Maybe you remember last week’s post where I talked about the need to switch the twins to toddler beds. Well, we made the switch. We did it on a Friday night, so that Neil would be home to help with the twins should they be…difficult.
7 p.m. rolls around. Bedtime. We put the twins in their beds, kiss them goodnight, and shut the door.
That’s when the party began.
8 o’clock. 9 o’clock. 10 o’clock. 11 o’clock. The party is still going! Finally, at midnight–five hours after they are usually asleep–we went in, cleaned up all the toys, and got them down again. I have no idea when they went to sleep, because after that, me and the hubby did.
So sometime after midnight the twins went to sleep. They were awake by six o’clock the next morning. My children, who usually sleep 11 to 12 hours a night, had slept barely six.
And we had family pictures that morning.
The pictures actually turned out great, despite the crankiness and sleep depravity all of us were experiencing.
With our mission complete, we took the crankies home for a much-needed nap. We put them down, and they were so exhausted they went to sleep without much of a problem. The hubby and I also laid down for a little shut eye. Some time later, the twins woke up. We heard them on the baby monitor, playing gleefully and revealing in the freedom of toddler beds.
Then Thing 1 started crying. More like screaming. Sometimes Thing 2 will sit on Thing 1’s head, so hubby went in to take care of the situation. He’d barely walked in the door before he called for me to come. I walked into the nursery.
And there was shattered glass. Everywhere.
The Thing had somehow broke a picture frame that had been hanging on the wall. The frame was completely busted. The glass was shattered. And we never heard a crash. I had no idea how they managed this.
I quickly took the crying twins upstairs (they wanted to “help” Daddy pick up the glass) and out of the danger zone so Neil could clean up the aftermath. Upstairs, with the help of the grandparents, we assessed for damage. There were some small cuts here and there, but nothing major (thank heaven). I have no idea how they weren’t more seriously injured.
Leaving the twins with the grandparents, I went back downstairs. Unknown blood spatters were found on the ottoman for the rocking chair. The ottoman fabric was also cut in quite a few places. How were they not seriously injured?
That’s when the real toddler-proofing of the room began. We had already put a lock on the closet door (so they wouldn’t scale the shelves) and on their dresser (so they wouldn’t pull out all the clothes every time they were in there). We had removed the shelf from the bookcase (after they pulled it out about three times). We had put only non-sharp, non-choking-hazard toys in their for their enjoyment (stuffed animals and duplo legos). But after vacuuming up all the glass, we went through and removed all the picture frames from the walls. All the knick-knacks from the high-up shelf I was sure they couldn’t reach. After they opened all the diapers and pulled out all the wipes, those got stored in the closet instead of on the changing table, too. And, just last night, we also took away the expensive blinds and replaced them with cheap curtains made from old sheets. We also might have to remove the toddler beds and just leave a mattress on the floor soon–they are somehow managing to break the springs in their bed.
Toddler beds have definitely been a new and interesting experience. It didn’t take long for them to adjust, thankfully–about four days. Now they’re back to their normal sleeping schedule, more or less. They usually go to bed without playing. However, they don’t sleep as long now–about 10 hours at night and about 2 hours at nap time, as opposed to 12 hours and 3 hours. I don’t know how much of this is due to toddler beds, and how much is due to them just getting bigger and not needing as much sleep. And the other night we woke up at 1 in the morning to find their mattresses off their beds, and every toy in their room pulled out while they happily played. But we’re adjusting.
Now for the next phase: taking away the bottles when they go to bed…
TWIN MOM TIP: Remove everything from your twins’ room before switching to toddler beds. Everything. Just trust me on this one.
