It's true folks, at the ripe old age of three AND A HALF, Juan Pablo still did not have a big boy room. While we were waiting for him to come home, we put together a nursery with crib, rocking chair, changing table, etc., all the while hoping that, for the purposes of building a healthy attachment, it would work out for us to co-sleep with him. And work it did. At first it drove me crazy because rather than sleep in between us in the bed, Juan Pablo preferred to sleep on top of me. I would wait until he was fast asleep, gently roll him off, start to drift off myself, and then, still sound asleep, he would crawl back on me. After a little while I got used to it. Then at some point during that first year he started sleeping next to me instead of on top of me, but always cuddled very close. While we were waiting for Ana Luisa, we turned his crib into a toddler bed to see if there was any chance we would be able to transition him out of our bed in time for her to come home. He was excited about the "big boy bed" for a few days, but never slept in it for more than a couple hours, then eventually ended up back in our bed full time. When Ana Luisa came home we made bed rails for each side of our bed, and we've been sleeping four to a bed ever since. The first couple months after Ana Luisa joined our family, I slept next to her and Jeff slept next to Juan Pablo, but Juan Pablo and I missed each other. Apparently I had gotten used to the warm little body snuggled up against me, and Ana Luisa is just not as cuddly of a sleeper. Juan Pablo would always wake up at some point during the night when I was up feeding Ana Luisa, somehow sensing that I had gotten out of bed, and he would come crying to find me. Eventually Jeff and I switched nighttime duties and everyone slept much better. Just a couple weeks before fully embracing being a big boy, Juan Pablo said, "Mama is my snuggle buddy, and papa is my play buddy." He's a mama's boy to the core and I love it.
Jeff and I had been floating the idea of a "big boy room" for him for a while, since we finished our basement in the summer and had no more need for our third bedroom to serve as a playroom/family room. Juan Pablo was intrigued by the idea, and we started checking out his friends' big boy rooms whenever we got a chance. Our conversations would go something like this:
Me: "Wow, look at this big boy room! Do you like it?"
Juan Pablo: "Yeah! Look, a big boy bed!"
Me: "Would you like a room like this someday?"
Juan Pablo: "Yes, but (insert name of friend)
He was clearly not ready to make the leap. But apparently Buzz Lightyear underwear gives you extra courage, because he finally asked for a big boy room himself. We went to Ikea together, and picked up some furnishings and bedding, then made a stop at Target for the all-important Buzz Lightyear sheets (since having watched about 30 minutes of "Toy Story" on the airplane from Amsterdam to Detroit in June, Juan Pablo has become a huge Buzz Lightyear fan.)
We set up his bed on one side of the room, along with a bin for his stuffed animals, and a toy box which he filled up with some carefully selected toys. He took this process very seriously, and finally decided on a box of Duplos, a large plastic brachiosaurus, four matchbox cars, five small plastic horses to line up for marching in parades, and a small rhinoceros:
The on the other side we have some lamps, a table we rigged up with a roll of paper to be a drawing table, with room to store a few books underneath, and a comfortable chair for reading together. The baby blanket that Tia Jana crocheted (or perhaps knitted? Clearly I am not the crafty type. Note to self: learn difference between crocheting and knitting.) matches the color of the room perfectly:
Ana Luisa thinks Juan Pablo's big boy room is pretty much the coolest place ever. I wouldn't be surprised if she decides to move in with him eventually. It is a pretty great place to hang out, jump on the bed, hide under covers, that sort of thing:
And apparently Juan Pablo likes his big boy room as well. It's been two weeks now, and he has slept in there every night. He still comes in our room every night, usually between 3-4am and whispers, very politely, "Mama, can you come to my big boy bed with me please?" It cracks me up that he can remember to say "please" at 3am when he's half asleep, but needs continual reminders during the day when he's fully awake. So I get up, go lay down with him for a while until he falls asleep again. Usually I drift off too, and it isn't until I wake up a little while later with a sore neck from having squeezed myself into the small bit of bed not occupied by Juan Pablo and his beloved giant stuffed elephant Ouagadougou that I get up and go back to bed until both kids wake up a few hours later. Although getting up every night at 3am is not necessarily my favorite thing to do, I know that before too long, I won't even be getting those wake up calls from my little snuggle buddy. It's been a great two and a half years of co-sleeping, but he had to grow up sometime. Plus, he seems to have found a new snuggle buddy:
We'll see how long this one lasts before Ana Luisa reclaims her.
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