Two Kids Sharing a Room

I worried about that, too, when I first put my baby boy in his big sister's room. It actually has gone very smoothly, and they've been sharing a room now for about 8 months. Even when one child wakes up (and it's usually my 3.5 year old daughter, screaming from a nightmare), the other one stays asleep. I guess they just get into a deep enough sleep that they don't wake up.

I put them down at the same time at night. It makes things a little easier, because with his big sister in the room, my little boy is more willing to be put in the crib and go to sleep on his own.

Good luck!

Every kids is different, but my 21 month old boy slept through his sister's crying after the first couple of nights.....BUT I always had a sound machine running as well. I don't think it affected is quality of sleep, reason being if I tried to wake him up I couldn't....He was out!

Take it one day at a time! Don't worry till you have to!
Oh, and get a sound machine or use a fan.

R.

I don't remember my boys having much trouble sharing a room. We were always amazed at how they could sleep through almost anything the other one did. (Recently on a trip, they were sharing a bed, and the older one slept through the younger one throwing up all over the bed!) With adding #3 it's gotten a bit trickier. I think she could be a better sleeper if we weren't so quick to go in. Our middle one wakes very easily to the baby, even after 5 months of being in the same room. It's never an issue, usually just as easy as giving the baby her pacifier and saying good night to the 2yo. We use a monitor even though they're relatively close so that we hear them early in their awake stage and that cuts down on others waking up, although recently our monitor broke and the baby cried and had croup and she was the only one in their room who woke up.

We put the kids all to bed at the same time. With just the boys we put the younger one down first. It really depends on the kids and their personalities and their bedtime routine. We switch it up occasionally when things aren't working well. We love how close our kids are, and I think a lot of it has to do with their closeness going to sleep together, waking up together (often climbing into bed to snuggle together), and playing together. It's really fun to watch once you have a good system that works for your family. GL! Congratulations!

My kids share a room. My daughter was 21 months old when my son was born and he pretty much immediately was in her room. She woke up for the first few weeks with him, but that was when he was up every few hours. My pediatrician was suprised she woke up at all. Now, she sleeps through him crying unless he cries for more than 5 minutes or so.

On the other hand, if she wakes up to go potty, he sometimes wakes up, but not often and he is pretty easy to get back to sleep.

If he is crying it out, I would recommend she stay with someone else or in a different room for a few nights.

I like the bond they share, in part by sharing a room. We have another bedroom, but I chose to put them together.

hi,
Well, my kids are sharing a room and now that they are older i do not like it. They are 3 and 5 years old and talk to each other for hours at night. And nights are often an issue.That could also be age related though. They are however best buddies too. And when they were smaller though it wasn't an issue.My daughter slept through my son's cries too. However ,when she was 31/2 and my son 11/2 ,she climb into my son's crib and was trying to make him climb out of the crib to come to me so he could nurse .Thankfully i walk in the room just on time.i put my kids to bed at the same time right now but when they were smaller i put the oldest one down first than my infant.
N.

I was in your exact situation 4 yrs ago when I had our daughter. I had the same worries and concerns, but it worked out great! Our son liked having his little sister in the same room (he was 2 when she was born). I had this neat little wave machine with toy fish that floated up and down in different lights and bubbles. I would turn it on when I put the kids to bed and they both watched it and listened to the ocean and fell asleep. I don't remember my son having too much trouble getting back to sleep when my daughter would wake up to be fed or changed. I just grabbed her up and went into the living room to take care of her and rock her back to sleep. He pretty much just slept through it. I remember he came out into the living room once or twice to see what I was doing. I let him sit and rock with me, then I put them both back to bed. I'm a SAHM, so lack of sleep wasn't a big deal. I could always catch a nap with my kids in the afternoon. It just comes with the territory. 4 yrs later they are still sharing a room and are great friends. We are in the process of building a basement, so eventually they will have their own rooms, but for now, there is no reason to split them up. I know it's a little scary to think about the "what ifs", but you will figure out what works to keep your little guy sleeping. Good luck!

When my son was five mos old I had to move him in with his sister who was four at the time.

First, can I say discourage the pacifier, that will lead to constant battles with sleep and disruption of sleep if it were to fall out as your daughter gets older. Personally my kids once they started babbling wanted nothing to do with the pacifier and I was relieved. It will save you from a habit to have to break and you having to jump everytime they lose it or it falls out.

