My Far-from-Perfect Sunday and Changing my Character

It's Monday again! Ambilis! Sunday just flew past my face. Hindi ko sya nafeel. Lucky are you who have two-day weekends, but for those like me who only get one restday, I feel yah!

Yesterday was a really chilly day. The kind of day when the bed's magnetic pull is too strong. It was raining quite hard here so we weren't able to go to church. In an ideal setup, I would stay in bed all day wearing pajamas and reading a book with Yuri by my side content to be playing quietly. But life doesn't always happen that way.

One of the reasons why I didn't get to enjoy my Sunday that much is that first, I didn't get to go outside the house and second, I had to do a general cleaning of the bedroom. There are actually a third and a fourth reason, but let's get to that later.

We finally had to say goodbye to our sidecar crib arrangement, which served us well for a year. I actually liked it because while we were technically co-sleeping, I still had my personal space. No, the problem was that Yuri was getting too big for the crib. So last Saturday, we bought a double bed.

Yes, just a double bed. We couldn't buy a bigger bed because our stairway was too narrow. In fact, getting the double bed upstairs caused not a few scrapes on the banister. But we made it through. Yehess.

(I was thinking, good luck sa new house because it had an even narrower stair case. But let's cross the bridge when we get there.)

Here's our old arrangement:

And after more than 3 hours' worth of intense labor and cleaning, here's a new sleeping arrangement for Yuri and me:

You might be wondering why we were such in a hurry to buy a new bed. Well, my parents just chanced over a furniture sale in Gaisano Mall, and this bed (frame + Uratex mattress) was only P7k+. Original price was near P10k. Okay!

I am a bit nervous because the reason why I had to switch to a sidecar arrangement was Yuri falling off the bed. To be safe, I placed the old mattress on the floor. Just to be sure. But ultimately, I'm praying God send his angels every night to, um, keep Yuri from being too malikot while sleeping.

What's the third reason my Sunday didn't become a real restday? Yuri refused to take a nap on the new bed, that's what. It was getting on my nerves already because I'm sure he's sleepy. In fact, Yuri is almost always a good sleeper until now. And it went beyond naptime. Before dinner, he was already asking for tuyog (sleep), so after eating quickly, I was sure he'd sleep almost immediately. Well, no. The boy endured another 30 minutes of battling sleep despite his obvious sleepiness. Hay naku!

Now, the fourth reason happened when Yuri finally fell asleep. I was looking forward to having quiet time and finally being able to talk with Job after an entire week. I was looking forward to it the whole day. Unfortunately, our network didn't want to cooperate. I'm looking at you, Smart! Job can receive my messages easily, but I didn't receive any of his. Talk about a cherry on top of my sundae-sweet Sunday!

Of course I was really frustrated. Aside from the fact that my body was tired, I also needed some emotional recharging by talking to Job. I thought it was unfair. Now, when we complain that the world is being unfair to us, aren't we technically complaining that God is being unfair to us? I realized that last night. I was being upset with Him for not giving me a perfect Sunday. What? What a brat!

Bedroom Cleanup

Warning: This is a photo-heavy post.

The other Sunday (this is also late post), we stayed home because my younger sister was sick. Sundays are usually the only time I go outside the house, so that was a bummer. But then, I also planned on staying home that time because I seriously needed to work on my room, ASAP! I mean, take a look at this:

Messy!

Isn't it just depressing? I needed to do something with it right away!


Even the laundry basket needs detoxifying.

Full laundry basket

And some of the clothes did not even make their way to the basket! Tsk! Perhaps, you can spot some familiar clothing pieces from here and here. :-)

Overflowing shelf!

I placed a shelf at the foot of Y's crib when I made the sidecar arrangement. It's Y's shelf and I place there the toys and other stuff that he's not able to use yet. Those things are practically falling. No kidding!

I needed some music to get me moving.

That's my little laptop there, right on our unmade bed (and crib).


I always pride myself on my handyman skills. When I noticed that I had a lot of bags all over the room, I decided to just keep them inside my closet. I looked for a short bar and then some hooks with clips. Then, I made a special nook for those bags I use regularly:

My bucket bag from Fossil, my everyday diaper bag from SM Parisian, and a big diaper bag from Baby Couture

I know it's not pretty, but that's because it's temporary. And I worked on it myself. Believe me when I say I'm a handyman. I have proof:

A red screwdriver and a bag of hooks and screws of all sorts

Yes, I seriously keep those in my room. I guess I really love screwing - no pun intended.


After an hour, my efforts finally paid. Here's my a-bit-better-looking room:

Neater - in my opinion!

I moved Y's two shelves against the window. The smaller one no longer supports the crib, but we've been doing fine for two weeks now. I think the room looks neater, though more crowded.

Y's shelves full of Y's stuff

When I moved the crib into my room months ago, I had to place my desk outside in the hallway to create space. But I wasn't comfortable because I had a lot of personal belongings inside it. So even though my room is already too crowded with all the furniture in it, I just had to move it back.

My gigantic desk, care of my friend, Teena. The laundry was yet to be taken care of.

