Two Kids + One Bedroom = Disorganization

Since we have a two bedroom condo, our kids are going to be sharing a bedroom for a few years. Iain isn't sleeping in their room just yet since he has just recently starting having a six hour stint of sleep at night and we don't need him waking Ada up during her nightly twelve hour sleep marathon. That puts him in a Pack and Play in the dining room temporarily. Unfortunately, that puts his belongings all over the house, or realistically, shut in the bedroom with Ada fast asleep and us in fear of retrieving them so as not to wake her up. Yikes.

You would think we would have this all figured out now that he is six weeks old, but we don't. What we need to do is create a space, maybe even a drawer in the living room, for a few of his necessities so that we don't have to look at each other after we close Ada's bedroom door and say, "Honey, did you remember to grab the diapers and some burp cloths?" or "Crap! I forgot the wipes are all in her room." Which has been the norm rather than the exception this past few weeks.

The challenge is in keeping all of these things organized and in their proper places while they all seem to be in constant motion. Disposable diapers and wipes are depleted as they are used and thrown out. Cloth diapers and covers are soiled and often somewhere between the dirty diaper bucket, the laundry machine, the drying rack, a stack by their bedroom door of laundry to be put away, or in their room put in the cloth diaper drawers -- which we really shouldn't even be storing his diapers in at all but they don't have another home outside of their bedroom at this point. Outfits, blankets, burp cloths all make the laundry cycle and occasionally get trapped in with Ada. And the snot sucker has just recently been banned from being used in her room so as not to get it stuck in there. It's not an easy task to juggle all of his stuff and keep her out like Sleeping Beauty.

To make matters worse, since we can't store his stuff in their room at this point, that also means there are a lot more obstacles in the house for me to trip on in the night as I rush to quiet his screams so as not to wake Ada. If only they made a magical bubble we could put her and her bed into none of this would be an issue and I'd be much more organized.

Moral of the story: Sharing a room is good in theory once you have both kids sleeping through the night. Until then, it entails a lot of planning and organization to keep the entire family happy.