Stocking up for baby, and sleeping arrangements

I've been really stockpiling for the new baby. Just today I was able to pick up a yellow sleeper, brand new, at a sale for just seventy five cents. I also got five pairs of socks for a dollar, and two adorable little hats for a dollar. One hat is yellow and the other is deep blue and violet tie-dye.

But today I got the best deal of all - an Arm's Reach Co-sleeper, in brand new condition, for just $20. This exact same model is still in stores for $139.99 (ish) - can you believe the steal of a deal I got?

I've always wanted a co-sleeper but never bought one because my babies always sleep with me anyway. Plus, it was always a pretty steep expense for us. Our babies tend to come at the very least convenient time possible, money-wise, and I could never justify spending that amount of money on something that would be used so little.

This time, the co-sleeper is an absolute must for safety. The Babe is 11 months old, and still nursing and co-sleeping happily. He'll be 13 months when the new baby comes, big enough to smoosh the little bugger in the middle of the night, but still so much a baby himself. He is starting to sleep through the night once in awhile now, but generally he wakes up once or twice for a nurse. (I hate it, because nursing during pregnancy gives me wicked heebie jeebies. Its impossible to explain unless you've experienced it.) How can I deny one baby in order to care for another? Do you realize how much of a hassle it will be to have either of them in a separate room? The Babe will be inconsolable, I'm sure, because he is still a needy, dependent baby. And the new baby will be up thirty seven times a night to eat. If either of them is in a different room, I will be the one who gets no sleep and ends up wanting to jump out a window. (It's okay though. My new house is a one story.)

So obviously I need to make sure both babies are happy and safe, and I think the best way to do that is to keep The Babe in bed with me, and put the new baby in the co-sleeper right next to me. The Hub and I sleep in separate rooms, because he snores and I'm a bed hog. He was on third shift for the great majority of our marriage and now that he's not, we just can't get used to sleeping in the same room, let alone the same bed. Beastie sleeps in the same room as The Hub, on a pull out chair. In the new house, she'll share a room with Four, and will have her very own toddler bed. I'm even making her some Yo Gabba Gabba blankets to put on it. EJ gets to have a room of her own, because she's earned it. She's an awesome big sister and very responsible, and is desperate for some space of her own.

We do have a fourth bedroom in the new house, but it's quite a distance from the other bedrooms. This will be used for a guest room right now, and then in a few years, when my children are old enough to get themselves out of the house in case of fire, that will become a bedroom for one or two of the kids. It's a big room and could easily accommodate two.

The basement at the new house has egress windows and is framed in for three rooms. Each of the three rooms has an egress window, which means that these rooms could be finished and made into even more bedroom space. I wouldn't feel comfortable with any of my kids in the basement until they were teenagers though, for safety reasons.

I have to tell you, it is so nice to know that we can live in our new house forever. It is very difficult to have this many people in such a small space, but I do wonder if I will miss the closeness. I don't think so, because we're a very close family. I don't think our family dynamics will change just because our living situation has.