And despite moving the table inside my already-cramped room, I was also compelled to place a small sidetable beside my bed to house the things I usually use. Oh well...

Under it is a box that houses J's gifts

Since the smaller shelf is no longer at the foot of the crib, I had to place something that will act as barriers to keep Y from falling from the bed (just in case he ventures to the foot of the bed). Here's my temporary solution:

I'm sorry, this is the best I could come up with.

I extended the crib's bumpers, tied them to my bed post, and well, looped a couple of my belts around the rails. So far, Y has never wandered toward the foot of the bed yet, so I'm not worried.

And here's the boy himself:

I did all the work and you're the one to fall asleep? How dare you! #kidding

And I finally took some rest, too. :-)

Oops. Should've taken it in landscape format. Haha!

It was a good day.

PS: Grainy photos courtesy of my mobile phone

Our Sleeping Arrangement - Sidecar Crib

A month ago, I mentioned that Y, for the first time, fell from our bed. We spent that night sleeping over my parents' bedroom simply because I was traumatized. Oh diba, ako yung na-trauma eh di naman ako ang nahulog? Hehehe. But seriously, I wanted to change our sleeping arrangement ASAP because I didn't want the incident to happen again.

So Y's crib, which used to be beside our living room, had to be transported upstairs to our bedroom. Yes, that was a sweaty afternoon. Here's what my small bedroom looked like after:

Please excuse my sister's face. Teehee.

The crib was too huge; it's almost as big as my bed, but we had no choice. There's the little boy, happily playing inside his new "bed," but after a few minutes:

Uh-oh, we're going to have a problem.

Obviously, Y is not used to being on his own, not to mention inside something that looks like a cage. That's attachment parenting for you! Still, I think we could work it out. I would just let Y sleep beside me at night and wait until he's deeply asleep. Then, I will place him inside the crib. That should work.

Not!

Apparently, Y has this sixth sense, where he knows he's going to be put down inside the crib. Five times that night, he clung to me just when I was about to put him down. And boy, did he cry. So after a few hours of trying, I gave up. I placed the crib right beside the bed to serve as our fence, and let Y sleep beside me in bed.

I didn't sleep immediately, though. I browsed the internet for sleeping arrangement ideas that can work for us. I had this idea of removing one side of the crib and placing it beside the bed. When I tried to search for it, I found out that it's a real arrangement and that it even had a name: Sidecar Crib.

The next day, I did just as instructed in a lot of blogs I read the previous night. It was easy enough; all you have to do is remove the drop-down side of the crib. You know, the one that can be adjusted. Then, I placed it against the wall (it should not be on the open side of the bed), and then moved one of my shelves at the foot of the crib for stability. Tada!

Our first sidecar sleeping arrangement

It worked, but not very well. All night, I had trouble sleeping because my back hurt. Why? Because my bed was too high, and everytime Y had to breastfeed, half of my body is on the crib, which was lower than the bed.

Aside from that, I found out that the bed I used, which was spring-mattress, moved away from the crib and created gaps that became larger through the night. If you look closely at the photo above, you will see the pillows that I inserted to fill the gap. Did it work? No, because as the gap became larger, they just fell to the floor. I was too afraid to sleep, so I let Y sleep by my side once again.

The next day, I knew I had to change the bed. Luckily, we have an unused bed in my sister's bedroom 9 (albeit smaller) that is not spring and has a frame, which I can tie to the frame of the crib. It is crucial to keep the bed and the crib from separating. Sorry, I wasn't able to take photos of the tying part, but any kind of rope will do.

Among the three days I worked on this sleeping arrangement, that day was the hardest. That spring-bed is as heavy as heck! I swear I lost 5 pounds just moving it to the next bedroom. But here's what it looked like after my intense workout:

Finally, no moving gap in between the bed and the crib!

There was no gap between the bed and the crib because I was able to tie the frame of the bed and the frame of the crib together. Also, I was able to sleep with no back pain because this time, the bed was on the same height level as the crib. Yay!

I placed the comforter in between for continuity.
Right after taking this photo, I collapsed into the freshly made bed. New sheet are looove!

And what about overly-attached Y? What I do is that I let him sleep beside me first. Then, after maybe an hour, I carefully place him "inside" the crib. He doesn't cry or wake up because it's still as if he's sleeping beside me, only in a safer place. Also, he can still smell me (and my milk), unlike when I placed him in the crib away from the bed.

Proof that the sidecar sleeping arrangement works

As a supporter of co-sleeping, I believe this is the most ideal sleeping arrangement when the baby becomes mobile. Do this when your baby is already adept at crawling; in our case, rolling over or sitting down are not necessary reasons to change sleeping arrangements because I'm a light sleeper, relatively. I can only speak for myself, though. Use your better judgment and trust your instinct as to when it is best to stop full co-sleeping. :-)

Disclaimer: The sidecar crib sleeping arrangement only works with cribs that are stable even with one side taken. In our case, our huge crib (which is a hand-me-down, by the way), remained stable when I removed the drop-down side. I believe this won't work with playpens (duh?) and portable cribs. And if the crib is not made to be dismantled, by all means, do not take it apart.