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Friday, January 17, 2014

The Infinite Wisdom of New Parents

The week our son was due, we moved into our new house.  This new house came with a bedroom right off the living room - the room has two doors, one into the hallway, and another, sliding door, directly into the living room.

"What a wonderful idea," we thought.

"We can get to our precious little one from either side of the house," we said.

We had no idea.

We bought black out curtains for the sliding door, hoping this would provide enough protection from the dim living room light to allow us to behave like adults after the baby went to sleep.

We asked our guests to speak quietly and not flush the toilet in the bathroom just across from his bedroom.

"This is working," we said, so proud of ourselves.

Mind you, we NEVER once accessed the bedroom through the sliding door we were so proud to have.

Then, a year and a half later, we stayed with family with bedrooms far from the living space, and the boy slept for twelve hours every night. TWELVE. HOURS.

This never happened at our house!

We thought we had turned a corner and things would be different when we returned.

"He's had a growth spurt," we said. 

"He'll sleep better all the time now," we believed.

No.

We returned to his tenuous sleep, requiring quiet and tiptoes.

"He's having a sleep regression," we considered.

"I'll research this on the interwebs," I volunteered.

Then, our little sleep addled minds figured it out.

"We could change his room," we thought.

"We can move him to the room farthest away from the living room, the one with no shared wall with the dining room, where we sit with our friends after bedtime," we suggested.

After an entire weekend of swapping closets, hanging pictures, disassembling and reassembling furniture, the boy had a new bedroom.

A new bedroom in which he sleeps through the night. A new bedroom that doesn't require our guests to refrain from flushing the toilet. A new bedroom that <<gasp>> allows us to keep the lights on in the living room.

We thought we knew, but we had no idea. And we are still learning!

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