Three to a room

  Recently, we rearranged our upstairs so that the boys would now have a shared bedroom and an upstairs playroom as opposed to the shared nursery and separate bedroom that they previously had. 

People look at us like we have three heads if we mention that the three boys are sharing a room but so far it is working for our family. To avoid any bedtime issues of the younger children keeping Little Bear awake, we have a routine that we follow fairly strictly. All of the kids get ready for bed at the same time (bathtime, teeth brushed, hair combed, diapers changed, try to go potty, pajamas on), then Papa Bear or I read to them in their bedroom. We sing one song and put Pequeño and Pudge to bed between 7:15 and 7:30. Little Bear then has until 8:00 to play in the playroom, spend time with us, or do whatever he wants and then goes straight to bed. By this time, the younger two have fallen asleep and do not even stir when he gets in bed. In the mornings, they often wake up and talk to each other while the younger two are still in their cribs and Little Bear is laying in his bed. The other morning, I heard Little Bear "reading" to them and Pudge asking for "more stowy!" once he finished.

 One thing that was important to us regarding a shared room was having each kid still have their own space. So, the first thing that we did was figure out the different sections of the room. Then We let Little Bear decide which section he wanted for himself. After that Papa Bear and I chose for the younger two based mostly on the idea that Pudge will soon be transitioning to a bed and where we would plan on placing that. Once the spots were chosen, they were each (obviously not Pequeño) able to pick a theme for their section of their room with which we will soon be decorating.

Little Bear chose Police and Army/Military (Are you surprised?)

(The umbrella is one that he made that says Police and K-9 on it. He also has a letter "J" for above his bed which I need to paint white.)

Pudge chose Airplanes and Army

 and Pequeño's decor hasn't been decided yet but it's safe to say that it will incorporate airplanes.

 

The fourth section of the room is the combined space. We added the rocking chair from the nursery for story time and they have their crayon banks lined up under their white erase board. The cork board, which has been in the room as only Little Bear's, will continue to hold important information for all three kids. However, pictures and paintings which would have otherwise been hung on the board, now get hung in the playroom which is being decorated mostly with their crafts (but that's for another post).

The only night that we had any trouble was the first night that we put them all in the same room and that night I honestly considered changing it back (which would have required taking apart 2 cribs and 1 twin bed all by myself due to Papa Bear's work schedule) if it was that bad the next few nights. Thankfully, it did not come to that!