Roomies!

When we moved to the new house, we intended to eventually put the girls together in Ella’s room. Ella has a giant room that is meant to be shared. My cousins shared it when they were young and it seemed only right. Lily’s room is just the perfect size for a nursery, but Ella’s is at least five times larger – and that wouldn’t lead to any kind of sibling rivalry in the future.

Loran and I decided, rather spur of the moment, that the time had come to move them together. They are mostly on the same sleep schedule for bedtime, and naps. So off we went on Saturday evening, starting the big move. Sunday the organizing continued and will continue into this week. Because, of course, I need to redecorate the walls to include both of them. (Which has meant I needed to print and frame some photos of girl #2 since I haven’t and the room looks like a homage to girl #1.)

I thought Ella might have some trouble coming to grips with having to share her palace with “this one” but she’s actually quite amicable to the change. Lillian’s the one having trouble. She’s not quite comfortable with her surroundings so she’s a little slow to settle down at night. Typically, a Lillian bedtime consists of us placing her on her strategically placed pile of blankets and popping a pacifier in her mouth. She rolls to her stomach and within minutes drifts off to sleep. The last two nights she has cried/screamed herself to sleep. We’ve rocked her, given her extra milk, tucked and re-tucked her in. But, after about ten minutes of wailing, she eventually fell asleep. Once asleep, they’ve both slept like logs through the night. Not a peep from the room. And, both mornings they’ve been quite joyful to wake up together. In fact, despite the screams, Ella has fallen asleep almost immediately. It’s as if the screaming of her sister is almost peaceful to her. Relaxing. Perhaps, fulfilling…I’m sure this doesn’t elude to anything demented on Ella’s part. The first night was clearly due to the fact that Ella had gymnastics, a birthday party and church and no nap. The second night, very short nap. Tonight? It may be a tuck-Ella-in-bed-eight-times kind of night.      

Today was the big nap. The first one together. Ella, once again, fell asleep immediately. Lily didn’t cry, but she talked to herself for nearly an hour before I went in and retrieved her. She’d taken a half hour nap in the car and clearly wasn’t ready to nap. But, once Ella woke up this afternoon, Lily went down and all is going well. No tears.

Now that they share a room, the baby monitor can also be in one room rather than straddling the rooms in the hall. I put the receiver under the crib and neither girl knows it’s there. This morning, I heard the first adventures of sister’s sharing a room.

::ella:: *whispering* “Hi! Hi Lily!”

::lily:: rustle, rustle, waking up.

::ella:: *normal voice* “I want you to give me your blankets for Ella’s bed.”

I look forward to hearing the conversations that will take place going forward. So far, two little Gutt girls sharing a room has been rather successful!