Big Kids, Small Kids; Short Kids, Tall Kids.

With the impending move (which will occur almost simultaneously with Lola's arrival) I haven't done much in terms of nursery planning. I started looking at cribs last week and almost had a stroke when I realized that the two cribs I have my eye on are backordered until the end of August. Clearly that's enough time to get here for her birth. But it's not enough time for me to twiddle my thumbs making decisions.

However I'm not ready to make a decision (of course I'm not). Mostly because I have no idea what to do with Reese and Ryan. Right now the twins share a room. Their nursery may be the only thing I'll really ache for when we leave this house; I poured my soul into that room.

The original plan was to separate the twins when we got to the new house. Ryan would get a big boy room and Reese would get a big girl room. Lola would be in the "guest room" which would be set up as a guest room and nursery since we rarely have guests. Once she was on a one nap sleep schedule we'd move her into Reese's room which will (obvs) become "the girls' room".

Except the closer we get to moving the more unsure I become about splitting them up. When they wake up they look for each other. They pass their pacis back and forth between the bars that connect their cribs. After each snooze session, Ryan wakes Reese up by throwing all of his blankets and stuffies on top of her and screaming. They love each other. And even though they won't share a room forever, maybe now isn't the time to switch.

Although sometimes when one wakes mid-nap or in the middle of the night and I'm hustling and bustling to keep him/her quiet I really do wish they were in separate rooms. It would give me the chance to get that baby rocked back to sleep and still recover the nap. And I think they would sleep longer without each other some days. But who knows?

I've narrowed down Lola's crib search to two PB Kids cribs -- the Kendall Low Profile and the Fillmore. I love the Fillmore...online...of course it's not sold in stores. The Kendall is the same crib I bought for the twins (well, the same style, theirs is a JCP knockoff version which has been worth every penny), and I like the idea of the low profile crib since now that their mattresses are on the lowest setting I struggle to get them into their cribs without dropping them the last few inches. I love both of these cribs, but I don't love the idea of spending more money on another crib when we already have two in the house.

We've talked about transitioning the twins to toddler or "big kid" beds with the move and repurposing one of their cribs in Lola's room. Now let me just say that my kids try to climb into their beds (unsuccessfully) but they have never tried to climb out of them. And I'm looking at the PB cribs this time because I really, really wish I had bought cribs that came with a toddler bed conversion kit and the ones I like from JCP do not convert. The rational part of me that knows how well contained the babies are in a crib thinks I should keep them in there until they turn thirty. The cheap-ass in me wants to sell one crib and give the other to Lola.

And just to complicate matters more, I worry about all of the things that I am asking of my sweet babies. A new house, a new room (or rooms), a new sibling, a new routine and possibly a new bed. Really how much can a tiny, twenty one month old take?

So what say you mom's of many? Separate them? Keep them together? Transition to big kid beds? Keep them in cribs until college? I really don't know what to do here.