Asleep in their beds

Last night marked the first night of our new sleeping arrangments.

Isaac moved out into the new Blue room where he had his new loft bed. Cait moved into Isaac's space in the 'new' Pink room. (and by the way, they are not pink and blue because of gender stereotypes. The girls chose their own colour and the boys chose their own!)

The girls were okay about it and Cait settled into her 'new' bed/arrangement easily. Isaac wandered into my room when I was tandeming Trin and Owain, and said: Er mum, is Owain going to sleep in my room tonight? He looked a bit sheepish. For all his expostulations about Owain sharing his room and 'messing it up' and generally cramping his style, he still wanted Owain in the room because he was afraid of sleeping alone. On hearing Isaac's question, Owain paused his nursing to say: kor wants me to sleep with him cos he's afraid of the dark.

Haha - that was spot-on!

I also moved Owain's little bed (formerly Cait's but now his) into the Blue room - it's where he would sleep eventually. We thought we'd try it out for a night to see if he could sleep without me and without his nen-nen. I didn't think he would but we just thought we'd try. Well that worked for about all of 10 minutes. He tried out the bed, we moved the bedding and proclaimed he liked it. I was delighted. But later as he got sleepier, he asked to nurse and I agreed. Okay, I said, you can have nen-nen but after that you have to go to your room alright? He agreed so we tandemed in my bed with Trin at her usual space.

After he nursed and got off the breast, I said: okay good night. Remember that you can come back here to mummy's room anytime at night if you want nen-nen okay?

He nodded and sidled to the door, went out, but came back in a minute later to say with his cheeky grin: hi mum...

I smiled - I could guess what he wanted. Then he said wistfully: I wish I can sleep in your room... So I said: well let's just try sleeping in your own room for just tonight okay? But if you want to, you can come lie down next to me for now and daddy will shift you over later.

So he happily jumped back in bed, snuggled in and conked out in five minutes. When KH came back in, he saw Owain sleeping and instead of shifting him back to his room, just chuckled about it, moved him further in to make space. And that was that - Owain never spent the night in his room after all. He just continued where we left off - in the same bed.

Baby steps. With Caitlin gone out of my bed, then now, out of my room at the age of 6, only Trin and Owain are left. They have years yet.