Room Sharing Experiences

I have 6 kids and 3 bedrooms for them. That being said we have one girls room and one room for the boys. My boys are easier to put down at night than the girls. The girls are up gabbing and such for a while, but the boys down they go and they are done. We (my husband and I) feel that it is better for them to learn to share their space and eventually it will bring them together as siblings. I don't remember when we started having a room sharing issue because we have always done it. Just let the children know when you start that this is the way that it will be and there aren't any other options. I think that the younger they start the easier it is. As another post said, the kids will sleep through the others crying and such in the middle of the night. Good luck, and congrats on the new addition.
J.

My oldest daughters are 15 months apart, and we had the same issue. Fortunately, my oldest has always been a great sleeper. We set up the crib in her room about 2 months before moving the baby in. (I think the baby was 4-5 months old before we finally moved her). It was just something we had to do, and we had to see how it went! The then-baby has never been a good sleeper, but the oldest seemed to sleep through most of the racket! For naptime, I put the younger sister down first, and my older daughter and I rock in the chair until she falls asleep. It is a crazy adjustment!!!
We've since moved a third baby into the room, and that was a bit difficult...but these things work themselves out!
Don't know if this helps....just know that we all go through the same crazy adjustment!!!
I agree with you...staying home is NOT easy!!!!!!!!

My eldest son was 22 months when we had our second son. They have shared a room from the very beginning. I think by doing this my eldest son became accustomed to the little whimpers and stirring in the crib and has slept through everything. I did nurse my youngest and for the first few months. My youngest was with me many nights during the first several months. I have been very blessed that my first son is also a very deep sleeper, as well.

You will know once your new child is here whether or not it is going to work. I would highly encourage you to keep the crib out of your bedroom. I feel this makes it harder on everyone in the end. Children really do adjust and only know what we allow them to know.

This is an exciting time for you and your family. Congrats on the new addition.

Our youngest two are 18 months apart. We thought we would put the "babies" in the room together because our oldest was going to school and we didn't want her to be kept up at night and thought she'd do better in her own room. And for us....that was a nightmare. Having the two babies in the same room didn't work for us. One was always waking the other up. We put the 18 month old in with our oldest (both girls) and WHEW!! We ALL were able to sleep!! So now, our girls share a room and LOVE it (for now)! And the baby is in his own room! Good luck with everything!! :)

i waited a little longer than 5 months (if i'm remembering right) because my oldest tried to hit the baby at first and i was nervous of what he might do. moms kept telling me it would be fine when i put my boys in a room together, but i was totally nervous about it. i was amazed at how well it all worked. the baby's crying didn't wake up his brother. only a few times we caught our oldest crawling into the crib, but it was usually because he was trying to be helpful with something or give the baby a goodnight kiss. they love being in a room together and we had no major problems with it. of course now that they are old enough to fight with eachother and be partners in crime, there is sometimes a lot of messing around or fighting at bedtime. but kids can do that whether they are in the same room or not (banging on walls, name calling at the top of their lungs, etc). :) good luck!

Hello. I am a mother of four daughters, ages 5,4,2, and 7 weeks. Three of them share and my youngest just moved into her own room. Eventually I will move my second youngest into the baby's room but not until the baby is sleeping all through the night. It's good that you are concidering your other child's sleep because it's important. My second daughter joined my first around two years of age, my third daughter joined them around 14 months when I found out I was pg again. Both transition times required getting used to and disciplin to teach that bed time is not play time. Thats the real challenge, they werent accustomed to having their own space, it's just exciteing to be with your sibling so they get out of bed and play again and again. But they do well now. My nxt problem was that they began to wake each other up earlier and earlir. So I set an alarm clock for seven thirty, which used to be early to me, but compared to six thirty or even five thirty! So in the am they play or my five year old reads to the other two until the music starts. I've never been able to have them nap in the same room. Congradulations on your new baby, it's an adventure. good luck.

