A Big Girl Room

For the last couple of weeks, we have set aside time each day to diligently work on tasks that help us get ready for the birth of our son.   Our task list is long and pretty diverse in nature but creating a "big girl" room for Nicole has been at the top of our list from the beginning.  We decided a few months ago that it made the most sense to move baby brother into the nursery and to move Nicole into our spare room.  That decision prompted a series of many projects, both large and small and a whole lot of shuffling, organizing and re-organizing. 

Night one of prepping Nicole's big girl room: setting up her new bed

We started our projects long before we explained to Nicole that she would be moving rooms.  I didn't feel entirely ready to move her right off the bat and I wanted to make sure that when we finally started talking about it, we would be equipped to transition her with as much care and enthusiasm as possible.  Even though Nicole understands that there is a baby growing in my tummy, the concept of when he will be ready to join our family is a little beyond her years. In part because we are opting for a natural child birth (we hope!) and that means that baby brother gets to surprise us all by coming into the world whenever he's ready. 

Night two of prepping Nicole's big girl room: hanging her Princess Canopy

With the actual date of baby brothers arrival being so up in the air, it was difficult to know when to start talking about how our lives would be different once baby brother was finally here.  It felt silly to disrupt the normalcy and routine that we have worked so hard to establish so we kept most conversations about baby brother off the table until about a month and a half ago.  It was then that we started to have in-depth conversations about baby brother coming to live with us, about him being part of our family and about what it means to be a big sister.  Nicole has been practicing her sign language so that she can teach baby brother how to say things like, "more", "milk",  and "all done".  She knows how to retrieve burp cloths and clean diapers upon request and is very much looking forward to introducing baby brother to all of her stuffed animals.   We are overjoyed by how willing she has been to make space in her heart and our home for a new family member and truly couldn't have asked for a better start to this big change. 

Night 3 of prepping Nicole's big girl room: adding a comforter 

Nicole and I spent time playing in her new space together every day for about a week before the actual move took place.  We moved her clothes over first, then her books, then her toys and finally her big girl bed.  Once the bed was set up we intentionally spaced out tasks needed to get it all the way ready so that Nicole would have time to get fully on board with the move.  Nicole loves to snuggle up and read so that's exactly how we spent our evenings after each small task was done.  It didn't take long for Nicole to start requesting to sleep in her big girl bed but we told her she couldn't sleep there until it was all the way ready.  The final step was installing a safety railing I had ordered online, which Nicole was surprisingly happy to see.  I overheard her telling Shawn, "I don't want to fall out!" We announced at dinner on Friday that Nicole was going to get to sleep in her big girl bed for the very first time that night, to which she surprised us by saying, "I want to sleep in my big girl room in my crib."

Given the fact that I was pretty sure none of us were going to sleep for at least a week while we taught Nicole how to stay in her big girl bed, I was completely fine with her decision to keep her crib.  I gave her a bath while Shawn moved her crib over to her new room so that we could keep our promise that she would get to start sleeping in her new room that very night.  We left her big girl bed up so that it's ready for her whenever she's ready for it.  In the meantime, I'm thankful that Nicole is happily sleeping in a new space in a bed that she feels safe and secure in. 

As for baby brother, he might not get a crib right off the bat, but we have plenty of safe places to sleep him in such as our beloved rock n play.   Now, we just have to wait for his arrival so that we can show him around his new room too!