IKEA Hack = Better Sleep

Remember my post about Ruby’s nighttime thrashing?

I had a strong feeling that if I had a much larger sleeping area, things would improve.

A few days ago I brainstormed a solution.

We had an IKEA Lillberg loveseat in our living room that just didn’t work for us.

It looked like this:

The reason it didn’t work is because when we bought it, IKEA was discontinuing it, so it was sold without the cushions (which are sold separately, but were sold OUT).

I figured it would be easy enough to buy cushions for it, but we could never find any that were the right size and thickness to make it comfortable.

I tried selling it on Craigslist, but there were never any takers.

Then one day it came to me.

This thing looks just like a futon frame. Why couldn’t it be converted somehow into a kid’s bed?

It’s nice to be married to a furniture repair guy. Hubs removed the dowels that kept the backrest up, and also removed the armrests. He then shaved and sanded down the raw edges so they were soft. (We kept the armrests so he could convert it back later if we wish to.) He put the dowels back in, in a different spot so that the futon wouldn’t accidentally flip up.

I already had a mattress that was (almost) the perfect size. So we moved the toddler bed right next to ours.

And put sheets on it.

It’s right next to our bed and there’s no space inbetween for her to get stuck.

It’s a tad lower than the adult bed though. But… IKEA sells these nifty bed risers that will do the trick nicely.

My plan was this:

We love co-sleeping but mommy was waking up too much at night. The plan was to nurse Ruby to sleep then gently place her on the co-sleeper/toddler bed.

Did it work?

Night One

(Monday) Ruby had a busy day and feel asleep hard and fast. I lifted her onto the co-sleeper and she stayed asleep…. for several hours!!

Surprisingly she slept on her BELLY all night long. She woke up in the wee hours once to nurse. I scooped her up and after a bit of milk she fell back to sleep easily. I placed her back on the co-sleeper, where she rolled onto her belly and stayed.

A miracle!

The problem? MOMMY didn’t sleep well. Apparently I’ve become so accustomed to a little body tucked next to me that without it, I couldn’t sleep! I recognized this phenomenon because it’s happened to me before, when a toddler spent the night at the grandparent’s or fell asleep with Daddy or whatever.

Hoped that the next few days would get better.

Night Two

(Tuesday) I was exhausted from a bad night’s sleep, and I also hosted our homeschool group’s field trip and lunch after. I fell into bed a little after 8. Ruby also fell asleep quickly and easily. I moved her to her bed. Ditto… she stayed there for a several hour stretch!

I’ve come to two conclusions.

One, that Ruby is a belly sleeper. She is content that way and both nights slept soundly on her belly. It was the movements of her own limbs that were waking her, as well as mine and hubby’s. On her belly, her arms and legs are not as likely to move around.

Two, that *I* was often waking her by tucking her body into mine, for fear she would fall off the bed. Now that I don’t have that fear (since the room is wall to wall bed), I don’t disrupt her sleep.

Once she even stirred and fussed a little, and all I had to do to get her back to sleep was place my hand on her back. Nice!

It’s only been two nights so I’m still adjusting to her being “waaaay over there”, but I know I’ll get used to it and sleep better myself.

It’s awesome that this hack didn’t cost me a dime! Although I could have achieved the same thing by buying a King sized bed or an expensive co-sleeper, or even a toddler bed, I spent nothing and solved a problem.