I would put a monitor in my room and if I heard my son move around or act like he was going to wake, I would hurry and get him up and had a diaper area in my room and fed him in there so it didn't disturb my daughter. Thankfully she was a sound sleeper and rarely woke up. It was later that was an issue and I had to start staggering bedtimes and put my son down first so that they didn't goof off.

Kids get used to sounds and unless your daughter is inconsolable then I wouldn't worry much. I did get my son a lot faster then his sister when he would fuss just due to worrying about waking his sister up, but after a while I would let him fuss a bit and she slept through it. It was a challenging when he started waking at 4am to play however I would just get my daughter and put her in with me early in the morning and she got to go back to sleep and it encouraged my son to do the same. Eventually it all worked out.

My kids are 4 and 7 and still share a room due to the layout of my house. I put my son down 45 minutes before his sister so it give me one on one with her and he is sound asleep by the time she goes in. Thankfully both wake about the same time and it is a rule if someone wakes up first to be very quiet and just lay in bed until everyone else is up. Good luck.

My kids starting sharing a room when my son was 9 months old and my daughter was almost 3 yrs old. It has gone very well. I told my daughter that she "gets to" share a room with her brother - not "has to". She was very excited. We put the baby down first and then we'd put our daughter down a little later. Now they go to bed at the same time (they are 2 and 5 now). Once in a while my 2 yr old will have a problem going to sleep or will wake up in the middle of the night. The older one will just ignore it. I think it's been really good for them to share. I think they are better friends because of it.

My older daughter (who was 4 at the time) learned very quickly to sleep through any disruptions when her little sister came along. It's amazing how we can do that if something happens regularly during our sleep time, but it does not require us to get up or respond. Hope things transition smoothly for all of you!

Yep, I went throught this too. Recently, for the most part it goes well, but of course there are always those nights. My daughter (the toddler) used to wake him up, but now for the most part she's pretty good. We used to put them down together, but now I usually let him go to sleep first and read to her and have some quiet/alone time with her, then I put her down. Now she is alot better. Also I have noticed unless the crying gets really really extreme and goes on for a long time, which is rare, she doesn't wake up. Even when she does wake up she goes right back to sleep. We pretty much used the same techniques with him that we used with her, although the crying it out is a little trickier, but lucky for us he took less time to cry it out then she did. Sometimes when he wakes up earlier then she does, I actually just put him in the play pen to go back to sleep out of the room, so he doesn't wake her up during the process. I think really when something has to be done, it has to be done and you just find what works and adapts. I hope this helps.

One thing that I would suggest is to buy a vaporizer. (Not a silent one!) The white noise from the vaporizer helps drown out little noises that occur in the night. Plus the extra moisture is so good for little noses that are adjusting to our dry air & helps with bloody noses that people sometimes get this time of year.

We have our 2 year old and 5 year old in the same room. My five old crawls in her bothers bed. It is hard to do because he still wakes through the night. I just put them to bed at the same time. As soon as I hear him I go in there, some times my daughter wakes up. I don't have an easy answer. You will find what works for your family, the first few nights will be hard.

My son and daughter, 2 years 9 months apart in age, shared a room until the oldest was in middle school. It worked just fine. I felt that was too long for them to share quarters, but financially, we just could not do anything at that time to get them separate rooms.

While they were young enough to be on different schedules, I put the baby down first, and that had the advantage of giving the toddler some private time with parents. Once baby was down to sleep, I worked toward getting the toddler down. But I was blessed to have two that were good sleepers. It might have been different if one tended to waken during the night.

The only time I recall ever having any kind of a problem was the night my son (about 18 months old) was having a hard time getting down to sleep. (Turns out he apparently was coming down with a stomach virus, but we didn't realize that because he was not feverish and had not thrown up or anything by bedtime.) He was still crying when I sent my daughter to the bedroom to get her nightgown for the night. He'd pulled himself up the side of the crib and started crying louder and reaching for her when she walked into the room. Not knowing any better, she tried to pull him out of the crib and of course, dropped him. Then he started throwing up and I thought he had a concussion and we spent the night at the hospital. The pediatrician on the next morning said he thought the fall was not related to the vomiting but to having the "flu." (Nevertheless, he said we'd done the right thing to bring the baby to the emergency room under the circumstances.)

Kids are generally pretty quick to adjust to new situations. My daughter quickly learned to sleep through my son's crying at night when I moved him into her room. There were several rough nights where I would have to comfort both little ones at the same time because his crying woke her up, but like I said, she learned to sleep through him. At first, I put toddler down for bed first, and when she was asleep I would put baby down for bed. But now that my son is older (1 1/2) I put them down at the same time.