If you can put them in different rooms, I would do it. My friend has 6 kids in a 4 bedroom house. One is a foster son, so he has to have his own room. She's expecting another soon. Even before they had the foster son, she had one of the bedrooms set aside as a playroom. So they had two bedrooms for 5 kids.
I don't know how she did it.
I know her babies sleep in the Master bedroom for a few months, and I know she had to separate kids at naptime or they wouldn't nap. She had one sleep in the playroom in a playpen, and sometimes one would sleep in the laundry room in a playpen.
I, on the other hand, had two rooms for my two boys. It was great, because they rarely woke each other. Then when the baby was 1, we moved into a 2 bedroom aparmtment that was supposed to be temporary. For 2-3 months, we could handle it, right? But things happened and we were stuck there for 10 months. It was awful. The toddler woke up the preschooler (there are 2 years between them), and vice versa. They wouldn't go to sleep at bedtime, sometimes for over an hour, because they were goofing off.
Finally we got into a big enough house and wahoo! Separate rooms again. EVerything is a lot smoother.
That said, the boys will be sharing a room at some point in their lives. I'm making a quilt for the 4 year old's cowboy room, and when I'm done with that, I will start on a matching one for when they're both in one room. But that's going to wait until they both sleep through the night without any midnight crying incidents (by the way, it only happens about once a week, but when they're sick and wake up more, it's a nightmare).

My two girls shared a room because we couldn't separate them when the older was 3 1/2 and the younger was months old. We didn't put them together until the baby was sleeping pretty well through the night (maybe waking up once), and they did just fine. I thought they would keep each other awake, or the older one would want to "play" with the younger one, but they always slept really well. In fact, I could sometimes spy in on them and find the older one "reading" a book to her sister. It was cute. I also have twin boys who have always shared a room. They do distract each other a lot, but they always end up asleep at some point. After a while they got the hang of the "it's bedtime" and will even lay down ready to sleep on their own. On another note, since moving into a bigger house where there is room to separate them all into their own rooms (which we did for the girls), my older daughter insists on sleeping in the twin bed that's in the baby sister's room so she won't be "lonely." Usually, we put them in bed at the same time awake, and they will fall asleep quickly and not keep each other up. So... hopefully that helps a little. I think they would do fine either way, but I have found that putting two in the same room, even at a young age, hasn't caused very many issues. Good luck, and have fun!

Our kids have shared from the get go with no problems. We are constantly amazed at what can go on in the night without waking up others. Lights on, even overhead, screaming, bumping the beds, etc. We've never had a problem. We do stagger bed times so the first is asleep before getting company. Naps are trickier since they like to keep each other awake. GL! and congratulations!

It really depends on the kids. Not having done this myself, I am reminded of the story of my mother going in and finding my sister Summer, who was two, sitting in the crib on top of Spring, who was somewhere between 3 and 6 months.

My daughter was 20 months when our son was born. He spent the first 7 months in our room in a crib (because grandma was still living with us and we didn't want to put them in the same room). Well, it was time to get him out, and since grandma was still here, we finally just sucked it up and put them in the same room. The first week was hard. I realized I had to put my 2 year old to bed first. Once she was just about asleep, or already asleep, I could put the baby in there. (Otherwise at now 2 1/2 and 8 months they both play and talk to each other.) Now that they've been together in the room for a while, I still put her down first at about 8pm. By 9pm he's ready to go down, and she's asleep. When she wakes up in the night, she is comforted that he is in there with her, and she no longer comes into our room in the middle of the night (which was 6 of 7 nights a week!). It's also nice in the mornings when I have to get ready for work, they wake up and instead of crying for me, they play with each other until I am ready to get them dressed for daycare. It has really worked well for us. Now that grandma is gone, we were going to separate them, but I think instead I'll put all of their toys into the other room so they have somewhere to play and make a mess when this long winter starts up again.

Hi L.. We have had our girls together in the same room for 3 1/2 years and they love it. We actually tried to seperate their rooms and neither one wanted to. When I was pregnant with the youngest I had my two (at the time) "help" me decorate their new shared room. She stencil painted some ivy on the dresser, and "painted" the walls with water while I actually painted the opposite wall. We put the new furnishings into the shared space about two months before I delivered. This way my older daughter got used to the sleeping situation without the cries of a baby in the house. After the baby was transferred into the shared room, about 5 months old, never once did my older daughter wake up during night time feedings. Congratulations and good luck!

CONGRATS!
My daughter was just about 3 when my son was born. The way our house is laid out I had to eventually put them in the same room.
My son was in my room with me until 5 mos of age in his crib, he only woke a few times and it worked well with a newborn and their constant feeding and all. Then when he was about 5 mos and only waking once or twice a night I put him in with my daughter. I had a baby monitor on in my room so I could easily jump up and bring him into my room to change a diaper and feed him. My daughter NEVER woke up when he cried.
He transitioned very well. I have heard and got advice to move them before they are about 5 or 6 mos old so it isn't hard.
My son moved well across the hall, it was the same crib so there wasn't much different about it at all for him. So if you can put his/her crib in your room it will be a easier transition.
Just don't make the mistake of letting him sleep in your bed as that will be the hard habit to break!!

