well, josh and i took the plunge and moved tristan into samuel's room over the weekend. we've been planning on doing this for a long time....even before we found out we were expecting again. having 2 kids of the same gender makes it pretty easy to decide if they should share a room or not, and we were hoping to use the smaller bedroom as an office/guest room. obviously, that's not going to happen now that the new baby is on the way, but we figured it would be better to transition earlier on so that they could get used to sharing a room long before the baby arrives and adds his or her own disruptions.
i have balked at this idea ever since it was first brought up. if there is only one thing in my life that needs to be orderly and routine based, that would be the kids' bedtime. i couldn't fathom how our 2 boys, both with very different bedtime routines, would handle being roommates. well, i knew that tristan would handle it fine; it was samuel i was worried about. i'm not sure if this fear of change in the sleep department is something that came about when tristan was born a difficult sleeper, or if i would have been this anal about sleep regardless of my kids' temperaments. nevertheless, i was quite worried that samuel would be so excited about tristan sharing his room that he just wouldn't ever fall asleep.
of course i was wrong. we've kept their bedtime routines somewhat separate so that tristan still gets his story with daddy and then the light goes off before i bring samuel in and rock him a bit before putting him to bed. to be honest, i don't think samuel even knows that tristan is in the same room. i was also quite worried that samuel's fussy night wakings (i know, the kid is 20 months old, he should be over this, right?) would awaken tristan, but after a pretty rough night the first night, tristan informed us that he didn't hear samuel once. i am very thankful for our white noise machine, which i'm sure helped out in that area. last night i let sam fuss without running in there like i was doing the first night, and tristan still didn't hear him, so this is a good thing. tristan wakes up at his normal 5:30am and samuel has been sleeping in until his normal 6:30am and so this whole room-sharing thing hasn't made much of a difference. except that now i have a cute little empty room that i can get all nesty in when the time comes. i've already put in a request to our landlady to see if we can paint the room a light green, and i'm hoping she will say yes. green with lavender accents if it's a girl, and green with brown accents if its a boy.
now here's the thing, the reason why i am writing this post now as the boys settle in for the night: we live in a duplex and the room that shares a wall with the boys' bedroom is our neighbor's pre-teen daughter's room. she has a karaoke machine in there that she cranks up and then belts out top 40 hits terribly off-key. i don't care about the noise during the day, but when the kids are trying to sleep, its a little annoying. a couple of weeks ago samuel just wouldn't settle and, after about 45 minutes, i timidly knocked on our neighbors' door and asked if the music could be turned down. the woman was super friendly and told me to let them know any time their noise was keeping our kids awake.
well, its happening again tonight. i can literally hear the words to the songs through the baby monitor. again, thank God for our white noise machine, but even that thing has trouble masking the terrible sounds snaking through the wall. samuel has been in bed for 30 minutes and he still isn't asleep. he isn't crying or anything, just shuffling around and making little noises and i'm sure he's having a difficult time drifting off because of the music. i've already knocked on their door once before and i really really hate doing things like that. on the other hand, our neighbor told me to let her know if the boys couldn't sleep because of the noise. what would you do? hope your child gets used to it, or talk to the neighbors again?
i have balked at this idea ever since it was first brought up. if there is only one thing in my life that needs to be orderly and routine based, that would be the kids' bedtime. i couldn't fathom how our 2 boys, both with very different bedtime routines, would handle being roommates. well, i knew that tristan would handle it fine; it was samuel i was worried about. i'm not sure if this fear of change in the sleep department is something that came about when tristan was born a difficult sleeper, or if i would have been this anal about sleep regardless of my kids' temperaments. nevertheless, i was quite worried that samuel would be so excited about tristan sharing his room that he just wouldn't ever fall asleep.
of course i was wrong. we've kept their bedtime routines somewhat separate so that tristan still gets his story with daddy and then the light goes off before i bring samuel in and rock him a bit before putting him to bed. to be honest, i don't think samuel even knows that tristan is in the same room. i was also quite worried that samuel's fussy night wakings (i know, the kid is 20 months old, he should be over this, right?) would awaken tristan, but after a pretty rough night the first night, tristan informed us that he didn't hear samuel once. i am very thankful for our white noise machine, which i'm sure helped out in that area. last night i let sam fuss without running in there like i was doing the first night, and tristan still didn't hear him, so this is a good thing. tristan wakes up at his normal 5:30am and samuel has been sleeping in until his normal 6:30am and so this whole room-sharing thing hasn't made much of a difference. except that now i have a cute little empty room that i can get all nesty in when the time comes. i've already put in a request to our landlady to see if we can paint the room a light green, and i'm hoping she will say yes. green with lavender accents if it's a girl, and green with brown accents if its a boy.
