Goodbye Cribs

With twins, change isn't doubly hard, it's exponentially harder.  You grasp onto anything to help make life easier, and you groan at the idea of something that's not helping you out.  For us, we need cribs.  NEED.  We need for them to be confined into one safe spot.  Sleeping is a bit different when you've got two humans sharing the same space (the same two humans who need to be together or else they're off).  Shoot, these two girls can't quit chatting long enough to go to sleep, how do you think it would be if they had freedom?  So yeah, #cribsforlife.

Sleep sacks have saved our lives.  When Sydney started trying to climb out one naptime after we took away pacifiers, I slapped that sleep sack on her so quickly.  When she unzipped her sleep sack and tried to climb out again, she got to wear hers backwards.  Thus, we earned ourselves an extra year of cribs.  But then, sleep sacks became our demise.  Ella started complaining that "I can't get my feetsies to be straight" (her sleep sack was getting too short), and they were already 3, so I knew in my heart it was time to bite the bullet.

And since the shop's closed on more babies needing cribs, I tried to hold onto this one a little bit extra tight.  I'm not really sad about not wanting any more babies, but for some reason, the crib thing makes me sad.

sweet Ella Grace in her crib one last night

I'll miss grasping onto their little hands that poke through crib slats.  I'll miss them standing up, waiting for me to snatch them up with their sweet arms outstretched.  I probably won't miss sitting next to their cribs with my hand so awkwardly sticking through the slats to pat their backs or stroke their hair.

Sydney Ann sleeping so sweetly in her crib one last night

I've learned that our girls do great when we turn anything into a "thing".  We talk it up real big and they get excited, and we repeat ourselves until we're blue in the face, and that normally works.  So I decided to turn crib conversion day into Mermaid Day.

They skipped their nap and we wore them out with hopes they'd fall asleep quickly instead of exploring their new-found freedom.  They watched The Little Mermaid in our bed instead of napping, meanwhile Daniel and I converted their cribs to big girl beds.

new beds all ready for their mermaids!

mermaids thrilled with their new situation!

So then... we lectured them about staying in their bed, we put them down, and we waited and watched the monitor.


when Ella's toy came out of her bed (I think she probably threw it), she listened and didn't get up... she reached as far as she could without getting up, ha!!

And there's Ella... sleeping sweetly in her brand new big girl bed!

And sweet Syd all snuggled in tight

And the verdict is... they did great!

Waking up Sydney, and she was so happy she did great!

....Ella on the other hand... such a sleeping champ ;)

P.S.
I'm writing this post 4 months later, and they still don't really get up out of their beds.  I mean, miraculous, right?  Whew, dodged a bullet.  Actually, I think waiting so long until they were actually capable of knowing what to do helped tremendously.  For us, we had to wait so long out of sheer necessity.  But it's also a good lesson in setting your kiddos up for success :) 

P.P.S
And there you have it folks... no diapers, no cribs.  I think it's official, we don't really have babies any more (but yeah, I'm 100% still calling them babies).