A Bedtime Story

It's musical beds around here this week. Two nights ago, Anna inherited Erik's bed and has been loving her new blankets and pillows -- and staying put successfully all night.  Erik been on a brand-new mattress on the floor for a few days, but will probably be in his awesome new bed tonight. It's been a work-in-progress for quite awhile, but Jamieson is almost done building it. When I say building it, I don't mean just assembling it. The wood was harvested from land Jamieson's family has owned since the ancestors came from the old country. Jamieson designed it and built it to withstand the punishment that will inevitably be dealt out by our active crew. The frame is up and waiting in Erik's room. It just needs the slats for holding up the mattress and it is done. Of course, these switches mean the crib has moved down the hall to Baby's room. The toddler rail came off, the fourth crib rail went back on and the mattress came back up to itty-bitty baby position. Flowered crib sheets went away and green and blue crib sheets came back out. And for some reason, I want to cry.

There was a memorable moment during the months we were expecting Erik's arrival, that we stopped into a fancy baby boutique to look at their strollers. Instead of enjoying the shopping experience, I stomped out of the store and down the street, crying and mumbling something about not being able to afford a baby. (Did I mention that it was a very high-end shop? Most of our kids things ended up coming from friends, resale shops, and Target, and they are fine, thank you very much.) It was one of those hormonal pregnancy moments when the magnitude of what's about to happen hit. In that case, it hit harder because there were way too many choices available.

That's where I am with the beds. With the great bed switch-a-roo, the reality of Baby arriving sometime in the not too distant future became even more real. (Not that the constant kicking hasn't made it pretty obvious.) Packing up the girly baby things makes me sad that my baby girl has already left that stage far behind; getting things ready, really ready, for this new baby makes me realize that my already stressed self has to stretch to accommodate yet another small, demanding, unsleeping thing. Yikes. So, you'll have to excuse me if the weirdest things set me off for the next few months (years?). Even the most wanted and celebrated blessings take some time to accept.

So here's the state of Erik's bedroom at the moment. Jamieson does good work, doesn't he?