Every morning it’s the same.  Josiah is awake and bouncy, making vocalizations from his room, long before I’m ready to start my happy day.  I lay in bed, often times while the rest of the house is still asleep, thinking maybe I’m just hearing things.  Maybe that’s not really Josiah making all that racket. Maybe I can just roll over and go back to sleep for a little while.

It’s usually not a good idea.  When Josiah is awake, it’s best to be awake as well.

Since Josiah’s return from the hospital in the middle of January, we’ve made some improvements around here.  The biggest one being modifications to his bed.  For years, Josiah has been sleeping (or not sleeping…who am I kidding?) in an Ikea Kura Reversible bed. The fun thing about this bed is that it can be used two different ways. It can be a junior loft/bunk bed or a low bed with an open top.

It had been set up as a loft bed for a long time, which worked great when Josiah was younger. As he grew and his nocturnal bouncing became more vigorous, we had to flip the bed over.  It’s much safer to keep him closer to the ground.  However, both configurations do not keep Josiah IN bed at night.  For many, many years, nothing has kept Josiah in bed at night.

We’ve tried weighted blankets, weighted stuffed animals and weighted parents (ha!) offering big squeezy hugs through out the wee hours of the morning.  We’ve tried Skweezer sheets and Nickel Bed Tents.  Each of these options worked initially, but were only temporary fixes as our boy grew.  Short of duct taping him to his bed, we were at our wits end, which is how it happened Josiah went without sleep for 44 hours straight in December.

Which is why he ended up at Texas Children’s Hospital for 10 days, which is why he was given an enclosed safety net bed while he was there, which is why Josiah eventually fell asleep.  It wasn’t the sedatives that did it, it wasn’t the ridiculous amount of bouncing that did it, it wasn’t even the sheer exhaustion that did it. In my opinion, it was the enclosed bed that made all the difference in the world.

Shortly after coming home from the hospital, I awoke with a revelation.  If it wasn’t possible to have that amazing, incredible bed in our home with it’s $7,500 price tag, maybe it was possible to duplicate something similar.

I found the perfect fabric along with the perfect trim material at Joann Fabrics and got to work immediately. Rick and I put it all together as quickly as we could.  Josiah loves it.  He stays in his bed all night long now which means we get to stay in bed all night long as well.

I guess it’s safe to say the Ikea Kura Reversible bed really has 3 possible set ups…as long as you own a staple gun!