Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...

So baby number 3 is coming and we only have 3 dedicated bedrooms in our house. We do have a miscellaneous room that is our office/guest/playroom, but there isn't a latching door and it is too close to the family room to be the baby's room. So I saw this amazing idea online. See below.

We could totally do this in Chloe's room and have her and Levi share a room. BRILLIANT!

We went with a modified version that didn't have the storage shelves under the bed or on top of the box in-between the beds because that just seemed like something the kids would play in too much and the under the bed storage we could use just regular totes under the beds. This way it would be a little easier and quicker to complete since Zach was working 50+ hours and finishing school. So we all went to Lowe's and all the other stores to purchase the goods to build this most amazing bed ever that would solve all our problems. The kids enjoyed "helping" daddy put it all together as well.

They were so very excited to sleep in the same room. Levi had his batman bedding and Chloe had Sofia the First bedding. Zach  had told me while making this that he didn't know if it was a good idea and that he thought they would climb on the box and jump off of it, but what did he know? I had told him that they wouldn't do anything like that and they would be fine...I should have been thinking "what do I know". 

Clearly I give them more credit than I should because after three weeks of trying this out and trying different tactics it never quite worked. They would take over an hour to fall asleep at night and then wake up super early in the morning, then at nap times if they slept it was only for an hour or less. We tried staggering their bedtimes, sitting in with them until they fell asleep, threatening to take out animals, and about everything in between. For each thing that we did they were one step ahead. Sitting with them worked a time or two, but then they would trick us and act asleep but within 5 minutes of us leaving we heard them jumping up and playing. When we would stagger their bedtimes Levi would just lie awake waiting for Chloe to come in so what we were doing was just prolonging the inevitable. Oh and the climbing and jumping off the box comment Zach made...well he was 100% right. That was one of their favorite things to do. This idea that I thought was so brilliant was just a big flop. They weren't ready to sleep in the same room and with school quickly approaching we decided it was best to separate them again because if you have been around Levi you know he needs his sleep or he is a terror. For those three weeks he was only getting 8-10 hours of sleep in 24 hours when he normally has about 12-14 hours. He was not a happy camper.

So back to separate rooms they go. Levi's new room was the office/miscellaneous/guest room and Chloe stayed in her room. Jillian will be in Levi's old room. Now things are pretty much back to normal and they actually sleep at night and nap time for the most part. Well we tried, failed, and then adjusted.

I put Levi in time out for something and this is how I found him a few minutes later. He was suppose to be sitting in time out, but he decided to take his nap that he hadn't taken because he was playing rather than sleeping at nap time.

Chloe had zonked out on the floor while she was playing because she hadn't taken a nap.