Their First Night Together

It was getting to be that time. The time when Sophia needed to move into her big girl bed. The time that we needed to reclaim the crib to prepare for our newest member of the family. And so, the time came for Sophia & Jacob to share a room.

For months, we had been telling Sophia that the bottom of the bunk bed would soon be hers. And so, on Tuesday, we went out and bought her mattress, made the bed with her cute polka dot sheets and prepared for the smooth transition of big girl bed sleep and sharing a room with her big brother.

Are those of you with kids laughing at my naivete yet?

It started out well enough...although our first mistake was putting the 2 of them down at the same time. First came the whispering: "Are you enjoying your big girl bed, Sophia?" "Yes," came her reply.

Then full fledged talking: "Hey Sophia! Come up on my bunk and sleep with me!" "OK".

But I put my foot down and came up with a brilliant plan to stop the co-bed sharing. I walked in and with my sternest look, removed the ladder. "Haha! That'll do it!" I thought.

A couple moments passed.

"Mommy!" cried Jacob. Up the stairs I went. To my surprise, Sophia had managed to crawl up on top of her side rail and pull herself up onto Jacob's bunk. That little sneak! "I'll show them!" I thought. "I'll turn off the lights so they can't see what they're doing. Then they'll go to sleep for sure!"

Tears from Jacob started flowing (he's never liked sleeping in the dark). I thought for sure his tears would be contagious and we'd have 2 crying kids on my hands, but I underestimated Sophia. "Don't cry, Jacob!" came her sweet, reassuring voice. I heard movement. And then CLICK...the light turned on. UGH!

This went on a couple more times, and then my stern voice came out. "Both of you need to go to sleep now or you'll have to be separated!" I shut the door. Nothing. Silence. FINALLY!

"Mommy!" Good heavens! What now! I walked into their room...turned on the light and low and behold, in her last stance of protest, Sophia had removed her diaper, but not the smirk on her face that seemed to say, "I'm not going down without a fight!"

Let's just say that the battle raged on for 2 hours...until I think they just decided to give me a break. My advice to anyone thinking about having your kids share a room? Don't! And if it can't be helped...at least plan far enough in advance to put them down at different times...at least for their first night together.