Both of my kids four and seven STILL share a room. I stagger bedtimes so my youngest in bed 45 minutes before my daughter and that works so awesome.
It is funny as we have another bedroom downstairs my daughter got older I would plan on moving her into. I talked to her about it the other day and she is VERY ADAMENT she wants to stay with her brother. I was shocked as you would think she was done sharing a room.
They basically only sleep in their room, they have a playroom downstairs. Both has their sides of the room decorated according to what they chose, but eventually I am sure she will appreciate her own space.

I thought it would be so fun for my boys to share a room. Bad idea. They kept each other awake all the time. We finally gave in and separated them after 5 years of struggling, and looking back I wouldn't do it again unless I had no other choice. Good Luck!

Hi L.,

We thought our two boys were going to share a room (2 years apart) Turns out, the older one is a very light sleeper and the younger one is a party animal! :) We have the room to give them thier own rooms. So we did. We tried about two months ago to put them in the same room. The older one stressed about it too much. Our boys are 4 and 2. We haven't come up with a soultion yet. I know not what you were looking for. What I've heard is and what we found is it depends on your children's personalities.

Hi L., congratulations on the new one.

I found with my own kids that when it was time to do what needed to be done, and I just did it like it was the thing to do, and the kids just took it as the thing to do and went along with it fine, and sometimes the transition went smoothly and sometimes we had to work some things through for a day or two, but most of the time it worked really well.
Seperate rooms or not that's what you do with what you know, like do you have enough rooms, are they both girls, does it make you more comfortable if they are in the same room, they will both be babies for a few years, and you have some time to experience what you have prepared for beforehand.
And in the event that they would want what they had before, like being put to bed from falling asleep in my arms and waking when I put the them down, I would not relent and pick the up, but would leave them alone for a bit and if they were still having a time, I would go back in and rub thier back tell to go to sleep and just sort of let the know I was around but not willing to do what they wanted me to do which was pick them back up. They are just pretty smart little guys and know how to work us, and all it takes is a couple times to train us, so we have to train them.
Have a great time with your little family. Liz

When my children were small they all shared rooms.

Kids can learn to sleep through anything, even if they seem to be "light" sleepers. When my children napped, or went to bed, I never went out of my way to ensure quiet. I did make sure that once they were in bed that they knew they had to stay there. I could put away laundry in their rooms while they slept and even vacuum.

They did sometimes wake one another up, but when they are really tired they learned to sleep through. When this happened and I was up with the baby in the same room, I just patted the other on the back and said go back to sleep.

Now they all get along really well.

My boys are 17 1/2 months apart. We had a mixed bag. I put them together for a while, but found they did not nap well during the day because one would wake up the other before he was ready. So they never really got a good nap. However, at night they slept great together (neither woke up the other) and would entertain each other in the morning so I could get 15-20 minutes more sleep. You can try it and see how their sleep patterns mesh. One thing I did notice was that my older would throw things (toys, books, etc.) in the baby's crib once he got into a regular bed. I felt we had to separate them then so my baby would be safe.

We had to do that. When our little boy was born, we kept him in a cradle in our room for the 1st 3 months, until he started sleeping through the night and then my husband just made the transition. For the most part it goes well. When our baby does wake up, usually he doesn't wake up our little girl (2 1/2) She was 20 months when he was born. When he does wake her up she goes right back to sleep. Because she has a bed nap time was tricky for awhile she liked to climb into his crib and wake him up and play with him. She is much better now though. Consistency helps. We just continued to put her back to bed and sometimes would take her blanket or pacifier until she stayed. A lot of time now I actually put him to sleep first and then put her to bed. Because if I put them down together he'll get her to play with him. It might be tricky, it just depends on your little ones, but if you are consistent, in the end it should be just fine, and in fact they will be a comfort to each other. My little girl loves to have him in the room with her. We are actually now in a bigger place and have an extra room, but I still keep them together because I think they sleep better. Hope that helps

I chose to put my kids together. When we first brought my youngest home, it did take a few weeks for my daughter to stay asleep through his crying at night, but she's never been a great sleeper anyway.

I moved the changing table from her bedroom to the bathroom for middle of the night changes. Now they sleep in the same room with no problems - she sleeps through him being up and he sleeps through her being up.

Good luck and enjoy this hectic time!