Co-sleeping with a Toddler and a Newborn

We put our mattress/box spring on the floor, pushed them into a corner of the room, stuffed the sides with tightly rolled blankets (to prevent the baby from getting caught between the wall and the the mattress) and the baby slept next to the wall in her own sleeping area (no pillow, a blanket over a small mattress pad in case of leaks), and my older son slept between us.

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When I only had two we split up the kids. We had two large beds, one in the toddler's room, and my husband and I began reading to him in that bed and one of us slept in there. Now I know that looks really sad; one parent in another room and all. However, this smoothed the transition for our older child, and in reality made things a lot easier on everyone. My older kid woke a lot during the night (more than a newborn), and he was a super restless sleeper so I didn't really want him next to a newborn until we all got the hang of things. My husband was grateful for having a place away from the new baby when he went back to work.

When we had baby number 3 we did a really big bed. King size next to a full size on the floor. This took up the entire loft of our cabin, and we all slept together that winter out of desperation (no heat and one of the coldest NorthWest winters I can remember) By then I was an expert at carving out my own little space for babe.

-Best of luck,
N.

1 mom found this helpful

We were still co sleeping with out 2 year old when our son was born. We purchased an Arms Reach Co Sleeper and kept the newborn in there until we were able to get our toddler to sleep in a toddler bed next to us.

As long as there's an adult between the kids, it's up to you which kid goes where. The toddler should not be sleeping next to the baby though, which is sounds like you're not planning on anyway. :)

If you're not planning on a long term family bed then it might be helpful to transition toddler back to the sidecar which will make it easier for him to sleep elsewhere instead of him being used to between you and your partner and then the baby being in "his" place.

How old is your Toddler?

An alternative is, have a floor futon or floor mattress in your room, for the Toddler. Then baby can sleep in his co-sleeper etc.

My son slept in a Moses basket in our room.
Then a crib.
I also co-slept, but not in our bed, but on the floor futon in our room.
Same as my daughter.

Our kids were not in our bed... I was too worried they'd be smashed or suffocated. But I co-slept with them on the floor futon.