Out With The Old, In With The New

We had remodeled our home to add a fourth bedroom less than one year before I discovered I was pregnant with our fourth child.

We immediately began looking to optimize space within our home to accommodate the little one without infringing on the other three's new found freedom with their own bedrooms.

The most important decision we needed to make was bedding; and we opted for a space-saving bassinet.

We purchased The First Years 5-in-1 Carry Me Near Sleep System; and it was a purchase we'll never regret.

I had never bothered purchasing a bassinet before; instead opting to go from hospital to crib. For the first time in 17 years of motherhood, I was trying something new. And, wow, I wished I had known then what I know now.

I can't say if it was the confining space of a bassinet (versus a crib) or just my daughter's personality, but she was eager to sleep through the night immediately. Add the multiple sound features such as mother's heartbeat, rainfall, chirping, and music, and my daughter, unlike her brothers, learned very early to be a self-soother.

It's now been four months later and she has essentially reached a point where she has less than an inch space between the edge of the bassinet and her head when she is fully stretched. As a result, we've had to force her into a crib.

Force being a key word.

Again looking to save space, we decided on the Davinci Emily mini crib. While not as large as a standard crib, the mini cribs offer plenty of space for a growing infant. And we were hoping that it's smaller size wouldn't intimidate her and she'd take right to it.

The first night she moved to her new crib was a rough night, as she awoke in the middle of the night and refused to go back to sleep (something she hadn't done in many, many months). As I sat there rocking her, singing to her, I was tempted to drag the bassinet out and let her have her way.

As I continued trying to get her back to sleep, I seriously considered just letting her sleep in it until she graduated high school.

It's been two weeks now and she's finally growing accustomed to sleep in a bigger bed. But I have no doubt that she'd return to that bassinet in a heartbeat.