This morning I went and played with the boys in their room…. Xavier grabbed a book and went and sat in his bed, Colin wanted to follow but Xavier didn’t want it, Colin’s bed is not a place that he likes when he is not sleeping so that was not an option so I sat Colin on my lap and thought of a way I could change things…
I don’t know how much you know about our sleeping arrangments but the boys share a room and have their own beds… they nap and start the night off in their beds and when then come into our beds when they want…

Colin usually comes in at around 11pm (or whenever the house gets quiet) Xavier comes whenever he wants…. usually at about 5am though….

So I was looking at the Cage… umm… Crib… and realized that it bothers me so much to be using that piece of furniture… it makes me feel like I am caging an animal whenever I put Colin down after I nurse him to sleep…and I hate that Colin can’t go in his bed by himself to play and relax…. and I hate that he can’t get down by himself when he wakes up….

So I finally did something about it….

I remembered that the crib becomes a “day bed” ….we had never put it in that position but I had the piece for it downstairs…. I decided at that moment that I would do it…

I got to work and after about 15 minutes I no longer had a crib in the room!! However, once done, I realized that even with the mattress at its lowest level, Colin can’t get up on it easily… So, I asked Xavier (who was loving being on the new bed) if he wanted to switch with Colin… and explained that Colin was too small for the new bed… and that his old big boy bed could now be Colin’s Little boy bed and that Colin’s old bed was now a big big boy bed…. It made sense to Xavier he agreed and helped me switch the beds…

Now both boys are happy with their beds… Colin can’t get on Xavier’s bed so Xavier can have some alone time… and now Colin can go and read, play and relax on his bed…

He can now also get down by himself after a nap which will be great and hopefully he will be in a better mood when he wakes up from a nap… and he can come join us during the night all by himself which will also be fun (especially for Simon who won’t have to get up to get him)… Of course, we’ll see how long it will take to get used to having that freedom….
Also, the last few nights Colin had nursed a bit and then he wants to get up and go to bed by himself (or at least try)… we put him in his little pull out bed (couch) that we bought him for his birthday and twice now he has fallen asleep there… both times he wasn’t sleeping hard enough when we tried to move him and he nursed to sleep but I see that he is more likely to not want to nurse to sleep as much as Xavier does… Xavier wasn’t a big comfort nurser but always wanted to nurse to sleep (and still does), Colin however could spend his day at the breast but doesn’t want to nurse to sleep as much… Who knows… maybe he’ll want to go in his big boy bed now….
Anyways… I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that sooner….

I feel better letting him have the freedom he deserves…

I don’t think I will ever use the cage again….