Bedroom Transitions
I previewed a room transition that we had started, but it didn’t go as planned so we had to change things around a few times to get it right, but I think we’re finally settled. For the sake of family history, I will be thorough, so this might be a long one.
My late nights were starting to wear on me so we decided that it was time to start teaching Ila to sleep through the night and to go to bed at a decent hour, but I didn’t want to do that with her sleeping in the living room. I also didn’t want to subject any of the kids to her crying so we decided to try moving Nicole into Isaac and Charlotte’s room temporarily with the plan to move Charlotte to Ila’s room once Ila was settled into a good sleep pattern. 
Since Isaac is in school and here in Tennessee they start early (he leaves at 7:20 each morning for a 7:45 start), we thought we’d make the transition over a weekend. On Friday morning I rearranged Isaac and Charlotte’s room and moved Nicole’s bed in. Our first trial of the arrangement was naptime. I put Nicole down for her nap and she fell asleep perfectly! I was hopeful.
We usually put Nicole down to bed at about 7:30 and she had been perfect at staying in bed. She’d be in there for hours just reading and singing and eventually she’d fall asleep. On the few occasions she dropped her water bottle or another essential item out of her bed, she’d cry for someone to come help her, but she’d never get out of bed. She hadn’t even gotten out once since moving into a regular sized bed. It wasn’t for lack of ability, because she would climb in and out of her bed during the day to get something or pretend to sleep.
We had recently started a tradition of giving the kids a movie night in their room on Friday nights so our first night of the transition was movie night. I actually thought it might make the transition go more smoothly, but it was the opposite. Nicole started getting out of bed to get library books (which we don’t like her to have in bed for fear she’ll ruin them) and other things. She seemed to think it was great fun to laugh and play and climb into Charlotte’s bed with her and although she never left the room, she would not stay in bed and she would not calm down. Somehow she eventually went to sleep after hours of misbehaving.
Night 2 we thought might go better since it was not movie night and would be a more traditional bedtime routine. Unfortunately the results were much the same. She was out of bed constantly and was noisy and playful.
Ila on the other hand was doing great. She didn’t cry for too long falling asleep or in the middle of the night and it was so nice not to be up past 11:00 settling her down only to wake up with her again in the middle of the night. Nicole’s loud yelling woke Ila a few times which confirmed my notion that Nicole and Ila couldn’t share a room at this point.
I was particularly worried that we’d broken Nicole’s perfect bedtime behavior of never getting out of bed and I didn’t know if we’d ever be able to get her to revert back to it. I wondered if we should put everything back the way it was, only I really wanted to stay on track with Ila’s new sleep schedule.
We decided to try swapping beds. We moved Nicole over to a spot against the wall and put Isaac in the middle. He had been the calmest on previous nights and had even fallen asleep amid Nicole’s craziness. Unfortunately, this plan didn’t work either. It’s too tempting when the beds were as close as they needed to be for a leg or arm to travel over to the wrong bed and Nicole was still getting out of bed frequently.
Frustrated and desperate for a fix, we finally decided to try another re-arrange. This time we moved Charlotte into Ila’s room and put Isaac and Nicole’s beds on opposite sides of the room. I was a little worried for Charlotte to sleep in the room with Ila since she was still crying to fall asleep at bedtime and during the middle of the night, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. 
After a few nights of bedtime with the evens and odds* together, I think we can say that it’s finally working. Charlotte has had no problems sleeping in the same room as Ila. We have a fan running in there to dampen the noise, but Charlotte sleeps right through Ila’s crying. Nicole is still a little loud and silly at night, but she has been staying in bed and Isaac has been falling asleep fairly quickly.
*{evens and odds = even numbered children 2 and 4 (Charlotte and Ila) and odd numbered children 1 and 3 (Isaac and Nicole)}