven’t seen the coffee table in the middle of the room since Ane was a baby).
So there’s my opinion. Do with it what you will. Good luck!
July 4th, 2010 13:22
I second that motion. It might be that Tad will appreciate and want to be the responsible big brother if this is presented in a way he responds well to. Two little bodies need a little more room than one; regardless of how inconvenient it is. And you are the parents, sometime we have to insist even tho we don’t really like it. Regardless, it is up to you in the long run, good luck, hope it works out well for all of you.
July 9th, 2010 11:08
I think you answered your own question of “soon.” Time to move.