The Great Bedroom Swap

I'm embarrassed to even write this post.  But it's a big event and must be documented so here I am being all vulnerable and keeping things real.  Confession: Henry has been sleeping in my closet since we brought him home from the hospital.
Ouch.  The truth hurts.  
It started out as a good temporary idea for a few reasons: my closet is huge so there is plenty of room, it's pitch dark which makes for perfect sleeping, and it's far away from the noise of our house which allows Henry to nap uninterrupted at all times.  Plus, newborn Henry wouldn't wake anybody up in the middle of the night when he cried.  We thought this would be temporary but soon the weeks became months and the months dragged into almost a year and a half.  Woah.
I think I've mentioned on here before that I listen to podcasts a lot.  Especially when I go running, fold laundry, or drive.  I've learned a lot about myself and one of those things is that I'm good at making decisions and not going back.  Uncharacteristically, I was really dragging my feet about which bedroom to put Henry in and which bedroom I should move my big boys, Marcus and Ethan in to.  At the time both Marcus and Ethan had their own rooms.  Ethan's room also served as our guest room with its queen size bed and it's own bathroom.  Naturally it would make sense to put the 2 biggest boys in that big room.  But then I'd lose my queen size bed.  And the bathroom in there is tiny.  And there's only one closet.  Marcus's smaller bedroom has 2 closets and is right next door to a much bigger bathroom with a big shower and double sinks.  So I started bunk bed shopping, thinking I'd put 2 big boys in the smaller room that has more storage and better bathroom.  And I did nothing about it for months.  I hate bunk beds and couldn't bring myself to by one and kept putting off the switch up.  Plus I'd be giving up Henry's quiet napping place.  Ethan's room is at the top of the stairs where you can hear everything that goes on in our home and if Henry moved in there he'd need earplugs to get any sleep.

Ethan's room/guest bedroom before the swap

Finally one day, all those self-help/life coach podcasts paid off because I had a light bulb moment.  I wasn't committing to the bedroom swap because I didn't like the solution I came up with!  It was so obvious to me! And I really, really didn't want to buy bunk beds.  I hate bunk beds.  No kid should have to sleep in a bunk bed past the onset of puberty.  Plus they creak.
Once I recognized my problem I quickly fixed it by committing to action.  One day over Christmas break I moved Marcus out of his bedroom and into Ethan's room.  I moved the queen bed into Marcus's old room and set up Henry's crib in the corner.  I cleared all of Marcus's stuff out of his big dresser and moved that into Landon and Parker's room.   I gave Landon's dresser to Marcus and Parker's dresser to Henry which also works as a changing table so now I can get rid of the old changing table that I've had since Marcus was born, saving even more space.  Major fist bump.

Queen bed out

2 beds in

Marcus and I raced to Costco and bought a new bed/box springs for Ethan and bam!  Bedroom swap completed!  The boys were stunned I finally took action.  And Randy came home from work confused because I'd totally changed plans from what I'd been stewing over for months.  And I've probably confused you too.
Henry now has his own room, complete with teenage posters to inspire him to become an amazing athlete, courtesy of Marcus, and is sleeping through the night and napping regularly.  The rest of us are forced to be quiet or face my wrath if Henry gets woken up from his nap but at least his room is slightly farther down the hall from all the noise.  Marcus and Ethan are adjusting to sharing a room and so far doing just fine.  Marcus still walks down the hall to use his old bathroom and they're both too tired at night to notice the other brother snores.  Landon and Parker are still in bunk beds, much to their dismay.  But since Parker has a "FREAKING HUGE GIANT HOTWHEEL GARAGE" taking up half their room they will have to continue conserving space somehow.

Queen bed in Henry's room (with other stuff that has since been moved out)

Henry's crib assembled by Ethan, my own little handyman!

And Henry was so happy with his crib!  He's never known such space and luxury before.  I have no idea when I'll get around to taking down the posters on the wall but for now we'll see if being surround by subliminal messages to succeed in sports transforms him into a super athlete.  As soon as Marcus and Ethan's new beds and dresser arrive then I'll post a picture of their room all put together.  For now it looks pretty bad but at least no one is sleeping in a closet anymore!