Follow-up to kids' room choices.

If you haven't read this post you might want to. Otherwise the remainder of this post might not make sense.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the previous post about my thoughts on rooms for the kids when the new baby comes in October. I realized from the comments I might should have explained a few other things.

1. I CANNOT sleep with an infant in the room with me. I find myself laying there listening to his/her breathing and don't really sleep well. So as soon as all our helpers go home the new baby always gets moved to the nursery. And no, I don't use a monitor. The baby is literally 10 steps from my bed.

After Will we bought a pack n play with a bassinet feature. So I'll have the pnp in my room with the baby in the bassinet for the first 3-4 weeks. Then I'll move the pnp to the nursery and the baby will still sleep in the bassinet. I learned after Will that the crib just feels too wide open and the baby has a harder time sleeping in the crib. The bassinet (with a changing table feature covering half of it) feels closer and more cozy for baby. I move him/her to the crib at about 2-3 months.

At least that's what I've done with the last 2 babies. I intend to move baby in with Ellie fairly quickly. Mainly so I can sleep at night and so Joel can sleep at night. A friend of mine moved her kids in together pretty quick and the oldest slept through the other's cries.

2. I could never move Ellie in with the boys! Ben is constantly trying to hold her, hug her, wrestle with her, lay on top of her and "love" on her. He means well, most of the time. But he's three and doesn't understand that at 37 pounds he can really hurt her (less than 25 pounds). She doesn't always appreciate his affection even when it's not hurting her. All that to say, I can just imagine what Ben would do to her if she was in the same room with him at night.

3. I had hoped to wait until the baby was big enough to need the crib (maybe 5-6 months) before moving Ellie to a big girl bed. She'll be 25 months when the baby is born and she seems so little to put into a big bed (though Ben was only 19 months when he was moved). I like the idea of having her confined. Especially if the baby is in a pnp. BUT! Every time I go into get her out of the crib now she's climbing the rails. She puts the top of the rail under her armpits and the wedges her feet between the rails and shimmies up. She hasn't fallen out, yet, and only takes her feet up half way to the top of the rail. It's only a matter of time before she loses her balance and goes over or gets brave and tries to hike her leg over. All that to say, I'd rather train her to stay in a big girl bed, and let her adjust to the transition, before I'm 9 months pregnant. If she is in a big girl bed when the baby moves to her room I'll have to use the crib for the baby. Ellie has learned to moves stools and chairs and boxes in order to climb to what she wants. I could totally see her climbing in the pnp with the baby.

I'll keep the pnp in my room for the baby to nap during the day. I have a gate on Ellie's room so I can confine her (and keep the boys from aggravating her). That will solve the nap issue.

4. The kids toys. The bulk of their toys are in the basement. I have a playroom set up down there so I don't have to deal with so many toys. The boys have one small set of bookshelves in their room for books, puzzles, on container of blocks. They also have a tub of Lincoln Logs in their room. Ellie has a few books and puzzles, a tub of misc. toys and dolls, and a preschool plastic kitchen with assorted fruit and food. I find it helps the clutter not to have ALL the toys in one place. There are NO toys in my living room - at least none are supposed to live there on a permanent basis.

5. Guests. Honestly, I have no idea where we will put guests after the baby comes. We do not have a hide-a-bed sofa. The basement is always cold. We have a futon down there but it's about 8 years old so the mattress is terrible for sleeping on. I can't put the boys down there cause they'd be afraid. After the baby comes, I can't move the boys to my room (I'll have a c-section so there's no way I can give up my bed). They'd never leave the baby alone and everyone would wake up with each feeding. I can't put them in sleeping bags in Ellie's room cause they'd be in the bed/crib with her - plus I'd have 3 children not taking naps! That's a recipe for disaster. I'm not sure how to solve this situation.

6. Theme/Color ideas. I want a soft feminine room for Ellie. I haven't seen a bedroom set I love yet for a girl. So many of them have a hard edge to them (at least it seems so to me). I'm not a pastel kind of girl either. We have an oil painting Joel's paternal grandmother painted (actually we have several). This particular painting is a scene somewhere in CO. There is a mountain in the background with a stream in between two mountains. The colors are fantastic. Lots of green with some pink and yellow flowers. And a blue sky. I'll try to take a picture of it to post. I have the painting hanging in her room now. I'm thinking about using that as the source of all other room colors. Most of the sets I have liked are green and pink. I considered painting the room green (it would work with the painting) but Will keeps wanting a green room so that would open up a whole can of worms I'd rather leave closed. So now I'm thinking of a dark beige or oatmeal color (similar to my living room for those who've been to my house). I've about come to the conclusion I'm a neutral wall kind of girl and prefer my color in accessories. Color on the wall just seems to limit my decorating choices and I'd rather not do that.

I think that answered all the questions from the comments. = )