Carter moved out!

After 19 months, Carter finally moved out .......... of our room.

When our babies our little, it so much easier to just have them sleep in our room.  We're not really bed-sharing folks (I can share the bed, my children cannot share anything), but I do like them in my room.  Nursing is much simpler when I can just pick them up from their crib, plunk them in bed, lay down & nurse them and return them to their bed.  Easy.  And so that was Carter's first room ..... our room.  We didn't have a time frame as to how long he would be in our room, we just kind of let it be.

Well, letting it be led us to 19 months later.  He's still in our room.  And I'm really ok with that.  He mostly sleeps through the night, but when he wakes up at 5 or 6am to nurse, it's still just easier to reach over and pull him into bed with me.  We have a huge room so his crib really didn't overwhelm the space.  Plus, in our two bedroom house, the only other option is for him to sleep is in Brook's room, and I didn't want Carter waking him up in the night.  But that all changed this last week.

Carter caught some kind of icky head cold/virus thing that really wiped him out last week Sunday.  And then on Monday, the stuffy nose & cough followed.  Translate that into sleeping terms: he did not.  He couldn't breathe well and that meant he didn't sleep well.  When we'd put him to bed at 8pm he'd sleep for about an hour, wake and cry for a minute or so, then fall back asleep.  He'd do this at least once every hour.  But that changed when we went to bed.  He'd still wake every hour, but instead of just going back to sleep, he'd see me lying in the bed next to him and scream even louder.  And louder!  Then he'd start screeching.  (This kid's got lungs).  He'd keep screaming until I woke up to rock or nurse him back to sleep.  This happened every.hour.  I was so exhausted by morning I could hardly see straight.  And I had zero patience with him or even Brooks.

He kept this up all week.  He'd sleep fine until I was in the room.  I know I need to be attentive to my kids needs, but I just couldn't keep this pace.  It was definitely time for a change.  So we decided to move him into the next room over.  Brooks was more than happy to have his little brother in his room.  In fact, totally separate from all the above mentioned events, Brooks asked if Carter could sleep in his room.  Now seemed like the right time.

So last night Chris disassembled the crib and moved it out!

taking the bed apart

Carter saw Daddy putting his crib together in his new room and offered a hug.  Not sure he really knew what was going on, but it was sweet anyway :) 

Brooks AND Carter's room

And within an hour, we had everything moved over.  This room is a good size too, so it easily fit the crib, rocking chair and Carter's little dresser with room to spare.  I was bit nervous how the first night would go with them sleeping together, but we put them both in bed, prayed and left.  And they both fell asleep.  No playing, crying, or fussing.  Just sleep.  And Carter slept straight through until 5am!  I can't tell you how good it felt to have six hours of continuous sleep!!  Tonight was more of the same (well, besides Brooks' insisting he needs one.more.drink of water before bed.  That's a whole 'nother story).  I'd say it was a good change for us all.

And now Chris and I have our room back, which now seems HUGE without all of Carter's stuff in there.  We don't have to tiptoe and whisper when we're going to bed.  We even turned on the light!  (Hey, we're parents.  These things excite us, ok?)  I'm hoping things continue to go well and hopefully, someday, just maybe Carter will sleep all the way until 7am.   One can dream, right??