Saturday, January 2, 2010

By The Skin of My Teeth. (Who Came Up With That Saying, Anyways? Gross.)

It happens that one of my resolutions for 2009 was to have Casey and Jonathan sharing a room. Round about August (or maybe September) we purchased a third (seventh if you count pack-n-plays and travel-sized) crib, which was promptly assembled in Casey's room. The intent being, we would put both boys in their in cribs to get them familiar with sleeping together before introducing toddler or big beds. Unfortunately, Jonathan was not in love with the idea of leaving his room and, being uber pregnant, I did not have the will-power (or energy) to force the issue. So, the crib remained empty and Jonathan continued to sleep in his own room.

When October rolled around, we introduced baby Stephen to our family and were sternly warned by the pediatrician not to mess with the older boys' routines, lest we welcome demons into our home. So, no room changing.

Along came November and Casey asked for a big-boy bed on his birthday. It seemed like a reasonable request, considering he turned three. So, Wes pulled the extra twin bed down from the attic and stuck it in the garage. Where it sat. Until December 20th when, after three nights of Casey's freaking out at bed time rejecting the crib, it seemed like the right time.

And so, Casey's crib was disassembled and a big boy bed took it's place. Hubs and I tossed around the idea of moving the boys in together at that point, but decided we were too lazy to deal with the inevitable fallout Jonathan wasn't quite ready. The next week we spoke about it again because Casey had taken very well to his new bed. Until the next evening when Casey started having nightmares.

Which is how we arrived at New Year's Eve. One of the two dreaded evenings each year (the other being Fourth of July). It was time to shit or get off the pot sink or swim. Despite having put off the task until the last hour (almost literally), and until the worst possible night, I was going to do it. And I did. It took forty-five minutes of sitting in the dark with them, but eventually the tossing and turning stopped and everyone was asleep. For a while.

That night was rough, and nap the next day was a waking nightmare (pun absolutely intended), but last night was better and nap today was fantastic. Tonight they went down completely without incident and I'm happy to be able to say, mission accomplished. By the skin of my teeth.*

Casey

*The phrase first appears in English in the Geneva Bible, 1560, in Job 19:20, which provides a literal translation of the original Hebrew: "I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe." Teeth don't have skin, of course, so the writer may have been alluding to the teeth's surface or simply to a notional minute measure - something that might now be referred to, with less poetic imagery than the biblical version, as 'as small as the hairs on a gnat's bollock'.
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p.s. Christmas pictures coming soon!

4 comments:

Erin said...

Yea for the big boy bed! Merrick is moving to a twin bed tomorrow!
They are getting so big!!

Claremont First Ward said...

I loved hearing about the history of that phrases, and I'm so glad that the bed changing is going well!

Claremont First Ward said...

PS. DId I tell you that I moved?
http://www.sevenclowncircus.com

BabyShrink said...

Hi April! Thanks for following me on twitter. Looks like our littlest ones were born just a few days apart, too! Congrats! I am so with you on the Weight Watchers battle too. It's a miserable job, losing the weight this time around! Anyway, nice to find you and aloha! Dr. Heather, the BabyShrink

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