Castle Bunk Beds {How to Bribe your Children to Sleep by Themselves}

I (admittedly) have a problem with boundaries and going overboard.  (See here.) 

I also have a problem with two little girls who want to sleep with me every single night.  And toss.  And turn.  And kick me.  And lay sideways across the bed.  And argue about who gets to sleep in the middle.  Or who gets to sleep with Mommy and who gets to sleep with Daddy.

This has been going on since my 7 year old was 18 months old.  We started in a full size bed.  You haven’t lived, friends, until you have slept on a full sized bed with your husband and toddler while being 9 months pregnant. 

Now we’ve evolved into two queen sized beds. With the girls taking turns sleeping with me or my husband on separate beds each night and both with me on other nights.

While I loved all the snuggling and watching them sleep and being there with them all night, I was ready for that to be over and sleep in the same bed with my husband again.  (He never kicks me or whines about what side of the bed I make him sleep on.)

Anyway…that’s where we were until Avery was watching a movie a few weeks ago and said she wanted a “Princess Bedroom” like the one on the movie.

“Would you sleep in your own bed if you had a Princess bedroom?”

“Oh yes, Mommy.  We would sleep in our own beds every single night.” 

I thought to myself, “LIES!  ALL LIES!”

But I was also desperate and willing to give it a try.  I started searching Pinterest and Google for Princess beds and the most amazing castle bunk beds came up. 

But they were EX-PEN-SIVE.  I’m talking ridiculously expensive.  Like, purchase a small used car expensive or make an contribution to your IRA expensive.

I was seriously considering these plans I found on Ana White to build one but Mom informed me that it was too hard for us.

I decided to check Craigslist and that’s where I got lucky.  In a town two hours away, someone had listed an adorable castle bunkbed that their little girl (now almost 12) had outgrown.  It was listed at a fraction of the retail price and she had OBO after it.  I text her with a pretty low offer that I was sure she would refuse.  But she said if I could come and get it within 3 days she would accept it.

SCORE!  We looked at the weather forecast to see which day it was supposed to rain (#farmprobs) so that my husband wouldn’t be working and enlisted two of our strongest friends to go with us to pick it up.

We took it apart and brought it home.  Then next night after work the girls and I sanitized every single inch of it with Clorox wipes.  It wasn’t really dirty but the other little girl had had it for 7 years so there were lots of little finger prints and smudges on the inside that I wanted to clean up before we put it back together.

The shield on the castle has the previous owner’s name on it.  I’m planning to paint over it with Princess McKenna & Princess Avery or McAvery Castle…I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.

I don’t think I realized how big it really was until we got it back together in the girls’ room.  It’s rather large.  But the girls love it and they’ve been sleeping in bottom bunk together about 80% of the time since we got it.  Neither wants to sleep by themselves on the top but there’s plenty of room on the bottom.  They have tried to back out on us after we had it so we had to be firm.

Here’s the view from inside the castle.  Do you think someone was posing for this picture?

And that is how we got the girls to sleep by themselves.  For two weeks anyway.  We’re going to have to stay strong and persistent as school starts back and the new wears off so that they don’t slip back into their old habits.

Chad maintains that this is in the Top 5 Craziest Things we have ever done.  I’d have to agree.

So…what do you think?  Are we crazy?  Have you done anything crazy to get your kids to sleep by themselves?  I’d love to hear about it so I know I’m not alone!

p.s. I’m linking up to Home Stories A to Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, By Stephanie Lynn, I heart Naptime, Serenity Now, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, Tidy Mom,  Serendipity and Spice and It’s Overflowing.