now here's the thing, the reason why i am writing this post now as the boys settle in for the night: we live in a duplex and the room that shares a wall with the boys' bedroom is our neighbor's pre-teen daughter's room. she has a karaoke machine in there that she cranks up and then belts out top 40 hits terribly off-key. i don't care about the noise during the day, but when the kids are trying to sleep, its a little annoying. a couple of weeks ago samuel just wouldn't settle and, after about 45 minutes, i timidly knocked on our neighbors' door and asked if the music could be turned down. the woman was super friendly and told me to let them know any time their noise was keeping our kids awake.
well, its happening again tonight. i can literally hear the words to the songs through the baby monitor. again, thank God for our white noise machine, but even that thing has trouble masking the terrible sounds snaking through the wall. samuel has been in bed for 30 minutes and he still isn't asleep. he isn't crying or anything, just shuffling around and making little noises and i'm sure he's having a difficult time drifting off because of the music. i've already knocked on their door once before and i really really hate doing things like that. on the other hand, our neighbor told me to let her know if the boys couldn't sleep because of the noise. what would you do? hope your child gets used to it, or talk to the neighbors again?
9 comments:
i'm so glad to hear that the transition has gone well - what a blessing!
regarding the neighbors, I'd maybe give Samuel a week or so to adjust (unless he's crying, then i'd just go right over) and if he hasn't adjusted by then, maybe just speak to them about the situation and ask if there's any way it could be worked out to keep the karaoke down after a certain time? I don't know - maybe i'm too forward :)
Wish I could help. Well, I would just have gone to the neighbor's and asked them to lower the volume by a certain time every day. It's difficult even for adults to sleep with all that noise around.
Bring a plate of cookies when you go over, just cheerfully (being yourself) asking again for abit of toning down on the music. Neha's suggestion of mentioning the time of evening was a great one. So so happy it went so smoothly for you. Too cute, two little boys, sharing a room.
Sounds like a relatively smooth transition so far! I would talk to the neighbour. Both cookies and specifying a time sound like good ideas to me.
Sounds like good advice there already. They are lucky they have nice neighbors.
I remember our girls sleeping together and our second one waking up tons at night and crying. The older one would wake up at times and sing to the younger one to make her go back to sleep. The sharing a room thing is good.
I remember when we put the boys together .. .they caroused a bit but in the end. . .it was a good decision.
I can't imagine you could be at all unkind. .so just knock on the door again. . .and say what you need. The cookies ..really won't hurt. .especially if you mention they are a consolation prize for the budding vocalist.
Oh I would talk to the neighbors & forget the cookies! Haha, I can not stand noisy neighbours (lived in a few too many basement suites). It's a general respect issue & if your neighbour is, like you say, nice, she hopefully won't have a problem keeping the noise down by a certain time for your little ones. I just banged on the wall when our teenage neighbour blared his music in our old place...we broke our lease to get out of there!
Anyway, good luck!
Sarah
DOn't worry, your 20 month old isn't the only one still waking up at night. My Korban, now 2 and a half wakes up with night terrors or sleep talking. My problem is keeping the little one asleep! As for the neighbor? Gosh I don't know! That would be hard to deal with....lets pray the kareoke machine has a little mishap;)
I am so sorry about the neighbor, that is a tough call. If the kids are upset by it, you have every right to go over. But, my husband and I play our television right next to our youngest's room and it can be heard clearly through the walls, and he has learned to go to sleep regardless of how selfish mommy and daddy are being. All that to say, your boys will fall asleep regardless if "Brittany" is getting her singing groove on or not. Maybe put a mp3 player in the boys room and play the type of music you like for them and it will kinda fuse out whatever she is doing in her room. Hugs. Tough all around. I'm glad to see you are on the other side of putting your boys in the same room. I remember how afraid I was when I merged Max and Eowyn, and it totally worked out.
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