I never thought after 24 months of co-sleeping in the same room (not by choice), the day when we finally introduced Liam his very own room (well, technically not but we’ll make do with the current arrangement) would be so seamless and easy that I was actually the one creeping over to check on him despite zero noises over the baby monitor, finding excuses to tuck myself into his sheets for the night and be the one suffering from separation anxiety.
Just months ago when the Bo & I started to uh-oh about new sleeping arrangements after finding out and confirming that a #2 was on the way, (how is korkor going to sleep with a newborn that’s going to cry for mil?. Am I ever going to get any rest done before I sleep train? Will the Bo last more than a night with constant interruptions although he may be good at selective listening?) we fretted over possibly needing to build a room for Liam and the bigger challenge being how would we even get him over considering he’s so used to popping his head up, calling our names and getting our almost-immediate response on a daily basis.
Upon having both mil’s and sil’s permission to use the currently vacant room as Liam’s new room, we got excited. We came up with grand plans. Discussions revolved around getting him a very cool train-shaped bed frame to entice him, coupled with lots of fun new toys – stuff that we’ve been deliberately keeping away from him since amassing them from his 1st birthday party, last 2 christmases, 2nd birthday party…
Then the next challenge would be when. We didn’t want to do it right before his sibling’s arrival to give any sort of association or vibes that he now had to sleep on his own because of his little sibling. At the same time we were hesitant about getting to it right away because the thought of re-decorating his new room to make it more childproof and appealing seemed like quite a lot of work. I was physically exhausted from traveling about so much in the day that when it came to evenings, I just wanted to save whatever energy I had for Liam & the Bo before hitting the sheets.
Turns out we got that much needed push in the butt before we knew it. Due to some works going on in our bedroom last month, we were told to sleepover in Liam’s new room for 2 nights. Being on such short notice, we set up an insanely big sleeping area using huge mattresses, threw in lots of pillows and bolsters that got Liam excited because he was into building & crashing into “pillow fortresses” plus we played a lot of other games using them (such as putting 2 pillows to act as lift doors and train doors etc.), and brought over his favourite cars.
And that was all it took.
He loved his new space so much that by the 3rd night when we could move back to sleep in our own bedroom, he insisted on sleeping in his new room and would automatically head to his new room when it was time for bed. He also knew that we had the baby monitor shifted there so whenever he wanted us over he would say “papa/mummy, come please”. Oh my, the Bo & I were in disbelief for a bit. But we also knew we had to quickly enjoy not needing to creep around in the dark, or whisper to each other for as long as we had. Till #2 arrives anyway.
So these nights, we gobble our dinner, take our hot drinks into the room, switch on our rarely-used TV, watch & laugh to our hearts’ content. We’ll definitely on the search to get our very own space so that #2 can eventually have a room too but till then, we’re basking in our reclaimed space!
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